Literary hoaxes and an underground cathedral

26:53Still to come, the diplomat who made an impact for newly independent India at the United Nations, and 30 years on, how Toy Story changed the history of cinema. It was the best. It was a clubhouse. You know, we were writing it as we went along. You know, there was no method for how to animate a computer. Creatively, it was awesome. Before that, we have an era-defining moment in the history of music. This was in 1967, when George Harrison travelled to India, hoping to learn how to play the sitar. His teacher was Ravi Shankar, and their collaboration ended up bringing classical Indian music to a Western audience.

27:33Surya Elango has this story. This is from the award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese's documentary, George Harrison living in the material world for the BBC in 2011.

27:50Ravi is teaching George Indian classical music.

27:57We're hearing the sound of a tabla, a pair of drums, which often accompanies the sitar to keep time and rhythm. The sitar is a long-necked instrument with six or seven main strings that have 12 or more strings running underneath them. It's the 14th of September 1966. George and his wife Patty have just landed in Bombay, now known as Mumbai. They're so famous they're in disguise as Mr and Mrs Sam Wells, hoping to pass through immigration unnoticed. The Beatles have just completed a busy North American tour and have just made the huge decision to stop playing live. After three years of Beatlemania, the Fab Four are exhausted and wanting to focus on recording studio albums.

28:50George, who was nicknamed the Quiet Beatle, seemed most tired out by it. Music is my main interest, naturally. And not just pop music, you know, all sorts of things. Because, as everybody probably knows, we're doing less touring and we're just having more time for ourselves and to carry on progressing with music, you know, writing more and just learning more about it. Archive that was used in a 2009 radio documentary, George Harrison, What Is Life? In 1965, George had tried his hand at the sitar. He wanted to learn more and after hitting it off with Ravi at a dinner party in London, Ravi invited him to learn the instrument in India.

29:32When I studied with Ravi for a little while, and in many ways I was hopeless and in other ways it was just fantastic. What you can do if it is difficult for you to touch? One, two, three, four, just... I was at a period where I knew I wasn't going to become a sitar player but I did love the instrument and the music and sincerely want to try and learn more about it. We planned that he would stay in hotel incognito but somehow it became known. A few days into his training, George was recognised. Thousands of young people crowded the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel shouting, we want George! And under Ravi's instructions, George grew a moustache and cut his hair off to remain in disguise.

30:20So we had to go to Kashmir and stay in a house book and it was wonderful really at that time. George spent six weeks learning the sitar in the tranquil and serene city of Srinagar. in Kashmir. George took what he learnt back to the Beatles and soon enough the Fab Four started to employ these techniques. He played a solo sitar track within without you in the Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album which was dubbed the official soundtrack to the Summer of Love. George was devoting himself to becoming a full-time student of Ravi's. He was hardly picking up the guitar. He was thinking about who he was in life.

31:01But Ravi was the one who was more worried for me than I was and he was the one who said to me you know trying to find my background or some roots and he was saying what about Liverpool? I said no Liverpool man you know I mean I feel more home in Benares in India than I do in Liverpool and then I thought what's my So from then I went from Los Angeles where I was with Ravi with my sitar, went to New York on my way home. That was the last time I really played sitar. I checked in the hotel in New York. Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton happened to be staying there, which is another little cosmic point.

31:41From then I thought, well, maybe I'm better off to get back into being a pop singer, guitar player, songwriter, whatever I'm supposed to be. because I'm never going to be a Siddharth player, because I've seen a thousand Siddharth players in India who's twice as better than I'll ever be, and out of them, Ravi only thought one of them was going to become a real good one. So Ravi, really, it was him who helped me to get back into being a pop singer. In November 1968, George released his first solo album, Wonderwall Music. It's one of the first times we see a world music crossover between East and West.

32:20Then the Beatles broke up and George released his 1970 album All Things Must Pass. His sitar lessons and spiritual learnings in India really came through in his lyricism and signature guitar style.

32:42George's romance with Indian music thrust Ravi into the Western spotlight. I was already playing in Royal Albert Hall, Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall, and I was very well known in the classical sense and also popular in some way. At that time, believe me, I never knew who the Beatles were. I had no idea whatsoever. But then came this sitar explosion when George Harrison became my student. My God, it was... I couldn't believe it. I became overnight like a superstar and a cult guru. He was soon playing at Woodstock Festival in the United States, and in 1967 at Monterey, on the same stage as The Who.

