Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hits. I'm really happy you got the opportunity

to replay an old episode from our archive today. Dr. William Franklin, one of the most remarkable

men that I've ever met and I was hugely honored to have him on the podcast. He was born

on 19th March 1912. He died last year. He was 108 years old. Just before his death, I was

lucky enough to meet him and learn about an extraordinary life and career. I say extraordinary

on this podcast, but this is extra ordinary. He was a medic during the Second World War. He was

captured at Singapore. He suffered the hams of his Japanese captors during the rest of the war.

He then came back to the UK. He collaborated with Alexander Fleming on Penicillin. He experimented

on himself as you'll hear with almost fatal consequences. He pioneered the daily pollen count

and he treated Saddam Hussein for dodgy lungs. He retired at 65, certainly from his job

in the NHS, but he continued to work well past 100. He attended conferences and published

articles in journals. As you'll hear in this episode, he was still working on an article

just before he died. Deep into his 11th decade, we think that made him the oldest working

man in British history. But please let me know if you have another candidate. This podcast,

it was a long interview. By the way, you'll hear my daughter doing some coloring in the background

of her pen is dropped on the floor occasionally. I thought it was very cool. I took her to meet

him. So she was born in 2011 and she was able to hang out a few pictures taken and learn

some things from a guy who was born before the First World War. Very, very special indeed.

If you wish to hear the second episode of this podcast, it's available like all of our

podcasts on historyhit.tv. It's our digital history channel. You've got podcasts on

there. We got TV shows on there. You can watch this interview with Bill Franklin. It was

recorded as well. So you can watch the whole thing on historyhit.tv. In this first episode,

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