I found the 20-minute documentary recalling the day, 30 years ago, that The Times office building was set on fire by fanatical socialist thugs most interesting. Sad, of course, but interesting. I had not realised, until now, how bad, and serious, that dramatic event had been; nor how courage and sheer determination overcame the callous behaviour of the wicked mob.

I had commenced my journalistic career with The Times as a reporter (and sports reporter) in the mid-1960s. I left Malta a few years later to carry on my newspaper career in England. So, I remember being very shocked when I heard what had happened at the top-end of St Paul's Street on October 15, 1979.

To see and hear some of my former colleagues - Wilfred Asciak, Charles Grech Orr and Victor Aquilina among them - relate how events unfolded on that Black Monday was quite touching.