33:25Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Let's all pray and hope that I can give a good performance to you, and that it doesn't rain. The global popularisation of Indian classical music came at a price. Back in India, critics started to call it the Rabi Shankar Syndrome. An idea that Ravi was overshadowing other equally talented musicians. In a studio with his sitar on his lap, Ravi sits opposite the BBC's Marion Foster in 1985. He explains why he reduced the length of his performances for Western audiences. I knew that people here, they cannot take, no matter how, the longest movement perhaps in a symphony orchestra might be 25 minutes or half an hour at the most, you see.

34:13So having known that, what I did, I started performing in a shorter manner.

34:22George and Ravi remained lifelong friends. Ravi encouraged George to organise the first big charity concerts. Two concerts for Bangladesh in 1971, raising millions for the refugee crisis. I'd just like to say before we start off with the concert, If you could try and settle down and get into the indie music section on Sitar Ravishankar. And here's George singing Bangladesh. My friend came to me, sadness in his eyes, told me that he wanted help before his country died. George Harrison died of lung cancer on the 29th of November, 2001. Ravi saw him the day before. Of course, we didn't talk or anything, but we held hands and he was smiling and he looks very happy in those few minutes that we were spending together.

35:26I have always said, George to me is all combined in one, like a son, like a friend, like a brother, everything. and I loved him so much and I miss him so very much I cannot express. Surya Elango with the story of the musical partnership and deep friendship between Ravi Shankar and George Harrison. Next, we're going a bit further back in time but remaining in India. In 1946, an Indian woman made history leading her country's first delegation to the United Nations. She may have been well-connected in the ranks of those who had campaigned for independence, but it was not an easy decision for her to accept the post.

36:11Jill Kersley has the story.

36:17It opened the way to all that I was able to achieve in the international world later. And of course it made a very deep imprint on my own mind, because when you first do something in which you are successful, Of course, that stays with you long after the event has passed into history or otherwise. That's Vichalat Lakshmi Pandit speaking to BBC journalist Mark Tully in 1969. It was a turning point, a moment that reshaped her life. She was the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. But stepping onto the world stage wasn't easy. As we're about to hear, she wrestled with doubt before accepting the role at the United Nations.

37:03Her foundation was activism and it shaped the extraordinary path she would take. The Indian National Movement brought me and thousands of others out of their homes and we participated from an early age in the movement itself because Mr Gandhi came into our lives. I was only about 18 and he made a big impact. Things flowed from there. First one worked as a little congress volunteer, a very humble way, one went to prison. That was the opening of one door into public life in those days because it was like winning an award to be able to say we've been to prison, you see. And one had to hasten to explain that it was for the right reason and not the wrong one.

37:50In 1946, something happened that would bring her international recognition. The telephone rang on a very hot August morning, and one's temper is not at its best in India in the month of August. I picked it up, and here was this call from Delhi. The person speaking the other end was Sigirja Shankar Bajpayee. He was a great figure in the British days of India, an outstanding member of the civil service. He had all the best qualities of the British, all the stuffiness of the foreign office, and great scholarship. But he was an unbelievably pompous little man, but so lovable. I said, now, Sigirja, what can I do for you?

38:37Well, he says you can get onto the plane at 10 o 'clock and come to Delhi. Well, I said, it's nearly 8 now. So I tried to ask why I was being summoned to Delhi. I couldn't understand. So he said, well, the Viceroy wants to go to dinner with you tonight. You have to go to dinner with the Viceroy tonight. And you're meeting the Prime Minister at lunch and Gandhiji will see you at five o 'clock. I thought some dreadful thing had happened, something I'd said in a public speech or all sorts of things, you know. And I begged him. I said, please tell me what this is all about. You are wanted here because it has been suggested to the Viceroy that you should lead the India delegation to the United Nations because we are interested in inscribing an item on the agenda.

