Terror in the Secret Garden
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2019
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“As I approached the Dusit there was a strange smell in the air; a combination of smoke, petrol, and explosives. I’d smelt it before - the last time was in Northern Syria.” Joe Inwood reflects on the Al Shabaab terror attack on a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi, Kenya.
Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from correspondents around the world.
Stephanie Hegarty meets an 11-year-old social media star in Mexico who is using her online videos to come to terms with the death of her mother.
Charlotte McDonald is in Toulouse with a French veteran of the Algerian War of Independence who’s still making peace with the atrocities committed by his own side.
Karen Allen mingles with South Africa's growing Korean community, some of whom are making good money selling synthetic hair.
And Justin Rowlatt explains why he took his wife on a romantic getaway to Chernobyl.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.8 | Hello. |
| 0:06.8 | Today, How to Become Famous. |
| 0:09.1 | Those of us slightly baffled by the world of social media could take a lesson from an 11 year old in |
| 0:14.8 | Mexico. She's been posting videos of herself for years, one of them watched more |
| 0:20.0 | than 20 million times. We have dinner in Toulouse with a French veteran of |
| 0:25.3 | Algeria's War of Independence and meet Koreans running a thriving business |
| 0:30.4 | selling synthetic hair in South Africa. |
| 0:34.7 | And we have our correspondent heading for a romantic break to Chernobyl. |
| 0:40.8 | But first to Kenya. |
| 0:43.0 | On Tuesday afternoon, heavily armed militants launched an attack in the capital Nairobi. |
| 0:49.0 | Their target was a luxury commercial complex which houses a hotel, banks, restaurants and cafes. |
| 0:55.7 | After an explosion ripped through three cars in the compound's parking lot, a suicide bomber |
| 1:00.4 | blew himself up in the foyer of the hotel. The siege that followed |
| 1:04.4 | lasted for 19 hours and left 21 people dead including the militants. The |
| 1:10.2 | Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab says it was behind the attack, |
| 1:14.8 | which took place just round the corner from where Joe Inwood lives. |
| 1:19.6 | I'll confess it wasn't the secret gardens peaceful location just a few hundred meters from the BBC that kept me coming back not the staff who were always cheerful and enthusiastic |
| 1:29.4 | introducing me to the concept of biteings that's's Kenyan for a snack. It wasn't even the food. |
| 1:35.0 | No, I'm a little embarrassed to say it was the happy hour. |
| 1:38.0 | Buy one get one free on pints of Kenyan craft beer. |
| 1:41.0 | Sometimes the waiters would even extend the offer, allowing us to sit late |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.