The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, the moment when Irish writer Roddy Doyle discovered he'd won one of the most prestigious honours in fiction: The Booker Prize. And our guest, Merritt Moseley, emeritus professor of English at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, discusses the history of the award. Plus, we lo...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Sahar Saleem, an Egyptian paleoradiologist specialising in using medical imaging technology to study mummies and ancient artefacts. We start with the story a Jewish interpreter who helped guard Adolf Hitler's teeth in the final days of the Second World War. Then, the engineering effo...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Sarah Ward, a maritime archaeologist from the Australian National University. We start with the discovery of the sunken Terra Nova, Scott of the Antartic's ship. We hear from the Danish food entrepeneur Claus Meyer - a driving force behind New Nordic Cuisine. Then, the long journe...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Paulina Guzik, International editor with the Catholic wire service, OSV News. We start in 1986 when Pope John Paul II visited New Zealand. Then, we hear about the reunification of Germany in 1989 from a key political advisor. How one Maasai community overcame a devastating drought in...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear from a Cypriot lawyer, imprisoned by the British for almost two years during the "Cyprus Emergency” of 1955-1959. Our guest, Professor Rebecca Bryant, explains how this period impacted life in Cyprus in the following years. Plus, the story of India’s controversial nuclear deal with the US...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is media, culture and creative industries lecturer Sarah Jilani. We start in 1954 with the Japanese film Seven Samurai which is widely considered to be one of world cinema's most influential films. Then, we hear about the 2006 Hindi film Rang de Basanti which broke box-office records an...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear how a speech by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, in 1972, caused a break down in relations with the USA. Our guest is an expert in the historic relations between Sweden and the US, Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui from the University of El Paso in Texas. Plus, the story of India’s secret first nuc...

We begin with the trial of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. It was claimed that he traded in arms and ammunition in return for so-called blood diamonds. Our guest, gemmologist James Evans discusses the creation of synthetic diamonds. Next we head to Syria where a group of young men in the besieged town of Darayya came together to build a secret library during the civil war. Plus th...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Guri Hjeltnes, an author and World War Two historian. We start with Nazi Germany’s occupation of Norway during World War Two by hearing about a secret resistance operation known as “The Shetland Bus”. Then, we learn about a playboy spy who, during the 1940s, became one of w...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Scottish writer, editor and music programmer Arusa Qureshi. We start in 1989 when the British rock band Pink Floyd played a highly controversial concert in Venice. Then, we cover Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini whose bedroom experiments won her the Nobel Prize. We hear from a man who worked...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes from the BBC World Service. What does a tickle look like? That was the question eight-year-old Adam Hargreaves asked in 1971. He explains how it led his father Roger Hargreaves, to create the children's book series Mr Men. Our guest Professor Nina Christensen, head of the Centre for Children's Literature...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We travel back to Chile in 2006 where more than 600,000 schoolchildren are marching through the streets to protest about their schools. The nationwide demonstrations will become known as the "Penguin Revolution". Our guest Dr Laura Tisdall, a historian from Newcastle University, explains why this...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest Sugandhi Jayaraman, lecturer in air transport management at the University of Westminster, discusses the changes in airports over time. We hear about the Irish priest whose dream of air travel in a remote part of West Ireland became a reality. And we travel back to 1943 to one of the mo...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is food historian Dr Annie Gray. She discusses the impact of the first modern, fitted kitchen - the Frankfurt Kitchen - on the kitchens of today. It all goes back to 1926 and the reluctant Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky who said she wanted to be remembered for more than d...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This programme contains distressing details. Our guest is Bárbara Fernández Melleda, Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies at the University of Hong Kong. We start with Chilean author Isabel Allende on her debut novel, The House of the Spirits, in 1982 which reflects Chile’s 20th century...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Barbara Keys, a specialist in US history at Durham University. We start with a celebration of the American Freedom Train, as the US prepares to mark 250 years of independence. Then, the South African railway enthusiast who created one of the most luxurious train services in...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We learn about how Play-Doh evolved from a cleaning product to a childhood favourite and the creation of one of the best-selling board games of all time, Catan. Our guest is the editor of Toy World Magazine, Caroline Tonks, who takes us through the history of toy crazes. We also hear about the inve...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We learn about how a Norwegian businessman brought salmon sushi to Japan in the 1980s. Our guest is cookbook author Nancy Singleton Hachisu, who tells us more about the history of sushi in Japan and around the world. We hear about the first opera written for TV in 1950s America and how U.S Marsha...

We start with the street artist Banksy, and his 2015 dystopian 'bemusement park'. Then, we talk to roller coaster enthusiast Megan MacCausland, from the European Coaster Club. Plus, we go back through the BBC archives to tell the story of the coelacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for 65 million years. Next, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up after the abolishment...

Max Pearson presents a collection of Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes, all with a Nigerian theme. We hear two personal stories of the Biafra war, which began in 1967, including the writer Wole Soyinka who was jailed for trying to stop it. Plus, we hear from Patricia Ngozi Ebigwe about escaping the conflict. She's now better known as TV and music star Patti Boulaye. We speak to Dr Loui...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is literature lecturer Dr Hetta Howes on major literary hoaxes around the world. We hear about Howard Hughes' fake autobiography, the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá in Colombia and how the Indian musician Ravi Shankar taught George Harrison the sitar. Plus, the Indian woman who led her cou...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mercedes Peñalba- Sotorrío, a senior lecturer in modern European history at Manchester Metropolitan University, England. We start with the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975 ending 36 years of dictatorship over Spain. Then, we use archive to hear how King Juan Carlos reclaimed...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is aviation historian Dr Victoria Taylor. We start with an archive interview of American Chuck Yeager who became the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947. Then, a couple who were caught up in the attack on the Bataclan theatre in Paris in November 2015. We hear from...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Darja Dankina, who's a palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. We start with the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever, uncovered by a shepherd on a ranch in Argentina in 2012. Then, we hear from the daughter of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who created...

Emerante de Pradines's son, Richard Morse, tells us about his mother’s life and her commitment to de-demonising vodou culture through her music. Haiti expert Kate Hodgson, from University College Cork in Ireland, expands on the history of the country in the 20th Century. The story of how an Argentinian doctor was inspired to create a new treatment for heart disease and when the death of a Catholic...