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)
CNN and the 24-hour news revolution
British black history special
The Mafia and Italian politics
Blackwater killed my son
Stories of resistance and protest from around the world
Prohibition in India
Inventing James Bond
Margaret Ekpo - Nigeria's feminist pioneer
The siege at Ruby Ridge
Beirut's hotel war
The Second World War in Japan
Adrift for 76 Days
The Million Man March
South Korea's 1980s prison camps
Quarantined in a TB sanatorium
Dealing with economic crisis
Sex trafficking and peacekeepers
Black American History Special
The Zanzibar revolution
The Gwangju massacre
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins