The birth of the modern fitted kitchen and the creation of Cluedo

The History Hour

BBC

Personal Journals, History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 912 Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is food historian Dr Annie Gray.

She discusses the impact of the first modern, fitted kitchen - the Frankfurt Kitchen - on the kitchens of today. It all goes back to 1926 and the reluctant Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky who said she wanted to be remembered for more than designing a "damned" kitchen. Sorry Margarete.

Next is the invention of the board game Cluedo, or Clue in the United States, which stemmed from playing the piano at murder mystery parties in English country houses and hotels in the 1930s.

Then, we enter the murky world of computer viruses. The first one to affect personal computers in 1986 became known as 'Brain'.

We hear from a survivor of the deadly mudslides which affected Venezuela in December 1999.

A Lotus mechanic gives his account of Brazilian racing star Ayrton Senna's first Formula 1 win in 1985.

And finally, a glimpse into a period of freedom in Afghanistan from 2005 when a TV musical talent contest called Afghan Star gripped audiences.

Contributors:

Christine Zwingl - architect.

Marcia Lewis - daughter of the creators of Cluedo.

Amjad Farooq Alvi - founder of Brain Computers.

Leydys Crespo - survivor of Venezuelan mudslides in 1999.

Chris Dinnage - Ayrton Senna's mechanic.

Jahid Mohseni - the development producer for Afghan Star.

(Picture: A 1950s fitted kitchen. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	Hello, I'm Greg Jenner, and good news,
0:09.5	Your Dead to Me, is back for a new series.
0:11.6	Here we go.
0:12.1	Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald.
0:16.9	I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire.
0:38.6	We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dolion with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat. I'm being very quickly knocked down. And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak, and Rihelina. I'm excited. You're dead to me. The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:45.0	We did something that no one else had ever done. There was such a excitement and energy about this moment. It opened the door for everything that rapidly followed. Witness history.
0:50.4	History as told by the people who were there. I was walking in space.
0:55.0	The first man ever to do so,
0:57.3	I felt almost insignificant,
0:59.5	like a tiny ant compared to the immensity of the universe.
1:03.8	Witness History from the BBC World Service.
1:06.6	Listen now.
1:07.6	Search for Witness History, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
1:16.6	Hello and welcome to The History Hour from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson,
1:21.5	the past brought to life by those who were there. This week we learned some surprising details
1:26.5	about the origins of the board game Cludo,
1:29.2	including the first murder weapons. The original included an axe, a bottle of poison, a poker
1:37.2	and a hypodermic syringe, and a bomb. Plus the deadly floods and mudslides of 1999 in Venezuela.
1:46.2	Afghan star, the TV talent contest that flourished when the Taliban weren't in power.
1:51.8	And the spread of the 1986 computer virus thought to be the world's first.
	...

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