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code LISTEN. Hello

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and welcome to the Witness History

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podcast from the BBC World Service.

1:33

It's 30 years since the channel tunnel

1:35

linking England and France was opened in

1:37

1994. We're

1:40

taking you back four years earlier to

1:42

the moment the two halves of the

1:44

tunnel were finally connected. In

1:46

2010, Lucy Williamson spoke to the

1:49

man who made the breakthrough. It's

1:51

December the 1st 1990 and

1:54

deep beneath the English Channel, tunnel worker

1:56

Graham Fagg is about to make history.

2:00

driven a small tunnel through the side of

2:02

the tunnel and

2:04

the French had come through partly from their side

2:07

and there was maybe, I

2:10

don't know, maybe half

2:12

a metre of chalk chalk left

2:15

to be taken out. Graham

2:17

and his French counterpart Philippe Coisette

2:19

are about to open the first

2:21

land connection between their two countries

2:23

since the last ice age, 8,000

2:26

years ago. What

2:28

we had to do was to break this

2:30

out using air hammers or jiggers as we

2:32

call them to make the

2:34

passageway through from France to the UK.

2:37

And that's the kind of pneumatic drill is it?

2:40

That's it, that's it, it's just like the

2:43

road drill that you see them using on the side

2:45

of the roads but a

2:47

little bit smaller so that you can actually

2:50

lift it and everything went well until my

2:54

jigger actually broke through and I

2:57

think I nearly caught Philip with it and I

2:59

thought oh my god that's just what we want.

3:01

You can probably hear in the background now the

3:04

drilling started again, we're looking as carefully as we

3:06

can, Graham is the man with the

3:09

drill, he's going right now working

3:12

hard, Philip Crozette on

3:14

the other side, the French will have

3:16

a hardly ice move there, now,

3:20

we can see hard, we can see him here.

3:25

You broke through and what you had

3:27

then was what, a sort of a small hole

3:29

that you could see through or how big was

3:31

it? Yes, we had a hole that

3:33

we could see through, it would be approximately half

3:36

a metre square to start with, on

3:38

the French side was all the media with

3:40

all the cameras and it looked like Philip was going

3:42

to come through to our side where there was just

3:45

a camera that was actually recorded

3:47

onto tape, so

3:50

he had a couple of photos taken

3:52

and then I had to sort of say go on, you've

3:55

got to get back to the other side mate, I've

3:57

got to come through from this side. I

4:01

don't speak French a top. I won the

4:03

two phases like everybody else, but. Yeah

4:06

just just it with my hands are just

4:08

or flip my can push emotion and senate

4:10

went back and that that time when sell

4:12

it went back with an exchange. The facts

4:15

we have from Two Flags By have the

4:17

British fight he had the French one and

4:19

weeks shines flags are soaked, take most lag

4:21

as a memento. The case in this is

4:23

still there is in perfect condition and I

4:25

would suspect that he still go his. And

4:28

then what happens? And then

4:30

we went back to open in hold up. And

4:33

we opened it up to the the size

4:35

that you could actually will thrive as soon

4:37

as it was large enough I walk through

4:39

to the other side or guys what I

4:41

thought was appropriate the to on which was

4:43

of evil in France which is about. The.

4:46

Extent of my French. And

4:48

the. Over. Yes, Media.

4:51

Side the taking photos and.

4:54

The cameras were rolling and it was a big

4:56

event. On the other side, it was my believable.

4:59

One. Of those who witnessed Gray and

5:01

breakthrough to the front side of the

5:03

tunnel with buses Transport Secretary mathematical. For.

5:06

The most extraordinary census night and America

5:08

Mexico. We were able just to see

5:10

for a small people at first people

5:12

on the other guy and then the

5:14

rocks read my pillow and we were

5:16

able one our colleagues and shook hands

5:18

with his friends counterparts. and then we

5:20

call aren't Going. As. We broke

5:22

through. The air pressure difference between the

5:24

French and the ugly side become apparent.

5:28

The air started to rush route from

5:30

the debris side to the French side

5:32

and in actual fact at one time

5:34

was that strong that it actually took

5:37

my hat off which to show say

5:39

how how air pressure can be different

5:41

from one side of the yeah channel

5:44

to the other. What? Were you seen

5:46

as. A. Spice released on

5:48

votes for with any problems. The.

