Amy Winehouse, the Miracle Boy, Chilean Miners: listen to 21 extraordinary stories of the 21st century on ‘STORYCAST’
“STORYCAST” is retelling the 21 biggest stories of the last 21 years. Since 2000, the world has been changed by some extraordinary humans and events: incredible rescues, broken world records, fairy tales and tragedies. In no particular order, host Jayne Secker tells us about the most incredible news that rocked the world, both good and bad. Interspersed with real Sky News reporting from the events and interviews with reporters and first-hand witnesses, “STORYCAST” is telling these stories unlike you’ve ever heard them before.
The Miracle Boy of Banda Aceh, Indonesia
The first episode brings us back to December 26, 2004, when a massive tsunami in southeast Asia became one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history. Capping off around 230,000 deaths, the world watched in horror as the body count rose with each passing day. But in this devastation emerged the Miracle Boy. An 8-year-old named Martunis in a Portuguese football shirt had survived alone for 20 days after the tsunami, amongst the corpses that littered the beaches.
Martunis was discovered by Sky News cameraman Phil Hooper, the man who is retelling the events in this first episode of “STORYCAST.” He and his colleagues had no doubt that this boy was now orphaned; Martunis had told them how he and his family had been swept out to sea in one of the gigantic waves, where he was knocked unconscious and floated away. But mere hours after they handed him over to the Save The Children humanitarian aid organization, they had located his father and great-grandmother.
Six months after, Hooper revisited Martunis and his father, learning that the Portuguese football team, and specifically Cristiano Ronaldo, had contacted them. They even visited and played video games. Martunis was then invited to open that season’s league for the Portugal FA, and he walked out holding Ronaldo’s hand.
This is just the first of the 21 extraordinary stories covered by “STORYCAST.” Of the ones that have been released so far, they retell the 2010 story of the trapped Chilean miners, the man who broke the two-hour marathon mark in 2019, and the Beirut Blast from just August of 2020. Secker interviews Dionne Bromfield, the last person to perform with Amy Winehouse three days before her death. For the first time, she is revealing the side of Amy that only she knew.
Tune in to “STORYCAST” for the incredible stories of the endurance of humanity from the past 21 years.