More in episode 40 on www.Astrotalkuk.org.
On the third of Gagarin's five days in Britain, immediately following his meeting with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, on Thursday 13th July 1961, he had the only private meeting of his visit with Captain Eric Brown where the press was not invited, no photographs were taken and no official record was kept. During this "test pilot" to "test pilot" meeting, Gagarin clearly told Brown that he had ejected from his spacecraft. The Soviets consistently maintained that he had not but eventually, a decade later they conceded officially that he had. When I asked Captain Brown why he had never published the details of his private meeting, "no one asked me before" replied.
