The History Hour

BBC World Service

A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.

  1. 1 day ago

    The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions

    Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya. We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms. Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists. Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park. In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898. Plus, we hear how Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed an unprecedented power-sharing deal to end a wave of violence that left more than 1,200 people dead. And the heartwarming story of the friendship between a baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise. Finally for our Sporting Witness story, we head to the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1983. Contributors: Caroline Elkins - Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Muthoni Kirima - Field Marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Frank Gillard - BBC correspondent. Thomas Gnoske - Scientist. Alan Patterson - British Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson's grandson. Maina Kiai - Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2008. Maini Schildt - Swedish Ultimate Frisbee player. (Photo: Mau Mau suspects are rounded up by police outside the camp in Manyani, Kenya, 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Authenticated News)

  2. 8 Aug

    Taiwan's White Terror and the making of City of God

    Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. This week, we hear about the end of decades-long martial law in Taiwan and discuss its impact on the country's literature with Ti-han Chang, the Deputy Director of Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS University of London. Next, the making of City of God, the film that showed the raw reality of children's gangs in Brazil's favelas. Plus, we remember Ashley Kriel, the young activist who became an anti-apartheid icon on the Cape Flats. We also hear about the first carbon offset scheme that planted millions of trees in Guatemala. We go back 50 years to the first time women played basketball in the Olympic Games. And the birth of Club Med, the resort that pioneered the all-inclusive holiday. Contributors: Fred Chin - former Malaysian student imprisoned during Taiwan's White Terror. Katia Lund - co-director of City of God. Adiel 'Gorie' November - former anti-apartheid activist. Roberto Antonio Alvarado - planted the saplings that became some of the world’s first carbon offsets. Pierre-Xavier Bécret - son of Club Med employees. Juliene Brazinski Simpson - former US basketball player. (Photo: Green Island former prison, Taiwan. Credit: James Wendlinger/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)

  3. 1 Aug

    The first Comic Con and making Oasis’ Wonderwall

    Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear how a comic book fan and his friends began the very first comic convention in New York in 1964. Our guest is comic book expert Dr Barbara Postema, from the University Groningen in the Netherlands. Next, we hear how Oasis 1995 hit Wonderwall was made with the man who was the sound engineer on the record. Plus, the memories of the cellist of Auschwitz in World War Two and the final use of a barbaric execution method in Franco’s Spain. Sporting Witness takes us back to Hearts of Midlothian’s heartbreaking season of 1986. And finally, we learn how Sweden gave its workers some of the longest paid holidays in the world in 1970. Contributors: Bernie Bubnis – organiser of the first Comic Con Dr Barbara Postema - lecturer in the English programme at the University of Groningen Nick Brine – sound engineer on Oasis’ song Wonderwall Anita Lasker-Wallfisch – the cellist of Auschwitz Carme Puig Antich – brother of Salvador Puig Antich Gary Mackay and striker John ‘Robbo’ Robertson – former Hearts players Inga Persson - beneficiary of Sweden’s long summers (Photo: Oasis performing in 1996. Credit: Bernd Mueller/ Redferns via Getty)

  4. 25 Jul

    Solar-powered flight and the Crazy Horse Memorial

    Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. This week, we hear about the first solar-powered flight around the world, and discuss other moments in the history of solar power with Prof Laura Herz, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, in the UK. Plus, the start of the largest mountain carving in the world in honour of Native American warrior Crazy Horse, Mexico's 'little old lady killer' and the birth of the 'African Oscars', FESPACO. Finally, when American football came to Europe and how a Peruvian instrument, the cajon, revolutionised flamenco. Contributors: Bertrand Piccard - one of the pilots of Solar Impulse 2. Prof Laura Herz, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford. Monique Ziolkowski - daughter of the sculptor who started the Crazy Horse Memorial. Dr Feggy Ostrosky - neuropsychologist who worked with Juana Barraza. Alimata Salembéré - president of the first organising committee of the Pan African Film and Television Festival. Oliver Luck - former president of NFL Europe. Rubem Dantas - percussionist who helped introduce the cajon into flamenco. (Photo: Solar Impulse 2 flies over the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco in 2016. Credit: Jean Revillard via Getty Images)

