The History Hour

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All Episodes

Mexican history: A love song and a gas explosion

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is Michelle Meinhart, a reader in musicology and cultural history at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. We start by hearing about a Mexican song that captivated lov ... Show more

. 1h 0min

Belgium’s royal affair and Montenegro gains independence

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. First, the story of the Belgian teenager who exposed a scandal within the country’s Royal Family in 1999. Our guest, Professor Kate Williams takes us through some other royal sc ... Show more

. 1h 0min

The first reality game show and a joik performance on Eurovision

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We start with the launch of Expedition Robinson in Sweden in 1997 and discuss how reality TV began around the world with our guest Misha Kavka, Professor of Cross-Media Culture a ... Show more

. 1h 0min

Sir David Attenborough's first Zoo Quest and a WW2 sabotage mission in Norway

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.We start with the broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. To mark his 100th birthday, we go back to the mid 1950s and the television programme that launched his caree ... Show more

. 1h 0min

The world’s first perfume archive and Dutch car-free Sundays in the global oil crisis

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, we hear from a perfumer who in 1990 helped create the world’s first perfume archive in Versailles France. Our guest is Dr William Tullett, a Senior Lecturer in Histor ... Show more

. 1h 0min