Episodes
| First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 20120723 | 20180815 (BBC7) 20180816 (BBC7) 20220414 (BBC7) 20220415 (BBC7) 20241105 (BBC7) 20241106 (BBC7) 20121005 (R4) |
Evita's Odyssey
When Eva Peron, Argentina's most famous First Lady died in 1952, her body was embalmed. Three years later in 1955, her widower, Juan Peron, was deposed in a coup.
Evita was the most potent symbol of Peronism, and military officers feared her corpse could become a rallying point of protest against the new government.
So they stole it. It probably spent time in a van parked in Buenos Aires, the city's waterworks, behind a cinema screen, and in the offices of Military Intelligence. But wherever it stayed, it is said that candles and flowers appeared. Clearly a more long-term solution was required...
Linda Pressly tells the stranger-than-fiction tale of what happened to her body over the next two decades - in Argentina and Europe.
It's an extraordinary story - one that takes in more grave-robbing, kidnap, murder, a revolutionary guerrilla group, and the occult.
Through interviews with key players - like the man who repaired the damage to Evita's body when it finally returned to Argentina in 1974 - this is a fascinating glimpse of Argentina before it descended into its darkest and bloodiest days of military dictatorship in the 1970s.
It is a story that will stay with you.
Producer: Linda Pressly
The incredible story of the international odyssey made by the embalmed body of Eva Peron.
Linda Pressly tells the stranger-than-fiction story of the odyssey made by the embalmed body of Eva Peron. From 2012.