Witness History

In December 1953, Hollywood film stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy spent a few weeks at the Bull Inn, Bottesford, Leicestershire, while they performed a show at the nearby Nottingham Empire.

Stan’s sister, Olga Healey, was the landlady.

Customers and staff said the duo spent time serving behind the bar, signing autographs and chatting with regulars.

This was produced and presented by Rachel Naylor, in collaboration with BBC Archives.

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In the late 1980s, Norway needed a new market for its growing farmed salmon production.

Fish-loving Japan and its lucrative sushi market seemed to fit the bill. But salmon was one fish the Japanese did not eat raw.

Lars Bevanger speaks to Bjørn-Eirik Olsen, the man who came up with the idea of putting salmon on sushi rice, and who spent years convincing the Japanese to eat it.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witn...

In December 1995, India's parliament passed the country's first disability rights legislation.

The landmark law aimed to give full participation and equality rights to an estimated 60 million people - around five percent of India's population who are affected by physical or mental disabilities.

In 2015, Farhana Haider spoke to disability rights activist Javed Abidi who led the campaign to change the law.

Eye-witness accounts brought t...

Operation Flagship was a U.S Marshals sting operation, where some of Washington DC’s most wanted fugitives, were lured to a convention centre under the pretence of having won coveted NFL tickets in December 1985.

Upon their arrival, they were greeted by cheerleaders and mascots – all law enforcement officers in disguise. It led to one of America’s most successful mass arrests with more than 100 people being arrested.

Former US Mars...

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 superpower leaders President John F Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, tell the personal and political history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Together Nina and Max explore what drove JFK and Khrushchev during the darkest days of October 1962. And when the crisis moves beyond their con...

On 12 December 2015, nearly 200 countries adopted the Paris climate agreement. It legally committed countries to climate action plans, designed to stop global temperatures rising 2C above pre-industrial levels. Those commitments have influenced government policy and people's lives ever since.

Christiana Figueres was head of climate negotiations at the conference. She speaks to Ben Henderson about the drama behind the scenes, includ...

Following the abolishment of Apartheid in the 1990s, South Africa had to find a way to confront its brutal past without endangering the chance for peace.

But it was a challenging process for many survivors of atrocities committed by the former racist regime.

Sisi Khampepe served on the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she spoke to Rebecca Kesby in 2018 about how she had to put aside her own emotions an...

In 1938, South African museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer discovered a coelacanth, a fish that was believed to have been extinct for 65 million years.

It is thought to be our ancestor and the missing link between how fish evolved into four-legged amphibians.

Produced and presented by Rachel Naylor in collaboration with BBC Archives.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated b...

In 2015, Banksy turned a derelict swimming pool in Weston-super-Mare, England, into a dystopian theme park which drew huge crowds and Hollywood stars.

Working under cover of darkness, the street artist created Dismaland - a 'bemusement park' offering a satirical twist on mainstream resorts.

The temporary exhibition featured a fire-ravaged castle, a riot police van sinking into a lake, and Cinderella’s upturned pumpkin carriage.

Open f...

In December 1975, four members of one of the IRA’s deadliest units were chased by police through the streets of London before hiding out in a small flat owned by a middle-aged couple called John and Sheila Matthews. The resulting six-day siege was covered live on television and radio, and gripped Britain. It ended when Metropolitan Police negotiators persuaded the gunmen to leave the flat peacefully. In 2019, Simon Watts spoke to ...

In 2011, Lagos Fashion Week debuted, putting Nigerian style on the map.

Omoyemi Akerele founded the event which helped to launch the careers of designers internationally.

It has grown into a major fashion event and won the 2025 Earthshot Prize for sustainability.

In 2023, Omoyemi Akerele spoke to Reena Stanton-Sharma about the first show.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the ...

In 1967, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka tried to stop the country’s Biafra war, in which Nigeria’s Igbo people responded to violence by seceding from the rest of the country. They proclaimed a new Republic of Biafra.

When the fighting began, Soyinka was building a reputation as a poet and playwright abroad. However, in a last-ditch attempt to avert civil war, he set off on a secret mission behind the front line to meet the Biafran lea...

When the south-east region of Nigeria declared itself to be the independent state of Biafra, civil war broke out in May 1967. More than a million people died before the fighting stopped.

In 2021, Patricia Ngozi Ebigwe, now better known as TV and music star Patti Boulaye, spoke to Paul Waters about escaping the conflict.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you...

It's 25 years since the opening of the New Afrika Shrine, an open-air entertainment centre in Nigeria.

A hub for Afrobeat music and culture, it's dedicated to the legacy of Fela Kuti who pioneered the genre.

Omoyeni Anikulapo-Kuti, also known as Yeni Kuti, is Fela’s eldest daughter. She speaks to Surya Elango about building the New Afrika Shrine.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated...

In 2015, West African countries fought against the jihadist militant group Boko Haram which controlled large areas of northeastern Nigeria.

The group, whose name means 'western education is forbidden', had killed thousands and displaced millions in the years preceding 2015.

They made worldwide headlines in 2014 when they kidnapped 276 girls from a boarding school.

Tim O’Callaghan speaks to retired Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka...

Following the Beatles final concert tour, George Harrison travelled to India in 1967 to learn sitar under the renowned musician Ravi Shankar.

Fleeing Beatlemania he travelled in disguise to Mumbai and then to Srinagar in Kashmir.

Listening to BBC archive and using excerpts from a Martin Scorsese documentary, we hear one of the world's most famous guitarists challenge himself to learn a new instrument.

The moment influenced George’s sp...

In 1946, an Indian woman made history by leading her country’s first delegation to the United Nations.

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit described it as a moment that reshaped her life.

As the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, she was already in the public eye, but stepping onto the global stage was far from easy. She grappled with doubt before accepting the role at the United Nations.

This programme is made in collaborati...

In 1971, the publishing world was rocked by one of the biggest hoaxes in literary history – a fake autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.

Hughes was an aerospace engineer, film producer, record-breaking aviator and business tycoon, who’d built a $2 billion fortune to become one of the richest people in the world.

But for years he’d been living as a recluse, reportedly so terrified of catching a disease that he had ...

In 1995, a cathedral was built 180m underground in the Zipaquirá Salt Mine in Colombia.

The idea came from the miners building makeshift altars in the mine in the 1930s, to pray for their safety before starting their shifts.

It’s now a major tourist attraction, attracting more than 600,000 visitors a year.

Rachel Naylor speaks to the engineer behind it, Jorge Enrique Castelblanco.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Wit...