Polly Evans and Rob Smith from BBC South-East Today talk to Viktoria Cowley Live on the programme
An Eastbourne womans journey to find out her past in Vietnam is the story behind a BBC Inside Out which was featured on BBC1 in November 2009.
Co-Produced by Paul Gibson from the Sussex Press Agency, the piece which was screened by BBC1′s Inside Out South-East is part of a longer documentary which highlights Viktoria Cowley’s journey to find out her background, after being adopted from Vietnam during the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Viktoria was one of the 99 babies airlifted to the UK during Operation Babylift which was organised by the Daily Mail. 34 years later, Vikki has set out to discover her past and meet as many of the other adoptees who were on the same flight as possible. BBC Inside Out will feature Viktoria discovering a photograph of herself on the front page of the Daily Mail in 1975, and travel to London to meet a group of other Vietnamese Orphans.
April 2010 marks the 35th Anniversary of the airlift, and thousands of people will travel to the country to re-unite and mark this special anniversay. 2,500 babies were airlifted from the country during the Vietnam war, but only a handful came to the UK.
BBC Inside Out will also be producing a 30 minute special programme inconjunction with the Sussex Press Agency early next year as the crew travel to Vietnam with Viktoria.
Producer Paul Gibson credited on BBC1
The programme can be seen at this link until 16th November. (18 minutes into the programme)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0071ms1
Over a two day period, Viktoria Cowley completed fifteen radio interviews and one live television news discussion programme. These were as follows:
BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Sussex, Sovereign Radio, South-East Today, BBC World Service, BBC 5 Live (Nicky Campbell Show), BBC Wiltshire, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Berkshire, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC World Today Programme (146m listeners worldwide), BBC World Service. Other Coverage included; Eastbourne Herald, Hastings Observer, Bexhill Observer, BBC Magazine.
The programme is also expected to be screened on BBC World Asia in the near future.
Follow Viktorias blog on her journey at: http://www.operationbabylift.co.uk/
BBC Magazine has published the story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8352010.stm
Interview with Nicky Campbell on BBc Radio Five Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h8OXBEmEug