June Gibbons chats with programme maker Jessica Gunasekara about the experience of creating their podcast 'June, Voice of a Silent Twin', after 30 years of shying away from the spotlight. They discuss everything from how the twins have been portrayed in the media before, to June’s hopes for the future. First Broadcast on BBC Radio Wales 30th January 2024.

June Gibbons: The Silent Twin

June Gibbons tells the tragic story of her and her sister Jennifer, twins cut off from the world. After a brief crime spree, they become the youngest women in Broadmoor.

True crime

For the first time, June sees bundles of her clinical notes, records and correspondence from Broadmoor, shedding new light on her time there. The documents include letters from doctors and solicitors, test results, tribunal decisions, Home Office correspondence and even fan mail. Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Chinwe Obinwa helps us decode this material and sheds some light on the system at the time including the cultural context. Credits:
Narrator: Linda Mitchell
Producer: Beccy Leach
Assistant Producer: Jessica Gunasekara
Sound design: Cathy Robinson
Executive producer: Karen Voisey
Voice director: John Norton
Original title music: Kizzy Crawford
Voice of young June: Bethan Mary-James
Voice of young Jennifer: Olivia Forrest
Production manager: Andrea Deere
With thanks to Marjorie Wallace
Clip from: The Tonight Show - Jimmy Fallon - NBC

8. Truths Uncovered

The now infamous twins are finally transferred from Broadmoor to a clinic nearer their home in Wales. They’re excited to be moving closer to their family and have hopes and dreams for their eventual release and their future lives. But what should have been a joyous occasion ends in unimaginable tragedy. Former Caswell Clinic psychiatrist Dr Tegwyn Williams speaks about his memories of that fateful day.   Credits:
Narrator: Linda Mitchell
Producer: Beccy Leach
Assistant Producer: Jessica Gunasekara
Sound design: Cathy Robinson
Executive producer: Karen Voisey
Voice director: John Norton
Original title music: Kizzy Crawford
Voice of young June: Bethan Mary-James
Voice of young Jennifer: Olivia Forrest
Production manager: Andrea Deere
With thanks to Marjorie Wallace

7. A Lone Twin

After many years languishing in Broadmoor Secure Psychiatric Hospital, the twins continue their desperate fight to get out. June and Jennifer meet notorious fellow patients Ronnie Kray and the Yorkshire Ripper. And the now infamous sexual predator Jimmy Savile is a regular visitor to the hospital. The twins are given drugs which help them talk, but which have other undesired consequences. For the first time, June reveals how she wrote to doctors begging for her medication to be reduced so she could “be herself” once again. Credits:
Narrator: Linda Mitchell
Producer: Beccy Leach
Assistant Producer: Jessica Gunasekara
Sound design: Cathy Robinson
Executive producer: Karen Voisey
Voice director: John Norton
Original title music: Kizzy Crawford
Voice of young June: Bethan Mary-James
Voice of young Jennifer: Olivia Forrest
Production manager: Andrea Deere
With thanks to Marjorie Wallace

6. Trapped

Aged just 19, June and Jennifer are given an indefinite sentence to Broadmoor Secure Psychiatric Hospital. They’d hoped for a short sentence to get the help they needed, and they have a childish excitement about going to Broadmoor.  The reality of living alongside serial killers and rapists turns out to be a far cry from their idealistic expectation. Credits:
Narrator: Linda Mitchell
Producer: Beccy Leach
Assistant Producer: Jessica Gunasekara
Sound design: Cathy Robinson
Executive producer: Karen Voisey
Voice director: John Norton
Original title music: Kizzy Crawford
Voice of young June: Bethan Mary-James
Voice of young Jennifer: Olivia Forrest
Production manager: Andrea Deere
With thanks to Marjorie Wallace

June Gibbons: The Silent Twin

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