Witness History
2,017 episodes - English - Latest episode: 27 days ago - ★★★★★ - 853 ratingsHistory as told by the people who were there.
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Episodes
Anthrax Leak in the Soviet Union
March 29, 2017 07:58 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBIn 1979, an outbreak of anthrax poisoning caused dozens of deaths in the Soviet Union. Geneticist and molecular biologist Professor Matthew Meselson and his team accessed the area years later to determine what had happened. He told Rachael Gillman about his experience. Photo: Anthrax Vial Credit: Getty Images
The Flavr Savr Tomato - The World's First Genetically Engineered Food
March 28, 2017 08:00 - 9 minutes - 4.13 MBIn 1994, biotech company Calgene brought the world's first genetically modified food to supermarket shelves. The Flavr Savr tomato kept fresh for 30 days and could be shipped long distances without going off. Yet the world was wary of this new food, and it took 10 years and $100m of investment to get it to market. In 2017, Calgene's then-CEO Roger Salquist told Claire Bowes about his mission to revolutionise the world's food. (Photo: Roger Salquist with a crop of Flavr Savrs. Credit: Ric...
The Murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero
March 27, 2017 07:58 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBOn March 24 1980, as El Salvador edged towards civil war, a right-wing death squad shot dead the head of the Roman Catholic church. Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed by a single bullet as he said mass at the altar in San Salvador. Mike Lanchin hears from local journalist, Milagro Granados, who was there at the moment of the assassination. (Photo: A man cleans a mural of former Archbishop Romero in Panchimalco, El Salvador. Credit: Marvin RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images)
The Death of King Faisal
March 24, 2017 09:39 - 9 minutes - 4.12 MBOn March 25th 1975, the King of Saudi Arabia was assassinated, shot at point-blank range by one of his nephews. King Faisal's oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani was standing beside the king when the shots were fired. His daughter, the academic and author Dr Mai Yamani, talks to Louise Hidalgo about the impact of his death on her father and on Saudi Arabia. Picture: King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, 1967 (Credit: Pierre Manevy/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Ayn Rand
March 23, 2017 12:25 - 9 minutes - 4.17 MBIn 1957, the Russian-born American philosopher, Ayn Rand, published Atlas Shrugged, one of the most politically influential American novels of the 20th Century. The best-seller imagines a dystopia in which all wealth-creators go on strike causing the global economy to collapse. Atlas Shrugged made Ayn Rand a hero for free-market economists and political libertarians. Simon Watts talks to Leonard Peikoff, one of Ayn Rand's earliest followers. (Photo: Ayn Rand in New York in 1962. Credit: AP)
Mass Deportations From Soviet Estonia
March 22, 2017 09:00 - 8 minutes - 4.11 MBIn 1949, Soviet authorities deported tens of thousands of Estonians to Siberia. They included rich peasants and "nationalists" and their families, as well as other social groups who were viewed as a threat to communist rule. Rita Metsis was one of the child deportees. She shares her story with Dina Newman. Photo: Rita (r) and her twin sister Tiia (l) with their parents in 1940. Courtesy of the family.
Submarine Warfare in WW1
March 21, 2017 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.22 MBDuring World War One, submarines began to be used widely for the first time. German submarines called U-boats tried to cut off Britain’s sea routes to starve it into submission. Alex Last presents archive recordings of the German and British submariners who risked their lives fighting in the new undersea weapon 100 years ago. Photo: Two German submarines, the U35 and U42, surface off the Mediterranean coast. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)
An Assassination in Colombia
March 20, 2017 08:58 - 9 minutes - 4.33 MBIn March 1990 the left-wing politician and presidential candidate, Bernardo Jaramillo, was shot dead at Bogota's international airport. He was leader of the Patriotic Union, a party formed by members of the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian communist party. Jaramillo was among several thousand of its members killed by right-wing paramilitaries with close links to the country's drug cartels. Mike Lanchin has been speaking to the murdered politician's widow, Mariela Barragán, who was with him...
Kolkata Sex Workers.
