The largest dinosaur and creating Miffy

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 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 Darja Dankina, who's a palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania.

We start with the discovery of the largest dinosaur ever, uncovered by a shepherd on a ranch in Argentina in 2012.

Then, we hear from the daughter of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who created children's show Thunderbirds in 1965.

Plus, the impeachment of US President Clinton in 1999.

How an American historical document typed out on a university computer in 1971 played a vital role in the digital revolution of electronic books.

Also, Colonel Gaddafi’s son being signed to Italy’s top football league in 2003.

Finally, we use BBC archive to hear how children's book character Miffy was created in 1955. In the programme Dick Bruna reads from Miffy Goes Flying with permission from Mercis Publishing bv.

Contributors:

Dr Diego Pol - palaeontologist who lead the dig for the Patagotitan. Darja Dankina - palaeontologist from the Natures Research Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. Dee Anderson - daughter of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Joe Lockhart - Bill Clinton’s former press secretary. Greg Newby - Project Gutenberg’s CEO and director. Jay Bothroyd and Zeljko Kalac - former Perugia players. Dick Bruna - Dutch author and illustrator.

(Photo: The Patagotitan. Credit: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Hello, I'm Kimberly Wilson.
0:09.7	I'm a psychologist, and in my new podcast, Complex, I'll be your guide through all the information
0:15.6	and misinformation that's out there about mental health.
0:19.0	I'm joined by expert guests covering topics
0:21.8	from people pleasing to perfectionism,
0:24.2	burnout to empathy,
0:25.9	to find tangible advice
0:27.3	so we can understand ourselves a little better.
0:30.5	Complex with me, Kimberly Wilson.
0:33.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	We did something that no one else had ever done.
0:38.9	There was such a excitement and energy about this moment.
0:43.4	It opened the door for everything that rapidly followed.
0:46.1	Witness history.
0:47.2	History as told by the people who were there.
0:49.7	I was walking in space.
0:51.9	The first man ever to do so, I felt almost insignificant, like a tiny ant compared to the
0:58.5	immensity of the universe.
1:00.7	Witness History from the BBC World Service.
1:03.4	Listen now.
1:04.5	Search for Witness History, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
	...

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