Esther Rantzen’s television surprise brought Nicholas Winton’s rescue work to millions

A 1988 episode of the BBC programme That’s Life! helped bring Nicholas Winton’s rescue of children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to a mass audience. Winton had organised the evacuation of 669 children, many of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia in 1939.

He helped compile lists of children needing sponsorship, found British homes for them and raised money for their travel and support. His work remained largely unknown for decades until his wife discovered a scrapbook in their loft containing the names of children he had helped. Holocaust researchers used it to trace some of those children.

Presenter Esther Rantzen invited Winton onto That’s Life! in February 1988 after learning about his efforts. During the programme, his scrapbook was shown and two women he had rescued, Vera Gissing and Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, revealed themselves to him.

After viewers contacted the programme to say they had connections to Winton, the production team arranged a second surprise. Rantzen asked everyone in the ground-floor audience who owed their lives to him to stand. Winton, seated in the front row, turned to see the audience on its feet.

Rantzen later said the moment was the only time in her career when she had to stop recording to wipe away tears. She remained in contact with Winton until his death in 2015 at the age of 106. The broadcast has been rediscovered by later audiences through social media and helped establish Winton’s story in public memory.

His work has since been covered in films and documentaries, including the 2024 biopic One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins.