Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself. My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts. I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with leading journalists, experienced pundits and the biggest sports stars. Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the player's mouths. But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sporting world.

What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to dedicated sports fans across the UK.

So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.

Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Max Pearson,

the past brought to life by those who were there.

This week, it's 50 years since the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War.

We're marking the anniversary with remarkable recollections,

including of the South Vietnamese trapped in Saigon

as the city fell to the communist forces of the north.

My biggest fear was never seeing my family again,

of my children having no memory of me,

not knowing what my face looks like or what my voice sounds like.

And how the doy-moy economic reforms of 1986 transformed the country after the horrors and

privation of the fighting at its aftermath.

Life of myself, my family, almost everybody in Vietnam changed after one night.

We no more use the ration.

Other topics covered today include the 2004 10-state expansion of the European Union

and how the invention of a rudimentary pastime on an early mobile phone

changed the history of computer gaming.

But first, we're going to concentrate on that 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

A conflict which cost the lives of more than 58,000 Americans,

the estimated numbers of dead on the Vietnamese side, range widely from 1 to 3 million.

...