Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music

when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.

This is a download from the BBC.

For more information and our terms of use,

go to BBC.com.uk slash radio three.

In the autumn of 1938, in the shadow of an impending European war,

thousands of American citizens suddenly panicked,

gripped with the fear that their country was under attack.

Across the eastern seaboard, families fled their homes as communication systems broke down,

terrified callers, swamping the police, newspapers and radio stations with breathless queries

about a sudden and brutal attack on the town of Grover's Mill.

Americans know today, reported the Washington Post, the chilling terror of sudden war,

of meeting invasion from another world, unsuspecting and unready.

For a brief hour, on the night of October 31st, 1938,

it had appeared that Martians were invading New Jersey.

Awesome Wells' radio play adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds

and the brief moment of hysteria that it caused is now one of the most famous stories in the history of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and the brief moment of hysteria that it

caused is now one of the most famous stories in the history of popular media. By disguising his

play as a real-time news report from the site of the Martian attack, Wells succeeded in tricking

a considerable number of listeners who had tuned in late and missed the show's clearly fictional

...