Esther Rantzen’s finest hour: How That’s Life presenter revealed amazing story of British hero who saved hundreds of children from the Nazi’s in one of TV’s finest-ever moments

Dame Esther Rantzen, who passed away at 86, was instrumental in revealing the extraordinary wartime story of Nicholas Winton, an unassuming stockbroker who had spent nearly 50 years keeping a remarkable secret. When Winton's wife discovered a scrapbook in their attic in 1987 containing the names and photographs of hundreds of children, it unveiled that the 29-year-old had helped rescue 669 children, predominantly Jewish, from Nazi-occupied Prague before World War II. Rantzen's decision to feature Winton on her BBC programme That's Life on 28 February 1988 created one of television's most unforgettable moments, when she arranged an emotional reunion between Winton and Vera Gissen, one of the children whose life he had saved decades earlier.

Winton had secured the children's passage to Britain by train and arranged their sponsorship and homes following Kristallnacht. The Sunday Mirror had published Winton's story on the same day as his television appearance, labelling those he saved "The Lost Children." The on-air reunion saw the elderly Vera Gissen, who had been searching for her rescuer, embrace Winton as the audience applauded, with both visibly moved by the encounter. Winton, who was eventually knighted in 2003, became recognised as one of the Second World War's most significant yet previously unacknowledged heroes, and his story remains widely shared online today as a testament to Rantzen's contribution to bringing it to light.