The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks
The story of an African American woman who played a largely unsung role in countless medical breakthroughs over more than half a century. Henrietta Lacks had cells taken from her body in 1951 when she...
17 Feb 20219min
Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part two
How one man used research by historians at University College London into Britain's forgotten slave-owners to track down the descendants of the family who'd owned his ancestors two centuries earlier. ...
16 Feb 20219min
Britain's forgotten slave owners: Part one
It wasn't until recently that researchers working in the national archive in London discovered the extent to which ordinary people in Britain had been involved in the slave trade in the 18th and early...
15 Feb 20219min
How US 'smart bombs' hit an Iraqi air raid shelter in the first Gulf War
More than 400 civilians were killed when two US precision bombs hit the Amiriya air raid shelter in western Baghdad on the morning of 13 February 1991. The Americans claimed that the building had serv...
12 Feb 20219min
A Ghanaian nurse's story
Nurses from outside the UK form a vital part of the country's National Health Service. Many come from African countries. Cecilia Anim - who left Ghana for England in 1972 - became the first black wom...
11 Feb 20218min
The paper that helped the homeless
In 1989 celebrities in New York set up the 'Street News' paper to help the homeless. People living rough sold the paper at a profit instead of begging, initially it was very successful with around 250...
10 Feb 202110min
Gay and lesbian support for the British miners' strike
In 1984 a group of lesbians and gay men organised a benefit concert to support striking coal-miners. They sent the money they raised to a mining village in Wales. The miners' strike was the biggest in...
9 Feb 20218min
Francis Bacon in the archives
Francis Bacon painted distorted and disturbing images but his works are now widely considered one of the great achievements of post-war British art. Vincent Dowd has been trawling through the BBC arch...
9 Feb 20218min
