Aug 23

BlackBerry phones and Spot the dog

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Jacquie McNish, author and former Senior Correspondent at the Wall Street Journal.We start with the former co-CEO of BlackBerry, who recounts the company's remarkab ... Show More

59m 7s

Aug 15

Indonesian history

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Dr Anne-Lot Hoek, a research fellow at the International Institution of Social History in Amsterdam.This week, we’re looking at key moments in Indonesian history, as ... Show More

50m 20s

Aug 9

Nagasaki bomb and Brazil’s biggest bank heist

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Simone Turchetti, Professor of the History of Science and Technology, at The University of Manchester in the UK. It's 80 years since the US dropped atomic bombs on ... Show More

50m 52s

Feb 2020

The Somalia Affair | 16

Somalia was struck by a famine of staggering proportions which was made worse by the fact that militia leaders were stealing foreign aid that was shipped from other nations. The Canadian military was part of a UN humanitarian peacekeeping mission to ensure food and medical suppli ... Show More

58m 43s

Jun 2023

My dad played golf on the moon

Alan Shepard played golf on the moon in 1971.He became the first and only person to enjoy the sport on the lunar surface.The astronaut golfer’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley was inspired by her father’s big journeys and later travelled to space herself, although she didn’t pac ... Show More

9m 58s

Sep 2021

Kenya: Westgate Mall attack

Gunmen from the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Nairobi taking hundreds hostage. The group claimed it was in retaliation for Kenyan military action against them in southern Somalia. The siege lasted four days in September 2013 and more than 60 people ... Show More

9m 24s

Nov 2023

The Arab- Israeli War: Yom Kippur War 1973

Also known as the October War and the Ramadan War, this conflict was initiated by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973, as a surprise attack on Israel during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and the Muslim month of Ramadan. It was motivated by a desire among Arab states to regain ... Show More

39m 29s

May 2023

World War II victory in North Africa

Peter Royle, 103, endured a month of solid fighting in the hills outside of Tunis in 1943. Eventually the Allies prevailed and took more than 250,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. They declared victory in Tunisia on 13 May. Peter came close to dying many times. He recalls ... Show More

11m 32s

Nov 2020

World War One in Africa

At the start of World War One, British and German colonial forces went into battle in East Africa. Tens of thousands of African troops and up to a million porters were conscripted to fight and keep the armies supplied. We hear very rare recordings of Kenyan veterans of the King's ... Show More

9m 27s

Feb 2021

The WW2 airman from Sierra Leone

Johnny Smythe was one of very few West Africans to fly with Britain's air force during WW2. Recruited in Sierra Leone in 1941 he was trained as a navigator and flew 26 missions on RAF bombers before being shot down over Germany and taken prisoner in 1943. His son Eddy Smythe spok ... Show More

9m 54s

Jul 2023

7. Bela Hazan and the Jewish Resistance

Poland, 1941. Bela Hazan, a young Jewish woman, secures an undercover job at the Gestapo headquarters. She is about to go undercover to fight against the Nazis. Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of decep ... Show More

29m 9s

Dec 2019

Lawrence of Arabia

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss T.E. Lawrence (1888 – 1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia, a topic drawn from over 1200 suggestions for our Listener Week 2019. Although Lawrence started as an archaeologist in the Middle East, when World War I broke out he joined the British ... Show More

51m 46s

Dec 2019

Lawrence of Arabia

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss T.E. Lawrence (1888 – 1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia, a topic drawn from over 1200 suggestions for our Listener Week 2019. Although Lawrence started as an archaeologist in the Middle East, when World War I broke out he joined the British ... Show More

51m 46s

Somalia's civil war and golf on the moon