The History Hour

Creating Mr Men and the Austrian wine scandal

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Chile’s Penguin Revolution and the 5,000-year-old frozen mummy

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

The priest behind a new airport and Agatha Christie

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest Sugandhi Jayaraman, lecturer in air tr...

The birth of the modern fitted kitchen and the creation of Cluedo

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 di...

The House of the Spirits and Tracey Emin's unmade bed

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This programme contains distressing details.Our...

The American Freedom Train and the invention of text messaging

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Barbara Keys, a speciali...

The history of toys

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 clea...

Norway’s sushi contribution and Laurel and Hardy’s Christmas

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We learn about how a Norwegian businessman brou...

Banky's 'Dismaland' and the Paris climate agreement

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes.We start with the street artist Banksy, and his 2015 dystopian 'bem...

Introducing The Bomb: Kennedy and Khrushchev

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The world is on the brink of nuclear war. How can the Soviet Union and the USA prevent it? Hosts Nina Khrushcheva and Max Kennedy, relatives of the su...

Nigerian history

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes, all with a Nigerian theme.We hear two personal stories of the Biaf...

Literary hoaxes and an underground cathedral

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain and ending the Bosnian war

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mercedes Peñalba- Sotorrío, a se...

Speed of Sound and prosecuting Nazis

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is aviation historian Dr Victoria Tay...

The largest dinosaur and creating Miffy

08 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 palaeontolog...

Emerante de Pradines and Orson Welles’s The War of the Worlds

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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. Hai...

Music producer Sonny Roberts and treating diabetes

25 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Sonny Roberts’ daughter tells us about how he...

Nordic Noir and the Moomins

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Indian-based author and podcaster Purba Chakrab...

The evacuation of Tristan da Cunha and Japan surrenders to China at the end of World War Two

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We start with a BBC archive interview where one...

India's nine day tea strike and the birth of the Excel spreadsheet

04 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.Tea expert Sabita Banerji talks about the history of tea in India. We look ...

The origins of Indian cinema and the start of Scouting

27 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes taking us from India to Texas. Professor Sunny Singh, author of A Bollywood...

The fight against sexual harassment in Egypt and Omar Sharif enters the world stage

20 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes, all with an Egyptian theme.We find out more about the 2014 fight against s...

Nigeria’s Festac’77 and Gander’s generosity during 9/11

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Lucy Durán, a Spanish ethnomusico...

The Chindits and USAID

06 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's episodes of Witness History.The formation of an unconventional special force during the Second World ...

Washington DC and a film noir classic

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We learn why the Mount Pleasant riots erupted in...

BlackBerry phones and Spot the dog

23 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Indonesian history

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 fell...

Nagasaki bomb and Brazil’s biggest bank heist

09 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Simone Turchetti, Professor of t...

Russian revolutionaries and Japan’s record breaking rollercoaster

01 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Dr Lara Douds, Assistant Professor...

Saxophone diplomacy and bulletproof vests

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Natalia Grincheva, an expert ...

Nuclear diplomacy and Italo disco

19 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dina Esfandiary, Middle East Geo-e...

The 'trial of the juntas' and Evita’s missing body

12 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes, all with an Argentine theme. We find out more about the 1985 ‘trial of t...

Dancing in the Street and Ai Weiwei

05 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Robert Kennedy's funeral train and the opening of the Medellin Metro

28 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 h...

Jaws and the Charleston church shooting

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This programme includes outdated and offensive l...

Ronald Reagan and Lonesome George

14 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dolly Jørgensen, Professor of His...

Discovery of the first exoplanets and the goalie who killed a seagull

07 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Dr Jeni Millard, a science presente...

Battle of the Beanfield and the Champions League anthem

31 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Nivi Manchanda, a reader in int...

The history of photography

24 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. The expert guest is Dr Mirjam Brusius, a resear...

Sweden’s Vipeholm experiments and the Intervision Song Contest

17 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Elizabeth Abbott, writer, histo...

Rescuing Palmyra’s treasures and 80 years since VE Day

10 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Rubina Raja, professor of classica...

The Vietnam War and the expansion of the EU

03 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service about the Vietnam War and the invention of the h...

Secret D-Day rehearsal and YouTube begins

26 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is World War Two military historian a...

The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and World Book Day

19 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. It’s 50 years since soldiers of the communist...

Bonus: Defeated

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

8th May 1945 was a day of rejoicing in Britain, the US and many other countries: Germany had surrendered, and World War II was over, at least in Europ...

Nazis and sex strikes

12 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Katrin Paehler, Professor of mo...

The wonder woman of the comic world and Namibia's 'ghost town'

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear from the first woman to lead DC Comics - ...

The phone call that changed Nigeria and a 'one of a kind' portrait of Nelson Mandela

29 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the historic moment in Nigerian pol...

The history of space travel

22 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week we’re looking at the history of spac...

The Americans with Disabilities Act and the invention of GPS

15 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We find out about the landmark protest in 1990 wh...

The invention of the shopping trolley and the Calais 'Jungle'

08 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We find out how Sylvan Goldman’s invention o...

Discovering the haemoglobin structure and the Nellie massacre

01 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We hear about the moment Dr Max Perutz discove...

Death of a language and the world’s longest kiss

22 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We hear about the death of one of the oldest lan...

Great speeches from around the world

15 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We discuss the 1992 speech given by Australian ...

Cult films and a 'rockstar' philosopher

08 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is film critic and journalist Helen O...

The 'Wolf Children' of World War Two and China's TV lessons

01 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We hear from 'wolf child' Luise Quietsch who was separated from her family and forced to flee East Prussia. Whilst trying to survive during World War ...

Back to 1995

25 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes, all about events which happened in 1995. First, we hear how Microsoft laun...

