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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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In Living Memory

Factual: History

BBC Radio 4 LW

In Living Memory: Series 16

In Living Memory: Series 16: Episode 1

Episode 1

Series 16

BBC Radio 4 - In Living Memory, Series 16, Episode 1

Jolyon Jenkins looks at Sealand, the real-life "Passport to Pimlico".

In 1967, Roy Bates occupied a disused military platform in the North Sea, named it Sealand and declared independence. Jolyon Jenkins investigates this real-life Passport to Pimlico.

In 1966, a former pirate radio broadcaster, Major Paddy Roy Bates, occupied a disused military platform in the North Sea, and moved his family aboard. The next year he declared it to be the sovereign Principality of Sealand, appointing himself Prince Roy, and his wife, a former fashion model, as Princess Joan. Five decades on, the Bates family still occupy the platform, having survived the repeated attempts by the British government to evict them by legal means, and having fought off attempts by rival groups to seize the platform by force. It's a story of coups, counter-coups, guns, petrol bombs, and rival groups of foreign businessmen. Jolyon Jenkins interviews surviving witnesses to tell the story of this real life "Passport to Pimlico".

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In Living Memory

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