Yuri Gagarin meeting with BBC Journalist Reg Turnill

Reg Turnill joined the BBC in 1956 with the remit to cover aviation and defence. The launch of Sputnik 1 in the following year expanded his remit to include space. He is particularly well known for his coverage of the American Apollo program. In the UK, his name and face, along with that of Patrick Moore and James Burke, is associated with the commentators who covered live the Apollo Moon landings on the BBC.
In April 1961, Reg was sent to Moscow for Gagarin's first post flight international news conference. It turned out to be a fascinating story of cold war politics as well as leading edge space technology. In his own words Reg describes this as " a phony press conference, an entirely choreographed event designed to humiliate the west" and he summarised the whole press conference as "good humoured evasion". Interacting through an interpreter and restricted to pre submitted written questions, he had to put aside his usual analytical approach. However he recognises that this was "a great achievement". This interview was recorded on January 19th 2011 at his home on the south coast of England.

[@Ben4810]

On a sad day to hear that Neil Armstrong has died, I was amazed to see the BBC News using some quotes from Reg Turnill, who was our 'space correspondent' on John Craven's Newsround to all us kids of the 70's...
This piece is great, thanks for posting, & he is 97 years old, I am so happy to see how great Reg is & the BBC are still going to him for information & a few expert words...!

[@AwashToast]

Many thanks for adding this video. Reg was a true great and it

[@roger1947]

RIP Reg Turnill who died today 12/02/13 still active writing letters to the Telegraph just weeks before his death. He had a heart bypass in his late 80's.

[@J0PHIEL]

thanks for documenting this.

[@ficklesick]

more about him than Gagarin. At least he paints a vivid picture of what the conference was like.

[@The3rdPlateau]

Can't find the full version at the podcast website

[@umeshjain7]

Great people

[@mjb8658]

Only 18 likes? Great science and technology champion. Thanks for this.