Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.
We hear about two of the most influential computer games of the 1990s with their creators. John Romero was one of the developers of Doom and talks about the concept of a martian military base populated by zombie soldiers. Coder Jan Tian describes how his devotion to working on the football game FIFA 94 landed him in hospital. Our guest, The Guardian newspaper's video games editor Keza MacDonald, looks back on games which had a global impact.
Also how in 1945, 10,000 brains were collected from dead psychiatric patients in Denmark. It is now thought to be the world’s largest brain bank. We also find out how a group of right-wing army officers seized power in Greece in 1967 to stop the election of a social democratic government led by veteran politician George Papandreou.
And 30 years on since the cult French film La Haine was released, its director Mathieu Kassovitz describes how it caught the attention of high profile politicians with its criticism of policing in France.
Contributors: John Romero – Doom developer Jan Tian – FIFA 94 coder Keza MacDonald – video games editor, The Guardian Martin Wirenfeldt Nielsen – pathologist George Papandreou Jnr – former Greek Prime Minister Mathieu Kassovitz – film director
(Photo: Brains stored in plastic buckets at the University of Southern Denmark. Credit: BBC)
Anwar Ibrahim and road safety inventions
Arabian Peninsula
Racist raids, protests and a political assassination
The best Championship Manager player ever
Women taking a stand
Cuban boxing and the brink of nuclear war
Global strikes and industrial action
Caribbean carnivals and a racially inclusive nightclub
Dassler brothers' rift
Queen Elizabeth II and broadcasting
Queen Elizabeth II
Brazil
Gorbachev's legacy
Inflation and the cost of living
Seventy-five years since India's Partition
The nightclub that changed Ibiza
Fifty years since Asians were kicked out of Uganda
The Revolution on Granite
Stories from iconic TV shows from around the world
Stories from the abortion fight frontline
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Global News Podcast
The Infinite Monkey Cage
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins