Aberfan: New BBC podcast tells in-depth story of one of Wales’s worst disasters – and injustice that followed

A new BBC Sounds podcast Aberfan: Tip Number Seven tells the in-depth story of one of Wales’s worst disasters – and the decades of injustice that followed.

On the morning of Friday 21 October 1966, high above the south Wales mining village of Aberfan, a coal waste tip surged down the mountainside, engulfing Pantglas Junior School and surrounding houses – killing 116 children and 28 adults.

In this new nine-part podcast series, Aberfan: Tip Number Seven, the children who survived, along with bereaved parents and siblings, join rescuers as they tell their stories, in their own words – from the desperate search for survivors on the day, to their long and bitter battles for justice and compensation over the decades that followed.

The series will explore how and why this avoidable tragedy happened; how the community found the spirit to fight against the Establishment, despite all they had been through – and why, to this day, no-one has been held accountable for what happened.

The first two episodes are available on BBC Sounds today (20 October), with the next seven episodes available weekly every Wednesday.

Colin Paterson, BBC Sounds Lead for BBC Wales says: “The story of the Aberfan disaster will be familiar to everyone in Wales and beyond.”

“This podcast places a particular focus on the injustices which led to the events of 1966, as well as the fight for justice afterwards.”

“Local voices are at the centre of the podcast, and we hope it does justice to their stories and those who were lost”

• Aberfan: Tip Number Seven https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09z3n7y