39:23I felt very alarmed and nervous. I said, but I can't go to the United Nations and lead a delegation. he said if you must know it was Gandhi who suggested your name to the Viceroy and the item we're going to inscribe deals with the discrimination against the people of Indian origin in the Union of South Africa. Now hurry up he said and get ready and be here by the 10 o 'clock plane. Gandhi lived in South Africa for many years working as a lawyer to support Indian workers so had suggested for her to go to the United Nations to take action against South Africa which it accused of discriminating against Indians living there.

40:02She arrived in Delhi for the meetings to find out more about her role. Still unsure, she turned her brother, the then interim prime minister. In that conversation, she made a promise she would step up and lead India's delegation to the United Nations. When I left him and went to Gandhiji in the evening, and I said to him, Bapu, I can't keep those promises I've just made to Bhai, as we used to call our brother. I said, I said yes to everything. So he said, well, there you are now, you're committed. So I said, well, you've got to get me out of it because I don't see how I can do anything. And he reminded me that for several reasons I was the right person to go because I was one of the people who had fought and worked for the freedom of India I'd risen from the rank, so to speak I had done a lot of work for the removal of untouchability and so on But Vishal Alakshmi was worried that her grasp of international law wasn't strong enough and confided in Gandhi He looked at me very quietly and very seriously and he said, if I had wanted a lawyer India is full of the most brilliant lawyers but I want someone who's going to tackle this with their heart rather than their head and with the political experience that you have and that's why I'm choosing you.

41:22I will give you only one piece of advice and that I insist on and that is that I have the highest regard for General Smuts. You must not do anything to antagonise General Smuts. You must come away with a friendship of General Smuts. That is the level on which this case has to be presented and that is why I have chosen you. General Jan Smuts was the South African Prime Minister who played a key role in founding the United Nations, despite being a supporter of racial segregation at that time. Him and Gandhi had a complex relationship during Gandhi's time in South Africa. By 1946, Gandhi believed in respectful dialogue with former opponents like Smuts.

42:06With a team of about 15 by her side, Vichita and Lakshmi set off for the United Nations Assembly in New York. We were all so very happy at being members of the first delegation of Free India because the subject was so dynamic and so controversial. It was there we had a very interesting time indeed because General Smuts himself led the defence for a while. He was about to leave because it was a foregone conclusion that the General Assembly would support the vote. So I walked up to him, he was standing in a corner, and I was very moved by the way things had gone, and almost afraid of the success of the case, you see, because it had meant, in so many ways, hurting this old gentleman.

42:56So I went up to him and I put out my hand rather hesitatingly, and he immediately put both his hands out and took my hand in his. And I said, you know, General Spatz, this case is nearly over, and I'd like to say something which Gandhiji told me. He said, I was to come back with your friendship and your blessings. I know the old man's eyes were heavy and his voice was heavy and he said, you know my child, you must let me call you my child, I'm so much older than you are. He said, you have won a victory. There's no doubt about that. But it will be a hollow victory. The very next day, Vichyala Lakshmi and the Indian delegation won the vote.

43:37Their voices had been heard and history had been made. We just went mad, the Asian element there, just went mad. People jumped up on the desks, they rushed. I was embraced and kissed and pulled around and somebody was crying, somebody was clapping, and the president was banging his gabbro to order for the next item. This was at 2am, the most spectacular thing. Talk about elation, I was a heroine for months and months. I mean, I just walked on air. I can't think of anything I could have done which would have endeared me to the people of India. It was a lovely, lovely, warm feeling. And Gandhiji was very pleased about the way we had conducted it and pleased also that General Smuts had not found anything to criticise.

44:26He was contented. Vichala Lakshmi Pandit speaking in an interview recorded in 1969. In 1953, she made history again, becoming the first woman to serve as President of the United Nations. She died in 1990. Her story was brought to us by Jill Kersley. Now, this week's sporting witness takes us to another woman who broke new ground. But this is in the world of professional football photography. Tim McCulloughan has this story. Well I was the first female photographer in England really doing football and never mind the Premier League I mean literally I would go to grounds I'd get stick from the stewards of what you're doing here I'd say well I'm a photographer and they'd look me up and down and go well right no chance That's Maggie Haroon.

45:26In the 1980s, she found that she had a passion for taking photos. It's seeing through a camera what you can see in real life. I thought it was great. I thought it was terrific. But my ambition was not to do sport photography or football photography. I don't know what I was doing, really. I just meandered along a path and I didn't know where I was going. But it was probably inevitable that Maggie was going to meander down the sporting path. She grew up in a football family. Well, she practically grew up in a football club. I was at Man United since I was six years old. So I knew all the old players.

46:16They'd get me a Coca-Cola or something after a match and I'd sit there on their knee because I was a child and they were so good to me. Her uncle Louis Edwards was the chairman of Manchester United from 1965 until 1980. He was then succeeded by her cousin Martin. Oh, and her dad Denzel Haroon was also a director at the club. So after graduating from Manchester Art College, she embarked on a career in an entirely male-dominated field. I was never, never taken seriously. if anything went wrong, according to the stewards and the police, I was always picked on because I was the weakest link. If, you know, like the Leeds fans colliding with the Man United fans at Leeds, and I was in the middle of it, and I'm thinking, oh, my God, mind my cameras, mind my cameras and everything.

47:14And it was me that got arrested because I'm the weakest link. Campbell woman. But she didn't let that stop her. This was a woman who knew football and her knowledge was her power, as she explained to a BBC television programme about photography in 1995. It's very important to know football, to be able to follow the ball. These players are moving at a hell of a speed towards us and you've got to anticipate when the player is going to come in and lunge at the ball or make a sliding tackle, which always looks fabulous in the future. Because you know the players, you know where they're going to pass it to because you can read the signs.

47:54You had to know what you were doing. You had to be what they call a proper photographer. You had to focus. You had to be quick. You had to process your own film and send it. Oh, the stuff we had to carry. I can't even begin to describe it. It was so heavy. In the 1990s, football was changing in the UK. The five-year ban on English clubs from European competitions because of hooliganism came to an end. And in 1992, the top flight in England would change forever. Football's new Premier League has finally been given the go-ahead after ten months of argument. The league, which will replace the First Division, will start this August.

48:37Maggie's cousin, Martin Edwards, was even one of the five chairmen who initiated the creation of the Premier League. and she was the competition's first female photographer, working for the Today newspaper. It was also the start of Manchester United's dominance of the English game under Sir Alex Ferguson. Maggie would often be assigned to cover the team because she had such a good relationship with the players and the staff, something which came in handy during a UEFA Cup tie in Moscow. And I've never seen rain like it. It was going sideways and it was heavy drops. if it hit you, it would knock you out.

49:17It was dreadful. Anyway, in the second half, came back in the second half, and Alex Ferguson and Brian Kidd were sitting in the dugout. And Alex said, Maggie, are you a bit wet? I was dripping, literally dripping. He said, don't worry about that. He said, come and sit between kiddo and myself. So for the second half of that European match, I was sitting between the manager and the assistant manager. Was it a better place to get photographs from than where you'd normally be or not? Not really. I'd rather be behind the goal. But my gear was soaking any minute and my cameras would stop working. We lost on penalties and the guy who missed the penalties was sobbing into his shirt and he was facing towards the dugout.

50:24Bosh, bosh, bosh. Great picture. Back page. In my bag I had my flash and my wide angle. I thought to myself, Alex will be really annoyed at this. and he looked at me and he said if you do that he said I'll never speak to you again I went right okay fair enough and it's not just football photography that Maggie's known for she's also got a certain reputation I have a lot of cats and I've got seven at the moment but at one time I had 23, I got a phone call one day from Kath, who was the receptionist at Carrington. And she said, Maggie, we've got this cat. It's been abandoned. I think it'll have a good life with you.

51:15And I said, I've got 23 cats. For God's sake, Kath, I don't need any more. And there was this Scottish voice from behind, Maggie, take the cat. And I went, OK, Alex, because I reckoned it was him. OK, Alex, I'll come round now. Maggie named the cat Carrington in honour of the Manchester United training ground where he was found. Her great relationship with players in football stretched beyond Manchester United, though. At one European game, she even told the Arsenal striker, Ian Wright, where to celebrate. I said to Ian, when you score, I will be sitting here and I want you to turn round. Yeah, to me.

