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)
Independence in French Polynesia and the 'Queen of Cuba'
India’s ambitious ID scheme and the iconic Princess Diana photo
Paraguay’s ‘disappeared’ and the history of the Channel Tunnel
Thirty years since the first free elections in South Africa
Ebola outbreak and the Friendship Train returns
The history of art heists
Swedish History
Seventy-five years of Nato and the Heimlich Manoeuvre
Chinese history
Finding early vertebrate’s footprints and the Deaflympic badminton champion
Uruguay's smoking ban and the Carnation Revolution
Whisky wars and the Lord of Sipan
Skiing and two-headed dogs
Letters to Juliet and Saint Valentine’s traditions
Inspirational black women
Internet cafes and Doomsday seeds
Traitors and treachery
Lady Tarzan and Ibadan Zoo
The first lesbian couple to get married and World Laughter Day
Hindenburg disaster and wingsuits
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