SYNOPSIS

In 1989, American TV networks aired the historic moment of Berliners freely crossing the Wall. Years earlier, a daring network TV special risked lives and national security to document a perilous escape beneath it. 

In the summer of 1962, a year after the Berlin Wall was built, a group of young West Germans risked their lives to dig tunnels under the Wall, aiming to free friends and strangers in East Berlin. When NBC and CBS learn of these daring plans, they race to document the escapes, funding separate tunnels in exchange for exclusive filming rights. CBS’s effort ends in betrayal by a Stasi informant, but NBC succeeds in capturing the live escape. However, the broadcast is delayed by President Kennedy, who fears provoking the Soviets. When the special finally airs, it becomes one of the most-watched programs of its time, even moving Kennedy to tears. This four-part docudrama introduces us to a cast of real-life characters, including a defiant NBC producer, a treacherous Stasi informer, a skilled engineer who later worked on the Channel Tunnel, a young East Berliner who fled with her baby, and the President who tried to suppress the broadcast, all against the backdrop of extraordinary bravery in the face of oppression.