1961: ROBIN DAY Visits FIDEL CASTRO's Cuba | Panorama | Classic BBC documentary | BBC Archive

"The most free man you can find in all America is the Cuban man." - Fidel Castro.
Newsnight's Robin Day reports from Cuba on the changes that have taken place since Fidel Castro's revolution. Castro takes Day, and a group of international reporters - including the first American press to visit since the failed US-backed invasion - on a tour of some of the farms and villages of Cuba. The journalists are also brought to some of the sites of the aforementioned invasion, some of which still hold remnants of the battle.
Day then conducts a brief interview with Castro, who responds to his questions in English. Can relations between the US and Cuba be repaired? Are reports of economic struggles in Cuba true? Is Castro a Communist? Is Cuba neutral in the Cold War? Will Cuba hold democratic elections?
Day then interviews a middle-class member of the citizens' militia, how does he feel about the revolution, and about Castro himself?
Clip taken from Panorama, originally broadcast on BBC Television, 26 June, 1961.
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[@syedadeelhussain2691]

Young, Sir Robin Day, at his very best. What a class act he was as a media person, interviewing world leaders for the BBC.

[@MichealSeaghdha]

Day was a genuinely brilliant interviewer and typically here framed his incisive questions quickly so that it was obvious that he had no fear or favour towards anyone. A lot UK politicians were terrified of him and with good reason. His style has since been much imitated but rarely equalled and being male, white, middle class and middle aged even then, its fair to assume we won't see the like of him again on the BBC or probably anywhere else.

[@anhanh8724]

Resulta un documental muy interesante de los momentos iniciales de la Revolución Cubana.

[@roynerhernandez-jk9yg]

El comienzo del desatre

[@saanzacs]

Was the narrator referring to the Bay of Pigs invasion?

[@simoncordova5655]

Must be, the time checks out.

[@iangbland]

'A formidable force if its marksmanship matches its sex appeal.' 🤯

[@wintix4565]

@@algrant5293 Much better than today's woke rubbish, toxic feminism and homosexuality.

[@priuss6109]

Clown ​@@algrant5293

[@dc7370]

Blockades by a smoocher power works wonders for gravity. No rebar & soaps but their corral reefs are primo

[@DovZeev]

The militiaman that they speak to would have made a better president than Castro. He not only spoke the language more clearly, but he also obviously understood the finer workings of business and corporate relationships between nations.

[@beatonthedonis]

You mean the militiaman who fully supported Castro because of his integrity? The fact you judge a Cuban president by his ability to speak English says everything.

[@memofromessex]

Probably the greatest revolution since 1789! One of the few that actually produced any good

[@DSan-kl2yc]

Another Latin American dictator. I'm not a fan of them. Regardless of whether it's a far right or far left one.

[@critterjon4061]

Short term good yes long term good no.

[@wearemany73]

Trudeau’s Father on film…🤔

[@northernsnow6982]

You saw Charley?

[@whitemughal2]

Why do you continue to believe this long-debunked lie?

[@priuss6109]

Yeah

[@arricammarques1955]

Wishful dreaming, mate.

[@Ad0akes]

Seems a nice place compared to what UK & Ireland have become

[@mediolanumhibernicus3353]

Have a look at what Cuba has become today, and take off those inane rose-tinted glasses

[@stuartwilliams-fw4vo]

The brilliance of both Castro and Day.

[@indigohammer5732]

The good old days of Casto’s Cuba. Where people would swim the ninety miles of shark infested water to tell the folk in Florida how good it was.

[@kristoffer3000]

Being blasted every day with propaganda that says the US is so great will do that to you. They found out rather quickly that the US is a boring dystopia where they ended up poorer than they were prior to leaving Cuba.

[@VentureHolly]

“Boo hoo! Castro wouldn’t let me own slaves anymore, confiscated the assets I made exploiting them and then tried to arrest me when I helped the CIA plan a coup” 😭🤣

[@simoncordova5655]

The ownership of slaves was decades before. He did not only nationalize US businesses, but all businesses. And arrested after a coup? Was Castro not arrested and let go, unlike the thousands of political prisoners theyve incarcerated? History is a hell of a drug.

[@christopherwelch136]

Fidel! 👊🏽

[@stuartwilliams-fw4vo]

Castro was right. What a character!

[@RKatout]

In ‘61 it wasn’t really Castros Cuba yet.

[@DangerousDavies2008]

“1000 Cuban’s have gone to Russia” Lucky them😂

[@Farold_Haltermeyer]

Meat shortage in Moscow.

[@76ToneCrome]

He looks about as intimidating as Frank Spencer.

[@chrisbayes2972]

"A formidable force, if its marksmanship matches its sex appeal"...😂

[@lemontadams3029]

Fidel the Jesuit

[@user-yh4ee4is2r]

The Fedel Castro's revulotion is not the real revulotion that for the masses, Castro's revulotion is his self interest or his personal interest revulotion,to make himself an absolute leader,with absolute power,the democracy system of government that the people have human right and freedom,was not the mind and the vocabulary of fedil castro,castro hate democracy and freedom and,but castro loved so much in communism, because in this communism,this is the instrument to achieve his goal and ambition to become a communist dictator leader in Cuba,castro organized communist revulotion but his self interest or personal interest revulotion to achieve his goal and ambition to become absulte communist dictator leader in Cuba,that no one can opposed to him,no one can disagree with him no one can question to him and especially no free elections...

[@hilaryepstein6013]

I wonder if the children working in the rice field ever did get their money after meeting Castro.

[@stuartmcdonald2974]

I guess they weren’t going to work for free forever

[@83marceloa]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@gottmituns813]

¡VIVA FIDEL, VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN!.

[@Poppa]

The Cuban's are a gay pleasure loving people LMAO laughed when I heard that

[@priuss6109]

Mor0n

[@kristoffer3000]

A prime example of the BBC never having been fair and balanced, trying EXTREMELY hard to smear Cuba and Castro and failing quite badly at that.

[@kylo_ben]

Did you experience Castro’s Cuba for yourself?

[@kristoffer3000]

@@kylo_ben Have you? What a silly question to try to somehow deflect from the reality of Cuba being a great place despite the illegal US trade blockade. I've read studies, I've looked at statistics and I've heard from people that live there, it's a great place to live despite their US enforced poverty. Did you even watch the video? There's overwhelming support for the socialists because this is what real socialism looks like, not the ridiculous caricature you're told to believe from Western propaganda. The journalist came in and was asking for immediate perfection, why are socialists held to impossible standards whilst capitalist countries are not? Quite the opposite in fact as we can clearly see with pretty much any capitalist nation, especially ones aligned with Western interests.

[@stephenturner6075]

Correct

[@GhastlyCretin]

Do you know how many Cubans risked their lives to go to Florida on tiny boats to escape the Castro regime? To this day people try to escape all the time and those people have nothing good to say about Cuba now.

[@stephenscales353]

Strange that he never put himself up for election as surely he'd have won easily.