52:04And he did score. And he was going the opposite way. And I thought, what? And you could see him going the other way and then stopping. and then looking round. And they're coming back. And yeah, with the arms outstretched, yeah. So much so I had to have a wide-angle lens on. Perfect picture. But it wasn't all perfect pictures. Sitting so close to the action did pose an occupational hazard for Maggie. Trabs on Spur versus Aston Villa. Well, my God, I was suddenly knocked out because of the rock-throwing supporters. Wayne Rooney, practising, knocked me out one day. Dennis Irwin, he shot at goal, but he knocked me out.

53:02And I think it was Brian Robson who turned round and said, God, if you're going to kill a photographer, Dennis, make certain it's not the chairman's cousin. But despite the knockouts and prejudice that she faced, Maggie has no regrets about her choice of career. There was nothing I could have changed. I just went along with the flow and it was lovely. Maggie Haroon is still working in football photography. She was speaking to Tim O 'Callaghan. Finally this week, a transitional moment in the history of cinema. It's 30 years since the release of Toy Story, a feature film that would become not only a box office smash, but would also revolutionise the world of animation.

53:50Ashley Byrne has spoken to the animator Doug Sweetland.

53:59It's kind of about jealousy. Woody is this boy Andy's favourite toy. As such, he's sort of the leader of the toys in Andy's bedroom until this space toy comes along and kind of replaces him. It was the 22nd of November 1995 when filmgoers were taken to infinity and beyond as Toy Story premiered in cinemas across the United States. When Woody accidentally knocks Buzz out the window, the rest of the toys in the room kind of revolt and they want to throw him out too. Set in a magical world where toys are living things who pretend to be lifeless when humans are present, Toy Story seemed to capture the imagination of generations the world over.

54:39They all spring to life as soon as Andy leaves. When he comes back, they turn back into toys in a way, in order to be played with. That's the most important thing to a toy. And as people flock to see the film, animator Doug Sweetland remembers being surprised that it wasn't just children being enchanted by the magical world he and his colleagues had created. I remember seeing it in Berkeley and seeing college kids in the theatre. Remember, that's exactly how old I was. You know, it's not a given that college kids are going to show up, But when I saw college kids filling a theatre for Toy Story, and then when they were talking about the acting, I mean, that's an animator's job.

55:14That was high praise. Doug Sweetland was just 19 and studying traditional animation techniques when he decided to pack in college and join Pixar, the fledgling production company financed by Apple founder Steve Jobs. He was immediately given the task of working on Toy Story, which for the first time in film history was completely produced using computer-generated imagery, or CGI. I won the lottery of first jobs, like, without a doubt. I was a student at CalArts. I mean, going back, there were very few programs that would teach you animation, and even fewer that would teach character animation.

55:52In the past, hand drawings, or stop-frame animation, where inanimate objects are filmed frame by frame, were used to create a moving image. But Toy Story didn't involve a single camera, and was far less labour-intensive than having to create 24 individual images per second of footage. At the time, this digital revolution in animation left everyone wondering just how they did it. Like most films, they started with storyboards. But because no one had ever seen these toys move, every shot had to be drawn in far more detail than usual. In fact, the team drew up more than 25 ,000 storyboards, filling three entire rooms.

56:31The next stage was to turn the characters in the drawings into models, 76 models, and then feed the shapes of the models into a computer. Once that was done, they had the characters ready for animation, and the animation is staggering. Doug says CGI animation, which could produce three-dimensional images, also allowed for much more detail. Little teensy eye movements that, you know, honestly, because of, like, line width in a pencil, you can't get that minutiae of detail. And suddenly now this character was expressing thought in a way that we hadn't seen. So do you remember the first scene you actually worked on?

57:09They put me on crowds, basically. You know, see if the kid can handle this room full of toys. All of the toys erupt into a panic and then they stampede over to the window. So that was my task. I had to handle a shot with a dozen or 20 or so characters. Essentially, you were experimenting, weren't you? There was no blueprints, no real rules. It was the best. It was a clubhouse. You know, we were writing it as we went along. You know, there was no method for how to animate a computer. So it was kind of like we all had our own different approaches. So creatively, it was awesome.

