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The History Hour
Italian history
The History Hour
Feb 14, 2026

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Scottish writer, editor and music programmer Arusa Qureshi.

We start in 1989 when the British rock band Pink Floyd played a highly controversial concert in Venice.

Then, we cover Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini whose bedroom experiments won her the Nobel Prize.

We hear from a man who worked on the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which opened in 1965.

A survivor describes Florence's devastating flood in 1966.

Finally, the story of how the actress Gina Lollobrigida interviewed Cuba's leader Fidel Castro.

Contributors:

Fran Tomasi and Andrea Pattaro - witnesses to Pink Floyd's Venice concert.

Arusa Qureshi - Scottish writer, editor and music programmer.

Franco Cuaz - Mont Blanc Tunnel's first operations manager.

Antonina Bargellini - survivor of the Florence flood.

(Photo: Pink Floyd performing in Venice. Credit: Andrea Pattaro)

More Episodes
Aug 15, 2026
The Mau Mau uprising and man-eating lions

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes focussing on Kenya.

We hear about Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to come out of hiding and lay down her arms.

Caroline Elkins, Professor of History at Harvard University, discusses the brutality of the conflict between Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army, the British and Kenyan loyalists.

Next, when Princess Elizabeth became queen while staying at the Treetops Hotel, a lodge in the Aberdare National Park.

In 1997, scientists travelled to Kenya, in search of a cave believed to have been the den of the man-eating lions that terrorised railway workers in 1898.

Plus, we hear how Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga signed an unprecedented power-sharing deal to end a wave of violence that left more than 1,200 people dead.

And the heartwarming story of the friendship between a baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise.

Finally for our Sporting Witness story, we head to the first Ultimate Frisbee World Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1983.

Contributors: Caroline Elkins - Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Muthoni Kirima - Field Marshall in the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Frank Gillard - BBC correspondent. Thomas Gnoske - Scientist. Alan Patterson - British Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson's grandson. Maina Kiai - Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights in 2008. Maini Schildt - Swedish Ultimate Frisbee player.

(Photo: Mau Mau suspects are rounded up by police outside the camp in Manyani, Kenya, 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Authenticated News)


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Italian history

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