Witness History

Using archive recordings, Alex Last tells the story of Britain's most famous hangman. During the 1940s and 1950s, Albert Pierrepoint was responsible for the execution of some of Britain's most notorious murderers and was sent to Germany to hang more than 200 Nazi war criminals after World War Two. He said he was always determined to treat prisoners with dignity and respect whatever their crime. Th...

In 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president, Lech Kaczyński, crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing everyone on board. It was one of the most tragic moments in modern Polish history. The country’s minister of foreign affairs, Radoslaw Sikorski was one of the first people to hear about it. He’s been sharing his memories of the disaster with Matt Pintus.(Photo: Smolensk air crash wrec...

Yoshikuni Noguchi spent time as a guard in one of the prisons in Japan that would carry out the death penalty, and witnessed the hanging of a condemned prisoner in 1971, before going on to become a lawyer. He describes in detail what he saw. Yoshikuni began speaking out to cast light on the reality of what death row inmates go through, as Japan continues to resist the calls to ban the practice, wh...

Frontman of punk-rock band The Undertones, Paul McLoone, recalls the “weird, slightly funny, slightly sad, slightly surreal” time he was the voice of IRA commander-turned-politician, Martin McGuinness. It was during the so called ‘broadcasting ban’ in the UK which came into force in 1988. It saw organisations believed to support terrorism forbidden from directly broadcasting on radio or television...

In 2009, hundreds of teenagers’ lives were changed forever, when a vaccine designed to protect them against swine flu appeared to trigger a sleep disorder. It affected people in various countries including Sweden. Maddy Savage speaks to Christopher Tyvi from Stockholm, who is one of those who experienced problems. A Bespoken Media production for BBC World Service.(Photo: Swine flu vaccine. Credit:...

Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara. High levels of radioactivity, and a failure to safely dispose of nuclear waste, have left a dangerous legacy. Dan Hardoon speaks to Abdelkrim Touhami, who was just a teenager when the French authorities announced a nuclear test near his home. A Whistledown production for BBC World Service. (Photo: Dummies at the nuc...

In 1990s Kosovo, a generation of Albanians received their education crammed into thousands of private homes. When Slobodan Milosevic’s Serb nationalist regime forcibly evicted them from schools and universities, Kosovan Albanians responded with improvised house schools in their apartments, attics and cellars. The spontaneous reaction to their ethnic exclusion quickly evolved into a nationwide educ...

In 2013, horse meat was discovered in Irish beef burgers. The scandal snowballed and within six weeks horse meat was found in beef products in more than a dozen European countries. The story revealed how complex and unregulated Europe’s meat industry was, making it a target for fraudsters. Ben Henderson speaks to Alan Reilly, former Chief Executive of the Irish Food Safety Authority, who uncovered...

On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York, after geese struck both its engines shortly after take off. All 155 people on board survived. Rachel Naylor speaks to Dave Sanderson, the last passenger to be rescued.(Photo: Passengers and crew aboard US Airways Flight 1549 await rescue. Credit: AP) HISTORICAL ARCHIVE & EVIDENCE The original photo gallery, uned...

The world’s first tidal power station is on the estuary of the River Rance in France. It was opened in 1966 by President Charles de Gaulle and has been capturing the natural power of the oceans’ tides and turning it into electricity ever since. Alex Collins hears how the project to build it was a cause for national pride and how the facility is now a tourist attraction, as he speaks to Brittany hi...

A boom in demand for sea cucumbers in Asia in the 1990s set off a confrontation between fishermen and conservationists in the waters off the Galápagos Islands, where the protein-rich ocean creature was found in abundance. The high price being paid for the sea cucumbers led to a gold rush on the South American archipelago, a chain of 21 islands home to many unique species. In 2020, Mike Lanchin spo...

In September 1956, a telephone cable called TAT-1 was laid under the Atlantic Ocean. This made high-quality transatlantic phone calls possible for the first time. Eight months later in May 1957, 1,000 people squeezed into St Pancras Town Hall in London to listen to a transatlantic concert. The person performing, Paul Robeson, was a globally renowned singer, but he’d been banned from travelling out...

In 1953, a winter storm combined with high tides breached sea defences in the Netherlands, more than 1,800 people drowned. Ria Geluk, remembers the once-in-a-lifetime flood. In this programme first broadcast in 2011, Ria tells Trish Flanaghan what happened when water overwhelmed the farm she lived on.(Photo: A man walking a flooded street. Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Image...

