Denis Theodore Goldberg was born on 11 April 1933 in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in a family that welcomed people of all races into their house.

[a][7][8] The MYS aimed to raise awareness and solidarity by various means, including selling the "New Age" newspaper, canvassing door-to-door and holding night classes to educate and politicise working people.

Along with his mother, he spent four months in prison without trial and subsequently lost his job working on the construction of the Athlone Power Station, which added to the burden placed on Esme; faced with similar circumstances, several comrades left the country.

[12] With the government using increasingly violent methods to suppress peaceful protests, Goldberg and others argued for an armed struggle against the police and military.

The camp was later recognised as the first MK training centre inside South Africa; however it had to be abandoned early due to Security Police interest.

[16] In Johannesburg Goldberg helped in the radio broadcast of a speech on 26 June Freedom Day by Walter Sisulu, out on bail at the time, to show people that the ANC was still active despite the repression.

Goldberg was arrested at the farm along with several others, including Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and Rusty Bernstein.

[18] Goldberg was subjected to a series of often aggressive interrogations, sometimes threatened with hanging and at other times offered inducements to turn state witness.

(Nelson Mandela was in prison at the time of the raid, but documents found at Liliesleaf enabled the State to add him as a co-accused.)

[19] The day after being charged, Goldberg and his co-accused met with their lawyers – Bram Fischer, Joel Joffe, Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizos – who told them that their situation was dire and that death by hanging was the likely outcome.

[20] Goldberg, in an effort to protect Mandela and the other leaders, offered to take responsibility by saying that he had exceeded his instructions in regard to weapons manufacture, arguing that the evidence against him was the most difficult to refute given that the plans had clearly been written by him.

[22] After two of the accused had escaped, the verdict was delivered on 12 June 1964: Bernstein was acquitted and Bob Hepple was discharged; the rest were all found guilty.

While he was in prison and subsequently, Esme's house in East Finchley in north London provided a haven for many South African political refugees and various other itinerants.

[29][30] In June 1978 Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, who had been sentenced to 12 years for illegal political activities, arrived at the prison.

Goldberg withdrew from the actual escape, leaving the three who had done most of the planning and had been the main drivers of the idea from the start: Jenkin, Lee and Alex Moumbaris.

[32][31] Goldberg's daughter Hilary was living on a kibbutz in Israel, which had set up a committee to try and obtain her father’s release from prison.

Herut Lapid, who campaigned for the release of Jewish prisoners worldwide, became involved and started lobbying political contacts in Britain.

Isolated as he was from both of them and those at liberty there was little opportunity for consultation; however, a message was conveyed to him that the ANC, including those on Robben Island, approved of the initiatives of his daughter and Herut Lapid.

In a letter to President P. W. Botha he detailed his position and agreed to an "undertaking to participate in normal peaceful politics which can be freely and meaningfully practised".

On 26 June 1985, on the 30th anniversary of the Congress of the People (aka Freedom Day), as spokesperson for the ANC, he gave a speech at Trafalgar Square at an Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) rally, also attended by leader of the British Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, and that December went on a six-week speaking tour in Scandinavia.

His main role through the years until 1994 was to build support for the AAM, and to this end he travelled extensively across Europe and North America, doing speaking engagements and media interviews.

He founded the development organisation Community HEART [39] in London in 1995, to help to improve the living standards of black South Africans.

Community HEART raised funds for organisations such as Rape Crisis Cape Town, as well as for initiatives to provide books and computers to schools.

[38][40] Goldberg returned to South Africa in 2002 and was appointed Special Adviser to Ronnie Kasrils MP, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry until 2004.

[47][48] On 23 January 2019, Deputy ANC President David Mabuza awarded Goldberg the party's highest honour, Isitwalandwe.

President Cyril Ramaphosa paid his respects, and stated that: "His commitment to ethical leadership was unflinching and even during his advanced age, he formed part of the movement of veterans of the struggle calling for the reassertion of the moral center of society.

[57][58] In an interview in the 2018 UCT Alumni Magazine, Goldberg spoke of his passion for the project and belief in the role of art and culture to promote change, saying that South Africa was still a very divided society and that young people needed "to sing together, dance together, make poetry together".

[61] The centre also offers a variety of regular afternoon and Saturday morning sessions for children in, among others, circus skills, drama, art, music, movement and hip hop.

The video features excerpts from interviews with Jenkin, Lee, Moumbaris and Goldberg filmed in 2012, in between re-enacted scenes of the prison escape.

It was originally announced that Sam Neill would play Goldberg,[78] but when production time arrived, Ian Hart assumed the role.