logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2022
51m 22s

90 years of the BBC World Service

Bbc World Service
About this episode
Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service. Sir Trevor McDonald reflects on the BBC's first black producer, Una Marson, and her legacy in the development of the BBC Caribbean Service. Also, how the BBC managed to broadcast through the Iron Curtain, Colombia's false positives scandal and the incre ... Show More
Up next
Jul 5
Dancing in the Street and Ai Weiwei
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes including the story behind Mick Jagger and David Bowie's duet for Live Aid in 1985 and the Chinese artist who was jailed for his art inspired by the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. He speaks to music journalist ... Show More
50m 53s
Jun 28
Robert Kennedy's funeral train and the opening of the Medellin Metro
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service, all related to trains and journeys which have helped to shape our world.Our guest Nicky Gardner, travel writer and co-author of Europe by Rail: the Definitive Guide, discusses t ... Show More
50m 58s
Jun 21
Jaws and the Charleston church shooting
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This programme includes outdated and offensive language.It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975. Ou ... Show More
51m 7s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2022
The BBC broadcasting through the Iron Curtain
It is the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service. Broadcasting to countries behind the Iron Curtain without a free or independent media between 1947 and 1991 was arguably the service’s finest hour. The corporation was on the front line of the information war as the BBC’s forme ... Show More
9m 4s
Nov 2021
The government vs the BBC: A Hundred Year War
This week Jack picks through the long and turbulent relationship between the government and the BBC, and asks why these two great pillars of British public life can't seem to get along. Veteran BBC Radio 4 presenter and author Edward Stourton and BBC historian Professor Jean Seat ... Show More
48m 25s
Jul 2022
Ukraine's foreign fighters
Since February, thousands of international volunteers have travelled to Ukraine to help in the fight against Russia. We hear about some foreign combatants whose stories have been reported by our language services, with Sunyoung Jeong of BBC Korean, Benny Lu of BBC Chinese and Bev ... Show More
34m 47s
Jul 2023
9. Jack King and the Fifth Column
Eric Roberts, a bank worker from Surrey, joins MI5. He is given the alias Jack King and his job is to hunt for British Nazi-sympathisers. Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistanc ... Show More
28m 46s
Mar 2023
BBC Tackles Gary Lineker
What should the BBC do about the Match of the Day host, after criticism of his tweets on the government's asylum policy?Former director of BBC News, Richard Sambrook, reveals how he would handle the comments, from an impartiality point of view, and media editor, Katie Razzall, di ... Show More
29m 29s
Apr 2023
Escape from Khartoum
After the first evacuation planes carrying British nationals arrive in Cyprus, Adam hears one Newscaster’s first-hand account of fleeing war-torn Sudan, and speaks to Larry Madowo, CNN’s international correspondent, from Nairobi.And the BBC’s media editor Katie Razzall is in the ... Show More
32m 1s
May 2023
King Charles III coronation; America’s position in the world; a new documentary on Ukraine
Joanna Coles, former chief content officer for Heart Magazines, joins the show this week to talk about King Charles III's coronation and the future of the British monarchy. Then, Fareed hosts a global panel with The Economist's Editor-in-Chief Zanny Minton Beddoes and Executive D ... Show More
40m 41s
Nov 2021
Migrant tragedy in the Channel
More than 30 people have drowned after their boat sank on the way to the UK… Emily Maitlis (who was en route to Dover as the story was unfolding) takes us through the details. After his exclusive interview with the President of Belarus went viral, the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg and hi ... Show More
38m 38s
May 2021
Bashir and the BBC
On the day that the BBC announces an investigation into how the journalist, Martin Bashir, was rehired, Adam chats to John Whittingdale, the media minister, about the future of the organisation. And, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford explains what's going on with the detained Belarus jou ... Show More
35m 53s