Harrowing but hopeful: the documentary that tells the story of Vietnam's 'boat people'

Thousands of refugees - my family included - fled the communist takeover by sea and ended up in the UK. A Very British History explains their trauma and triumph

'If we're all going to die, it's better we all go down together," insisted my grandad to his wife and eight children, before embarking on a journey that would plunge them all into a paralysing unknown.

In 1979, my family were forced from their home in Saigon, which had fallen to the North Vietnamese communists and been renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Their land, business and money were seized. "We were literally thrown out into the street," my uncle says. Facing persecution and incarceration in one of the severe "re-education" camps, they decided to join the many thousands of "boat people" - Vietnamese refugees who fled from communism by sea.