In 1933. Bertolt Brecht and his actress wife Helene Weigel escaped from Hitler's Germany to Scandinavia, with their children Stephan aged 9, and Barbara, 3. In 1941. as the Germans advanced into
Finland, they fled to the USA, and settled in Santa Monica near Hollywood. In 1948 they returned to the Russian sector of the devastated Berlin, where Brecht founded the Berliner Ensemble - the company that still interprets his plays according to his teaching. Barbara Brecht-Schall remembers her father, and Alec McCowen reads some of his poetry.
Compiled by NOEL wrrrs Producer JOHN THEOCHARIS