March 17, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.16 MBIn March 2001 thousands of sex workers gathered in the Indian city of Kolkata for a festival organised to improve their rights and counter the stigma they faced. Sex worker groups across the world now celebrate this day in March as an annual event. Farhana Haider has been speaking to a former prostitute, Bharati Dey, who took part in the gathering. Photo: Sex workers from around the world relax during the Sex Workers' Freedom Festival in Kolkata 2012. Credit: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Im...
The Germans Occupy Prague
March 16, 2017 09:06 - 9 minutes - 4.17 MBOn March 15th 1939, the German army occupied Czechoslovakia. Witness hears the story of one young boy who watched the German troops march into Prague and who later escaped on the Kindertransport. These were trains that brought thousands of mostly Jewish children out of Austria, Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, without their parents, to safety in Britain. That young boy went on to become a British MP and today sits in Britain's House of Lords; Alf Dubs tells Louise Hidalgo his story. Pict...
The Russian Empire in Colour
March 15, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.41 MBA hundred years ago, photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii travelled around the Russian Empire taking the first colour photographs of a world that was about to be swept away by the Bolshevik Revolution. Using a unique method of colour photography, which he had developed, he managed to capture images previously never seen. Dina Newman speaks to Michel Soussaline, Prokudin-Gorskii's grandson. Photo: Peasant Girls, 1909. Credit: Library of Congress; Famille Procoudine-Gorsky.
The First Russian Revolution of 1917
March 14, 2017 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.33 MBIn March 1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicated ending centuries of autocratic royal rule in Russia. The revolution started with demonstrations in the capital Petrograd (St. Petersburg) against the First World War and shortages of food. Troops joined the protestors in the streets, A Provisional Government was set up to replace Tsarist rule but it had to share power with a new Council of Workers and Soldiers Deputies, called the Petrograd Soviet. Hear eyewitness accounts of the revolution from the B...
The Aids Patient Zero Myth
March 13, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.35 MBIn the early days of Aids, a misunderstanding made one man the face of the epidemic. French-Canadian air steward Gaetan Dugas developed the symptoms of HIV/Aids in the early 1980s, but a misreading of scientific data led to him being identified as "Patient Zero", giving the mistaken impression he was responsible for the spread of the disease. Lucy Burns speaks to researcher William Darrow, who worked on the epidemic, and to Gaetan Dugas' friend Rand Gaynor. Photo: Gaetan Dugas. Credit: Ran...
The Hanafi Hostage Siege in Washington DC
March 10, 2017 12:35 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn March 1977 a group of American Muslims took over a hundred people hostage in Washington. The siege ended after ambassadors from three Islamic countries helped with the negotiations. Simon Watts has been speaking to Paul Green, one of the hostages who was held for almost 40 hours. PHOTO: Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, the leader of the hostage-takers, arriving for a court hearing in Washington with his wives (AP)
Georgia O'Keeffe
March 09, 2017 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.14 MBGeorgia O'Keeffe was one of the world's most influential female artists - in 2014, her painting "Jimson Weed" sold for the highest price ever paid for a work by a woman. Famous for her vivid oil paintings of flowers, landscapes and animal skulls, she lived and worked in the wild dry canyons and deserts of New Mexico in the southern United States. Lucy Burns speaks to her former assistant Agapita Judy Lopez. PICTURE: Journalists view 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No.1' by Georgia O'Keeffe at Ta...
Mexico Slashes Car Use
March 08, 2017 08:58 - 9 minutes - 4.15 MBIn the 1970s and 80s a deadly cocktail of toxic factory fumes and car pollution turned Mexico City into the world’s most polluted city. In response, the authorities came up with an ambitious solution: curb the use of each of the city’s two million cars for one day a week, the first time any country had tried such a bold plan. Ramon Ojeda Mestre is an environmentalist who was behind the initiative, introduced in November 1989. He tells Mike Lanchin about overcoming fierce opposition to the ...
