90 years of the BBC World Service

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Max Pearson presents a compilation of this week's Witness History programmes from the BBC World Service.

Sir Trevor McDonald reflects on the BBC's first black producer, Una Marson, and her legacy in the development of the BBC Caribbean Service.

Also, how the BBC managed to broadcast through the Iron Curtain, Colombia's false positives scandal and the incredible rescue of 33 miners trapped in Chile.

(Photo: Sir Trevor McDonald. Credit: BBC)

Contributors: Sir Trevor McDonald, Una Marson, Debbie Ransome and Neil Nunes - BBC presenters Bridget Kendall - the BBC’s former Moscow correspondent Peter Udell - the BBC's former controller of European Services Jacqueline Castillo - whose brother was a victim of the 'false positives' scandal Dr Aslan Doukaev - university teacher when the first Chechen war started Mario Sepulveda - Chilean mine disaster survivor

Transcript

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0:00.0	The powers of the dark of the dark are reaching out now steadily and stealthily
0:08.0	all over this world.
0:10.0	Find out more at the end of this podcast. Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson
0:25.2	the past brought to life by those who were there coming up 90 years of the world service
0:30.2	how the BBC has been a beacon of truth in troubled times.
0:33.7	I asked someone in the crowd, why are they chanting BBC?
0:37.0	And he said that the NMP has said they just voted for independence and parliament and
0:40.9	they turned on the BBC news at the top of the hour and it was in the headlines
0:45.0	so now we know it's true.
0:46.0	Plus Grozny under siege in the 1990s
0:50.0	and these civilian deaths in Colombia's civil war.
0:52.0	When I was walking up to the place where the grave these civilian deaths in Colombia's civil war.
0:53.0	When I was walking up to the place where the graves were,
0:55.7	I saw the faces of many men, women and children
0:58.6	on the side of the road, as if they were giving us a card of honor.
1:03.0	That's all coming up later in the podcast, but first as I say we're celebrating the 90th anniversary of the BBC World Service.
1:09.0	In 1932, the BBC introduced the Empire Service making radio broadcasts via globe circling
1:15.6	shortwave signals to the far-flung territories ruled under the British crown.
1:20.2	One of those territories was the West Indies, and it was that very same year,
1:24.4	1932, that a journalist called Una Marson travelled from Jamaica to British shores.
1:29.6	Josephine McDermott has been going through the archive to find out more about UNA and the
1:33.8	storied past of the BBC's Caribbean service and Josephine is here now.
	...

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