The Blitz: Britain on Fire

Michael Buerk, Angellica Bell and Rob Bell follow Margaret Johnson, a mother of six whose children could not be evacuated from the city. Mary Lawson, was a promising film star who was in Liverpool when the raids began. And they assess Churchill's morale-boosting tour of bombed Britain.

Matron Gertrude Riding and Dr Leonard Findlay ran a hospital with a busy maternity ward and were right in the midst of the target zone. In the docks, Captain Howard Kinley's bomb-laden ship caught fire, and 350 tonnes of high explosive went up.

Mary Lawson's rash decision to stay above ground during the bombing had serious consequences, but the city ultimately emerged from this terrible time wounded but not defeated.