Home Front Heroes

Today, actor Sue Johnston finds out how nurses like her aunt battled on through the bombing to treat the injured, and learns how the wartime techniques pioneered in her home city revolutionised medicine.

Singer Alfie Boe discovers how his grandfather helped protect the nation during the war as a member of the Home Guard immortalised in Dads Army. He takes to the sea to find out how volunteers patrolled the country's shores and hears how fishermen from his home town not only helped feed a hungry nation, but were key to a daring beach rescue on the beaches of Dunkirk. Overwhelmed by the sacrifices made to keep wartime Britain safe, he meets a 97-year-old fisherman who risked his life to defend the British coastline.

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson sets out to solve the mystery of her grandfather William's role in WWII. As she discovers how his job as an air warden would have brought him face to face with bombs and fires, she tries out firefighting for herself, finds out what conditions were like for families in air-raid shelters, and is overwhelmed by a meeting with Welsh entertainer Wyn Calvin who was a warden in Cardiff.

TV presenter Radzi Chinyanganya explores how, aged 17, his grandmother took on a vital role to help keep wartime Britain fed. As he pays an emotional visit to the family farm, he meets an ex-Land Girl who worked the fields to stop the country starving, and discovers the tough realities of WWII rationing. Plus he finds out about some of the unsung heroes of the war, hearing how 900 men from the Commonwealth moved to Britain to do their bit on the home front - and gets his hands dirty as he comes to grips with the tough job of being a lumberjack in the forests of Scotland.

In this edition, Comedian Helen Lederer uncovers the extraordinary ways in which two of her relatives took on pivotal but highly secretive roles assisting the British Intelligence Services. As she pieces together how her grandfather listened in on the secrets of imprisoned German officers, she is astonished to find out the true extent of his wartime work.