Today we speak to John Green.

John Green grew up in Coventry in a communist family. After abandoning a zoology degree course after his second year at Bristol University, he switched to Drama.

In 1964 he made the adventurous move to the German Democratic Republic to study film at the National Film School in Babelsberg, near Potsdam.

He was the sole British student in the country. Returning to his native Britain in 1968, he became television correspondent for the GDR and spent 22 years reporting from around the world.

Because the GDR, particularly at the height of the Cold War, was not officially recognised as an independent state, he and his colleagues were obliged to work anonymously and quasi-clandestinely in order to obtain the footage they needed.

We start with John telling us about this early life in Coventry.

Don't forget to check out our show notes here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode47/

The second part of this interview is here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode58/

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