In a 1988 episode of That’s Life!, Esther Rantzen surprised Nicholas Winton with an audience of children, now grown up, that he had rescued from Nazi forces during World War II.
His incredible work went largely unreported for nearly 50 years – until his wife found a scrapbook in their loft, which contained names of the 669 children, who were mostly Jewish, that he had rescued.
Dame Esther said she watched the episode “many times” and “each time found myself deeply moved”. She said she kept in contact with Sir Nicholas, meeting regularly until his death in 2015 at the age of 106.