5:53

Magnitude. Of the event, hadn't actually

5:55

call out with me. I think it's afterwards

5:57

when you've got time to sit and think

5:59

about. The you begin to realize, especially

6:01

in if it's sprung upon you within

6:04

a few hours. which is what happened

6:06

to me. Graham. Fag

6:08

Had no idea until the night before

6:10

the break say that he would be

6:12

the first person through the tunnel and

6:14

ordinary tunnel work us is it just

6:17

happened to be the name that was

6:19

picked randomly out of all that our

6:21

workers involved and now here he was

6:23

in the glare of international Tv cameras,

6:25

blinded by the sense of personal prefers.

6:28

The. First person to pass through a

6:30

train tunnel which had taken almost ten

6:32

years to build. The. Big difference

6:34

between France and the time When

6:36

we broke through the fact that

6:39

on our side we had t

6:41

soft drinks, water a sort of

6:43

thing on the front side yard,

6:45

the champagne and the woman as

6:47

such believable. Bet you're glad you're

6:50

the front side. Or. I

6:52

have this or must have no did have a

6:54

glass of champagne which is very rare for me

6:56

actually. But sir I did have a glass of

6:58

champagne just to celebrate. What was the

7:00

atmosphere? like? It was

7:02

very celebrate. Three people were

7:05

overjoyed. The. Project had been

7:07

gone for a long long. Toy Mode

7:09

actually been involved since nineteen seventies when

7:11

we we started the previous attempt to

7:14

come through and to come back and

7:16

do it. Might it might. it's a.

7:19

Really worthwhile solas. I really worthwhile

7:21

that when we got to the

7:23

front side the was a huge

7:26

marquee. We went on to the

7:28

top Bbc right? yeah with their

7:30

television cameras and when we went

7:32

into the tent everybody kids and

7:35

lifted eyeglasses, tourists and in actual

7:37

fact that one point I had

7:39

people coming over who were actually

7:41

cussing pieces of moist just of

7:43

as to keepers momentous what was

7:46

your reaction to that were lost

7:48

it was else is. He

7:50

says but a it wasn't so bad

7:52

in the mouth Chaos: a good excitement

7:54

was so was keeping the place warm.

7:56

Now I didn't mind. I mean is

7:58

it. Merely. was a spy day for a

8:00

lot of people who'd been working on the project for years.

8:03

Did you take any mementos back with you?

8:06

I have a Frenchman's helmet and

8:09

I have the flag and Philip

8:11

presented me very unexpectedly with a

8:13

small piece of rock

8:16

which has what's

8:18

it got in it iron pyrite embedded

8:21

in it which they got when they were digging

8:23

the shaft and Philip

8:26

presented me that and I felt a little

8:28

bit lost because I hadn't got anything to

8:30

give him unfortunately. I

8:33

did think about taking down a memento to hand to

8:35

him but my wife said oh no you don't need

8:38

to do that. What was

8:40

it like seeing all the coverage when you got

8:42

home? What was it like to see yourself on

8:44

the front pages of the papers and the TV

8:46

broadcasts? Unbelievable, unbelievable,

8:50

it's surprising. It

8:52

throws up all sorts of things as well and a

8:54

personal nature. Like what? And well

8:56

you start getting people that you haven't

8:58

seen for years ringing you up and saying oh I'll

9:01

see you on the telly and I'll see you in

9:03

the newspapers. A surprising consequences

9:05

shall we say. What

9:07

consequences did it have? What was the most surprising

9:09

consequence? I

9:12

think it was the way to be quite

9:14

honest in later years that

9:17

people still remember you. You

9:19

have to remember that on something like this there's

9:21

good and bad sides to everything

9:23

of this nature and some

9:25

people are jealous. If

9:28

you'd known on that day when they

9:30

took you into the office and said you're the

9:32

guy we've chosen to do this, if

9:34

you'd known then what was involved, what you just told

9:37

me, would you have said yes or no? Uh

9:40

my wife would have wrung my neck if I'd have said no. I

9:44

would still have done it. I would still have done it. Four

9:53

years later the tunnel was formally open

9:55

to the public by both the British

9:57

and French heads of state. Despite all

9:59

the publicity consumers on both

10:01

sides of the channel were initially cautious.

10:03

It took another five years before the

10:05

tunnel operators began to make a profit.

10:07

As of

10:09

2023 a hundred

10:12

million vehicles and nearly 500 million

10:15

people have travelled through the channel

10:17

tunnel. The first man to

10:19

do so, Graham Ferg, was talking

10:21

to Lucy Williamson in 2010 for

10:24

the Witness History podcast from the

10:26

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