  5. 18 Jul

    The Spanish Civil War and the Birkin bag

    Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, we mark 90 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War. Our guest is historian Professor Sir Paul Preston, who explains how the conflict transformed Spain and paved the way for the rise of General Francisco Franco. We hear the story of a young refugee who fled the fighting but later returned home while the war was still under way. We then travel to the Canadian Arctic, where the Inuit fought for greater control over their land and way of life. Their campaign would eventually lead to the creation of Nunavut, Canada's newest and largest territory. We also hear the story behind ‘The Kiss of Life’, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph that captured a life-saving rescue. From Turkey, we hear memories of the failed military coup of July 2016, a night of violence that left hundreds dead. Plus, the story of the Birkin bag, the oversized handbag created in the 1980s that became one of the world's most coveted fashion accessories. And from Sporting Witness, why do thousands of sports fans around the world suddenly stand up, throw their arms into the air and sit down again? We discover the origins of the Mexican wave and how it became a global sporting tradition. Contributors: Professor Sir Paul Preston – historian, author and professor at London School of Economics Paul Quassa- Inuit politician and activist JD Thompson- American lineman in ‘The Kiss of Life’ photograph Can Cumhurcu - Mukhtar of Çengelköy, Istanbul Jane Birkin – creator of the Birkin bag in interviews from BBC Archive Krazy George Henderson – creator of the Mexican Wave (Photo: Spanish Civil War in September 1936. Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

  6. 11 Jul

    Buildings of power and the Dada art movement

    Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mateja Kurir, associate professor at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and the editor of the book, On Power in Architecture. We start with Jackie Kennedy's 1962 renovation of the United States' White House and the immigrant workers who protested against rent hikes and living conditions in 1970s France. Next, the toxic explosion in a chemical factory in northern Italy in 1975 and South Sudan's celebration of independence in 2011. Plus, the art movement Dada which began 110 years ago and went on to influence Surrealism and punk. Finally, the Wimbledon final of 2008 between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer which some call the greatest tennis match ever played. Contributors: Jackie Kennedy - featured in a CBS TV special in 1962. Mohammed Kherbachi - witness to the foyer strikes of the 1970s. Giuseppe Cassina - former Mayor of Seveso. Malual Bol Kiir - on the time of South Sudan's independence. Richard Huelsenbeck - interviewed in 1959 for the BBC programme, The Meaning of Dada. Rafael Nadal - winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles. This episode has been updated since its original broadcast to clarify the national origins of some artists. (Photo: The White House in 1962. Credit: Getty Images)

  7. 3 Jul

    The return of Chief Long Wolf and The Statue of Liberty's facelift

    Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Jan English from the American Museum and Gardens in Bath in the UK. We start with the moment the remains of a Native American chief were returned to the US, more than a century after his death in England in 1892. Next we head to 1959 when Hawaii was brought into the United States of America as the 50th state with the passing of the Hawaiian Admission Act. And we go back to the 1940s, when a Mexican American launched the US's first radio service in Spanish. We fast forward to the 1980s, when the Statue of Liberty was showing her age and was given a multi-million-dollar facelift. To the story of Rosa Parks who made civil rights history in 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on the bus, despite segregation laws discriminating against black people. This story contains outdated language. Finally, the creative vision behind West Germany's 1990 World Cup shirt which became a design classic and is now one of the most sought-after by kit collectors around the world. Contributors: Mary Black Feather Condon - Chief Long Wolf’s great‑granddaughter. John Waihe'e - Former governor of Hawaii. Jan English - American Museum and Gardens Collections and Public Engagement Director. Guillermo Nicolas - Raoul Cortez's grandson. Peter Dessauer - Architect who oversaw the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. Rosa Parks - Civil rights activist. Ina Franzmann - Designer of West Germany’s 1990 football shirt. (Photo: The Statue of Liberty surrounded by scaffolding during its restoration. Credit: Terry Disney/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

  8. 27 Jun

    The Slip Slop Slap campaign and the Brexit referendum

    Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. We start with the birth of an Australian campaign to get people to take care in the sun and Ireland's response to the UK Brexit vote. Next, the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and the Hong Kong bookseller detained for selling material critical of China's leaders. Finally, Brazilian footballer Ronaldo's knee injury in 2000 and the story behind a famous insulting song in Mexico - Rata de dos Patas. Contributors: Professor David Hill - former head of Cancer Council Victoria. Professor Devi Sridhar - Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh. Rory Montgomery - former diplomat, who led Ireland's Brexit negotiating team. Lam Wing-kee - Hong Kong bookseller who was detained for selling material critical of China’s leaders. Nilton Petroni - Ronaldo Nazario's former physiotherapist. Manuel Eduardo Toscano - composer of Rata de dos Patas. (Photo: Sid the Seagull, mascot for the Slip Slop Slap campaign. Credit: Cancer Care Victoria)

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A compilation of the latest Witness History programmes.

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  • Creator
    BBC World Service
  • Years Active
    2013 - 2026
  • Episodes
    510
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Show Website
    The History Hour

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