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My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.

We are your weekly guide to the numbers all around us in the news and in life and I'm Tim

Harford. This week we mark the passing of a sporting legend.

The most sought after target in athletics the four minute mile was achieved yesterday

evening on the Oxford University track at Ifley Road.

This week, Sir Roger Bannister, the first person to run one mile in less than four minutes,

died peacefully in Oxford in the UK at the age of 88.

In 2014, we did a program on some of the myths that surround the 4-minute mile and we were lucky enough to talk to Sir Roger about the record.

Here's the result. On the 6th of May, 1954, a young student doctor named Roger Bannister caught the train from London to Oxford and visited friends for a lunch of ham salad.

His aim was to run a mile faster than it had ever been run before. Much faster.

If Bannister broke the 4 minute mark, he'd be over 9 yards ahead of the previous record pace.

Up till yesterday, the world record for the miles stood at 4 minutes 1.4 seconds, but as Bannister lined up for the

start in this race between the three A's and Oxford University, he knew that he had two colleagues

with him who'd help him beat that time. Two hundred and fifty yards to go and Bannister takes over, watch his giant stride

take him to the front as he races the last lung bursting furlong to the finishing post.

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