World War Two on film and Africa's landmark lifestyle magazine

18 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Josephine McDermott sits in for Max Pearson presenting a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.We hear from the author who stumbled acro...

The Charlie Hebdo attack and the art of decluttering

11 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes. We hear a first-hand account of the attack at the offices of French satiri...

The Boxing Day tsunami, and Alexa’s creation

04 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.We hear two stories from the deadly 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed t...

German traditions and cooking for presidents

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews which all relate to food. First, Dinner for One, the British TV sketch th...

Referendums and cannibalism

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Chandrika Kaul, a specia...

Panama and the 'Purple Heart Battalion'

14 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Joan Flores-Villalobos, Assistant ...

Women making a mark

07 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In partnership with the BBC 100 Women list, we have a selection of stories about inspiring and influential women from around the world. Scientist Kata...

'Mozart of chess’ and the deepest man-made hole in the world

30 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear from Magnus Carlsen, who in 2014, became the first player ever to win all three world chess titles in one year, achieving the highest official...

The Siege of Yarmouk and Iran's 'house churches'

23 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During the early years of Syria’s brutal civil war, the neighbourhood of Yarmouk, close to the Syrian capital Damascus, bore the brunt of the govern...

The ‘Battle of the Surfaces’ and becoming a republic

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about the half-clay, half-grass exhibition match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Argentinean creative entrepreneur and tennis fan Pabl...

Female heroes of WW2 and the Iranian Revolution

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about Polish war hero Irena Sendler who saved thousands of Jewish children during the World War Two.Expert Kathryn Atwood explains why women’...

Magic, illusion and tigers

02 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.For nearly 40 years, Siegfried and Roy wowed audiences in Las Vegas with deat...

Dungeons & Dragons and dinosaur remains

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

First, on its 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, we hear from Luke Gygax, whose father created the fantasy role-play game. We also hear from ...

Flower revolutions

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan in 2014. Brian Hioe, an activist who occupied Parliament in Taipei, recalls the events.We hear from Nin...

Technology and artificial intelligence

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We start with the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the ENIAC, built in 1946 by a team of female mathematicians including Kathleen Ka...

Latin America's longest plane hijacking and Kristallnacht

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We start our programme in 1973, when two men claiming to be Colombian guerrillas hijacked a plane making it fly across Latin American for 60 hours. Ed...

South Africa’s Immorality Act and India's Mars Orbiter Mission

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We start with the story of a couple who were arrested under South Africa's Immorality Act, which banned sexual relationships between white people and ...

New Zealand’s first dinosaur and India’s plague outbreak

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.We start our programme looking at the discovery of New Zealand’s first di...

Ethiopian history

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes. We’re looking at key moments in Ethiopian history, as it’s 50 years si...

Marriage bars and a Moon mission

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Myra Anubi presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. We hear about the Irish law that banned married women from working in state j...

Space travel and Mary Poppins

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. Our guest is European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who com...

Nazis in Egypt and Spain's La Tomatina

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A warning, this programme includes an account of antisemitic views and descriptions of violence.Egypt recruited thousands of Nazis after World War Two...

Indonesian’s independence and the last Olympic art competition

16 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about the founding father of Indonesian independence. Then, we look at how 'spray on skin' was used after the 2002 Bali bombings.Next, we hear...

American presidents

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.It's 50 years since Richard Nixon became the first US president in history to...

Ice Bucket Challenge and Bulgaria's dancing bears

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners - this programme contains the names and voices of people who have died.Max Pearson prese...

Moscow Metro and the Olympics

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.We go underground for a tour of the Moscow Metro, the subterranean transport ...

Cyprus: Coups and clubbing

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot perspectives on the island's 1974 coup and subsequent invasion. Bekir Azgun, a Turkish-Cypriot writer, remem...

Brazil's ban on women in football and the first air fryer

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We hear about the law in Brazil which made it illegal for women and girls to play football for 40 years. Dilma Mendes shares her incredible experience...

Subway Art and terror in Georgia

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.We hear about the era-defining book Subway Art and how Fight the Power became...

The Sagrada Família and Hello Kitty

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes.We hear the story of the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world and ...

Bungee jumping and the Benidorm boom

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service on the history of travel. Our guest is Dr. Susa...

Boko Haram massacre in Nigeria and the Irish shopworkers strike

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.First, we hear about Boko Haram militants drivi...

The weather report that delayed D-Day and panda-mania in Taiwan

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.First, we hear how a young Irishwoman called Ma...

South American revolutionaries and the first Aboriginal MP

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners - this programme contains the names and voices of people who have died.Max Pearson prese...

The first Air Jordan and Imelda Marcos's 3,000 pairs of shoes

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.This week’s programmes are all about the hist...

Independence in French Polynesia and the 'Queen of Cuba'

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.This week, we hear how nuclear testing changed ...

India’s ambitious ID scheme and the iconic Princess Diana photo

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week, how more than one billion people living in India were given a unique digital ID during the world's largest biometric project. The Aadhaar s...

Paraguay’s ‘disappeared’ and the history of the Channel Tunnel

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. This week we hear the story of Rogelio Goiburu...

Thirty years since the first free elections in South Africa

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been thirty years since the first fully democratic elections in South Africa, which saw the African National Congress take power in 1994.But tw...

Ebola outbreak and the Friendship Train returns

20 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.It’s 10 years since the world’s deadliest o...

The history of art heists

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.It's 30 years since Edvard Munch’s painting, ...

Swedish History

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.It has been 50 years since Abba won the 1974 Eu...

Seventy-five years of Nato and the Heimlich Manoeuvre

30 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's 75 years since the founding of Nato. In 1949, a group of 12 countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to block the expansion of the...