As part of his career as a reporter Tintin is used to a life full of danger and adventure, all in the name of chasing a good story and standing up for a good cause. As a child, Frank Gardner read Tintin obsessively; the brave little reporter was his hero! The Programme focus on the first book in the series featuring the character, « Tintin in the Land of the Soviets » and is filmed (amongst other places) in London, Brussels, Berlin and Moscow. Like Tintin, Frank Gardner is a journalist (*) who faces danger while working in war zones and unstable countries. He was badly wounded during a shooting in 2004.
(*) Frank R. Gardner is an English journalist and correspondent. He is currently the BBC's Security Correspondent.
On 6 June 2004, while reporting from Al-Suwaidi a suburb of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Gardner was shot six times and seriously injured in an attack by al-Qaeda sympathisers. His colleague Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers was shot dead. Of the bullets which hit Gardner in his torso (others passed through his shoulder and leg) most missed his major organs yet one hit his spinal nerves and he was left partly paralysed in the legs and dependent on a wheelchair. (source Wikipedia)