In 1971, marine biologist Edward Carpenter made a shocking discovery finding small bits of plastics floating thousands of miles of the east coast of America in the Atlantic Ocean. More than 50 years later he tells the story of how he had to fight hard to get the scientific world to take notice of his discovery. He also tells Alex Collins about when plastics in oceans went viral.(Photo: Plastic flo...

In February 2012, Diana Burkot and other members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot protested inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour against the church and its support for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Some members were arrested and put on a trial which made the news inside Russia and around the world. Diana kept her participation in the protest secret and avoided going to prison. S...

After the 1973 military coup in Chile, Miguel Enriquez led resistance against the dictatorship. The secret police were ordered to track him down and assassinate him. His wife Carmen Castillo remembers the day in October 1974 when she was six months pregnant and the military finally caught up with one of Chile’s most wanted men. Carmen tells her story to Jane Chambers.(Picture: Admiral Toribio Meri...

On 6 January 1992, the US Government ordered a suspension of all procedures involving silicone breast implants. More than 2,000 women had complained of poor health and pain after receiving implants. Among the issues were ruptures of the implants, connective tissue diseases, and even fears of a possible link with cancer. The story raised concerns around the world. Iain Mackness talks to plastic sur...

Tété-Michel Kpomassie grew up in West Africa but he was obsessed with the Arctic. When he was 16 years old he ran away from his village in Togo determined to reach Greenland. It took him eight years but in 1965, he finally arrived. He then went north to fulfil his dream of living among the indigenous people. Years later, he wrote an award-winning account of his odyssey, An African in Greenland, wh...

In 1996, Scotland took to the field for a football World Cup qualifying tie in the Estonian capital city of Tallinn. The only problem was that there was no opposition on the other side. Paul Lambert was one of the Scottish players who had to take part in the so-called match. He has been sharing his memories of that time with Matt Pintus. (Photo: Scotland kick off the match. Credit: Getty Images) H...

In 1986, thousands of people gathered in the middle of Rome to protest against the opening of Italy’s first McDonalds fast food restaurant. One of the opponents to the opening of McDonalds was journalist Carlo Petrini. Soon after, he founded a new organisation called the Slow Food Movement. Its main aim was to protect traditional foods and cooking. He has been sharing his story with Matt Pintus.(P...

In August 1958, the Japanese entrepreneur, Momofuku Ando, came up with the idea of a brand new food product that would change the eating habits of people across the world. In 2018, Ashley Byrne spoke to Yukitaka Tsutsui, an executive for the company founded by Ando, about the birth of the Instant Noodle. A Made in Manchester production for BBC World Service. (Photo: Momofuko Ando holding noodles....

In February 1977 the bakers of Malta went on an unprecedented strike. It sent shock waves through the Maltese people who couldn’t imagine life without their favourite food… bread. Before long the military was guarding bakeries, the panicked population had created a bread black market and local prisoners were enlisted to bake for the public. Forty-five years later Maltese cultural historian Noel Bu...

Chef Nelson Wang created his signature dish Chicken Manchurian in 1975. It was the birth of modern Indo-Chinese cuisine which went on to become hugely popular around the world. He went on to open China Garden, a Chinese restaurant in Mumbai that would draw in Bollywood's glitterati. Nelson's son Edward Wang, who is also a chef, speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma.(Photo: Chicken Manchurian. Credit: Pau...

In 1982, rally driver Arnaldo Cavallari created ciabatta bread in Adria, in northern Italy. His family owned a flour mill and he wanted to invent a loaf to rival the French baguette. Rachel Naylor speaks to his close friend and fellow baker, Marco Vianello.(Photo: Ciabatta. Credit: Getty Images) HISTORICAL ARCHIVE & EVIDENCE The original photo gallery, unedited witness statements, and the priv...

On 5 August 2010, 33 miners were trapped underground after a rockfall in the San José copper and gold mine in Chile. They were rescued 69 days later. Rachel Naylor speaks to one of the miners, Mario Sepúlveda, who was nicknamed Super Mario by the media.(Photo: Mario Sepúlveda, in the centre, celebrates being rescued from the mine on 13 October 2010. Credit: Rodrigo Arangua / AFP via Getty Images)...