BBC Radio 4 Extra

London: Just off the Plane

Sara Hall

London: Just off the Plane: Episode 5

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Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Travel

Episode 5

BBC Radio 4 Extra - London: Just off the Plane, Episode 5

Alan Dein reflects on his quest to meet first time visitors to London.

Alan Dein reflects on his quest to meet first time visitors to London. Has he discovered what the city means to them? From July 2010.

Every day planes descend into London, and on board, there is likely to be someone who will arrive into the capital for their very first time. To most of us, another faceless statistic, another visitor from abroad, one of the 120 million who fly into the capital every year.  But what if we choose find out who they are - and what are they thinking of as they step off the plane?
Alan Dein goes to Heathrow airport to greet people who've flown in from anywhere in the world, and explores their hopes and jet-lagged dreams of London. What does the place mean to them, why have they come, who do they know in the City? 
Picked out at random as they wearily wait at the baggage carousels, his interviewees share revealing, comic, and sometimes very moving tales of adventure, family reunions, opportunities, romance and tragedy. And then they head off, melting into the London crowds.

Producer Sara Jane Hall.

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Alan Dein talks to people newly arrived at Heathrow airport

Alan Dein talks to people newly arrived into Heathrow airport to explore their hopes and dreams of London

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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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