57:53Though the brainchild of Pixar, the film was actually released by animation giant Disney. Pixar was a relatively unknown company that had only produced short animations until that point, and Toy Story was a big theatrical release. So, the big question, would it work? I think it was a very big gamble. I think that pressure probably was felt when they're coming up with a story, and I think it just simply had to be great. At the time, audiences were not used to watching long-form animated stories other than musicals. musicals. It's hard to imagine now but I think before that movie came out you know there were serious doubts whether people would sit and watch computer animation for an hour and a half.

58:33Will families sit through this? Will an audience sit through this? Toy Story was a true departure from what Disney had become known for. The style of animation was different and it wasn't based on a classic tale in the vein of say The Jungle Book, Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast. There was a very conscious choice, I think, not to make a musical. Obviously, there were songs and, you know, Randy Newman was a big part of that movie too, but they are kind of responsible for refashioning what people think of an animated movie into being more of a buddy comedy. It had a voice that was different and new.

59:10To attract audiences, big name actors like Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were recruited to provide the voices of main characters Woody and Buzz Lightyear, while the film was partly written and also directed by Academy Award winner John Lasseter. I was on top of the world living high It was right in my pocket I would live in the light Things were just the way they should be Toy Story was an instant hit and the adventures of Woody, Buzz, Rex, Barbie, Mr Potato Head and a whole host of other characters were soon enchanting audiences all around the world. These toy heroes are taking the world's cinemas by storm.

59:52How a Hollywood hit was made without a single camera. It's looking like the hottest hit of the holiday season. In the weeks since it opened, Americans have flocked to see Toy Story. The world of cinema as we know it will change forever when Disney's new film Toy Story goes on release. With an initial budget of$30 million, Toy Story recouped$373.6 million at the box office. Not a bad return for a film Disney and Pixar had been nervous about from start to finish. The gang at Pixar, I think, proved that you could do something that previously was thought not maybe to be possible, and they ended up changing the entire industry as a result.

1:00:31You've got a friend in me. You've got a friend in me. When the road looks rough ahead in your mind. CGI is now largely cheaper and faster to make, and 3D computer animated films are released almost every week. There are critics, though, who say the images are too sterile and lack the art of traditional drawings or the authenticity and realism created with models used in old stop-frame animation. But for Doug Sweetland, who would go on to work on many more films in the Toy Story tradition, including A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, getting his lucky break with Pixar was a childhood dream come true.

1:01:15Again, as a 19-year-old, I got to go to Pixar and do shots in the film, whereas other classmates of mine that were running to Disney, they would have to start at the bottom in these teams under a character and work their way up, and maybe they could get a shot in a movie that they animated themselves in five years or so, but until then they were in-betweening or they were assisting. So it was just unprecedented. It was just the rarest of opportunities. So you basically spent a lifetime being paid to be a big kid, really, didn't you? Yeah, you know, it's so fun. So often, because, you know, at the same time, it's a job and it has all the pressures of a job.

1:01:53So many times, you know, it's almost a common refrain in any studio you're at. It's like, come on, we're making cartoons here. So, yeah, it's we're lucky for sure.

1:02:14That was the animator Doug Sweetland speaking to Ashley Byrne in 2017. It was a Made in Manchester production for the BBC World Service. And his recollections of creating the film Toy Story 30 years ago bring us to the end of this edition of the History Hour. As ever, we'll be delving behind the scenes to hear what really happened during more key events from the past next week. So until then, this is Max Pearson from all of us here. Thanks for listening. Goodbye. From the pioneers. We weren't going to ask mission. We were just going to do it. And the celebrations. You feel you win. I feel it. I was first.

1:02:50I was first. We were so proud of ourselves. And Cameron was proud of us too. I still cannot believe it. It was such an amazing feeling. It was incredible. To the humiliations. I did cry most of the half. Oh man, I'm failing. I'm failing this sport that I love. Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. It's not just about the sport. It's about all the other things that people with disabilities learn from each other. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable moments from all over the world.

1:03:30There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul. We were truly blessed to be a part of history. Sporting Witness. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

1:03:42I am Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union in 1962. And I'm Max Kennedy, the nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. We explore what was a terrifying moment in history. The story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. How close the world came to nuclear war. And what they had to do to pull it back from the brink. The bomb, Kennedy and Khrushchev. All episodes available now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

1:04:38critical analysis and some jokes that will surely embarrass our children one day. Tune in to Pod Save the World every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts, or catch it on YouTube.