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Last broadcast on Tue, 17 Nov 2009, 21:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson tells the story of 20 years of post-communist life. Through personal stories, he traces the different roads that East Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania have taken since 1989.
John returns to Prague to speak to those who lived through the Velvet Revolution and asks what they feel about what has happened in the two decades since. The Communist regime was overthrown in 1989 but the Communists are still proudly there, and appear to have some fervent new recruits. So did the playwrights, actors and rock musicians deliver the country they had hoped for?
How the Velvet Revolution was led from a theatre house
1989: Simpson Returns producer John Murphy reports on how a theatre became the headquarters for the Civic Forum, whose members found themselves in power sooner than they thought.
Read the memories of those who led the Velvet Revolution in a Prague theatre
Watch John Simpson's film about his return to Prague
Broadcasts
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Tue 17 Nov 200909:00
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Tue 17 Nov 200921:30
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