Drill, baby, drill!

The US space shuttle Columbia broke up on its way back to Earth on 1 February 2003. It had been in use since 1981. Iain Mackness spoke to Admiral Hal Gehman who was given the job of finding out what went wrong. The admiral’s report led to the ending of the American space shuttle programme in 2011.A Made in Manchester production for BBC World Service first broadcast in 2019.(Photo: Space shuttle Columbia. Credit: Getty Images)

1 Feb 20238min

30 years ago this month, Czechoslovakia split into the separate states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was a rare instance of a state separating without a single life being lost. Thanks to this it became known as the ‘Velvet Divorce’. Rather than putting it to a vote, the country and its assets were divided behind closed doors by the Czech and Slovak leaders, Václav Klaus and Vladimír Mečiar, who became the Prime Ministers of their newly independent states. Ben Henderson speaks to both of them about their memories from the time.(Photo: Václav Klaus and Vladimír Mečiar negotiate the split. Credit: Zehl Igor/ČTK)

31 Jan 20239min

Mordechai Chertoff was the foreign editor on the Palestine Post (precursor to the Jerusalem Post) when it was bombed on 1 February 1948. He tells Lucy Williamson how, despite the attack, the newspaper still came out the next morning. This programme was first broadcast in 2010. (Photo: Palestine Post bombing. Credit: Getty Images)

30 Jan 20238min

Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg from Germany spent more than a decade developing MP3 technology, which was developed to convert audio into digital form.He had been working on it since 1982.It compressed music into a file size that made it easier to transmit, leading to the first MP3 players and fast music sharing.Laura Jones has been speaking to Professor Brandenburg.(Photo: Karlheinz Brandenburg wearing headphones, with his team. Credit: Fraunhofer IIC)

27 Jan 202310min

Using archive recordings, Alex Last tells the story of Britain's most famous hangman. During the 1940s and 1950s, Albert Pierrepoint was responsible for the execution of some of Britain's most notorious murderers and was sent to Germany to hang more than 200 Nazi war criminals after World War Two. He said he was always determined to treat prisoners with dignity and respect whatever their crime. This programme was first broadcast in 2015.(Photo: Albert Pierrepoint. Credit: Getty Images)

26 Jan 20238min

In 2010, a plane carrying the Polish president, Lech Kaczyński, crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing everyone on board. It was one of the most tragic moments in modern Polish history. The country’s minister of foreign affairs, Radoslaw Sikorski was one of the first people to hear about it. He’s been sharing his memories of the disaster with Matt Pintus.(Photo: Smolensk air crash wreckage. Credit: Getty Images)

25 Jan 20239min

Yoshikuni Noguchi spent time as a guard in one of the prisons in Japan that would carry out the death penalty, and witnessed the hanging of a condemned prisoner in 1971, before going on to become a lawyer. He describes in detail what he saw. Yoshikuni began speaking out to cast light on the reality of what death row inmates go through, as Japan continues to resist the calls to ban the practice, which is no longer in use in most countries. He tells his story to Dan Hardoon. A Whistledown production for BBC World Service. (Photo: Yoshikunu Noguchi. Credit: Alamy)

24 Jan 20238min

Frontman of punk-rock band The Undertones, Paul McLoone, recalls the “weird, slightly funny, slightly sad, slightly surreal” time he was the voice of IRA commander-turned-politician, Martin McGuinness.It was during the so called ‘broadcasting ban’ in the UK which came into force in 1988. It saw organisations believed to support terrorism forbidden from directly broadcasting on radio or television.Paul tells Alys Harte how the legislation led to extra work for him. (Photo: Paul McLoone during a performance. Credit: Getty Images)

23 Jan 20239min