Saved By A Stranger is a new series, presented by Anita Rani, tells the personal stories of ordinary people caught up in the biggest events in living memory and who found among the chaos and devastation an act of incredible humanity from someone who changed their life forever.
Each episode provides a unique personal account of some of the biggest headline moments that have shaped Britain and its people, including the 7/7 terrorist attacks, the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Falkland’s War. The series also looks at stories from across the world, including the Holocaust and the Bosnian War. We follow each contributor on a journey to find someone significant from this time who they have lost touch with, combining their personal emotional journey with historical learning and investigative research. The series celebrates moments of kindness and humanity in some of our most challenging times and resolves in emotional reunions.
Episode synopsis
Episode one follows the story of Karl, a trainee clinical psychologist who was a passenger on the first carriage of the Piccadilly Line London Underground train – one of the four targets of the 7/7 bombings. In the moments after the bomb exploded, Karl was comforted by a woman who was standing close to him and who reached out and held his hand in the dark smoke-filled carriage as he feared for his life. He has been looking for this mystery woman ever since and we join his quest to try and track her down as he finally comes to terms with the event that changed his life forever.
Alongside Karl’s search we meet Emina, an NHS researcher living in Nottingham. Emina and her younger sister Edina were born in Sarajevo. As a baby, Edina was diagnosed with Down Syndrome and shortly after this, a brutal civil war broke out across Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sarajevo came under siege. In desperate need of medical care and with no safe way to leave the city, Edina’s doctor fought to place the family on a rare list for immediate medical evacuation, enabling them to escape the horrors of Sarajevo and begin a new life in Birmingham. Returning to Sarajevo today, Emina is searching for the doctor who helped her family evacuate to safety and gave her sister the chance of a better life.
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