Kuwaiti Women Secure the Vote
March 07, 2017 08:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBOn 7 March 2005 a group of women held an unprecedented rally outside the Kuwaiti parliament. They were trying to force the all-male body to change the electoral law. Two months later they succeeded. Zeinab Dabaa has been hearing from Rola Dashti, one of the organisers of the protest, who later became one of the first women to be elected to her country's legislature. (Photo: Kuwaiti candidates for the 2006 parliamentary election, Aisha al-Rashid (R) and Rola Dashti (C), the first ever women ...
WW1: The Two Women of Pervyse
March 06, 2017 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.32 MBDuring World War One, two British nurses set up a first aid station just a few hundred metres behind the trenches of the Western Front. Mairi Chisholm and Elsie Knocker became known as “the Madonnas of Pervyse”. Mairi Chisholm spoke to the BBC in 1977. (Photo: Mairi Chisholm (left) and Elsie Knocker. courtesy of Dr Diane Atkinson, author of Elsie and Mairi Go To War)
The Decapitation of the Little Mermaid
March 03, 2017 10:49 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn 1998 someone cut the head off the most famous statue in Denmark. Inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, it's a bronze figure of a girl sitting on a rock in Copenhagen harbour. After a police search to find the head, it was Peter Jensen's job to reattach it to the mermaid's body. Photo: The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen harbour. Credit: Reuters/Bob Strong.
Eleanor Roosevelt
March 03, 2017 10:27 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBOn March 4th 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt became America's First Lady, a role she transformed during the 12 years that her husband Franklin D Roosevelt was president. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to her granddaughter and namesake, Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves, who with her young brother lived for a while with her grandparents in the White House. Photograph: Eleanor Roosevelt at a United Nations conference in New York in 1946. She was appointed as a representative to the UN following her husban...
The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks
March 02, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.17 MBIn 1951 cells taken from an African American woman suffering from cancer were found to be unique because they carried on reproducing endlessly in the laboratory. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951. Cultures from her cells have since been used to provide medical breakthroughs but as Farhana Haider reports, Henrietta Lacks was never asked if her cells could be used in medical research. (Photo: Henrietta Lacks. Copyright: Lacks Family)
Mother Teresa - The Nun Who Became A Saint
March 01, 2017 00:10 - 9 minutes - 4.33 MBIn March 1997 Mother Teresa retired from her charity work in India just 6 months before she died. She had devoted her life to working in Kolkata's poorest slums and in 2016, Pope Francis declared her "Saint Teresa of Calcutta". Mari Marcel Thekaekara lived around the corner from Mother Teresa's orphanage and volunteered there as a child, she told Rebecca Kesby about that experience, her own faith, and how she felt conflicted about Mother Teresa’s methods. (PHOTO: AP Mother Teresa holds a ...
Obesity
February 28, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.25 MBIn 1997 obesity was first recognised as a global problem when the World Health Organisation first agreed to discuss the issue. Researchers had discovered startling information about an increase in the number of overweight people in the developing world. The consultation was led by a group calling itself the International Obesity Task Force which was led by Professor Philip James. He's been telling Claire Bowes how he had to persuade the WHO that areas of the world struggling with malnutritio...
The Origin of Nollywood
February 27, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.24 MBThe story of the 1992 film which launched Nigeria's hugely successful movie industry known as Nollywood. The film was called "Living in Bondage". We speak to one of the stars of the film, Kanayo O. Kanayo. Photo: Kanayo O. Kanayo (Kanayo)
Bulgarian Nurses on Trial in Libya
February 23, 2017 09:00 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBValya Chervenyashka was tortured in a Libyan jail and accused of infecting hundreds of children with HIV in hospital. She spent eight years in prison and was sentenced to death three times. She tells her story to Dina Newman. Photo: Nurses Valya Chervenyashka (front) and Snezhana Dimitrova on trial at the High Court in Tripoli, August 2006. Credit: AFP/Getty Images.
The German American Bund
February 22, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.17 MBIn the 1930s, a group of German-American Nazi sympathisers known as the German American Bund held rallies and summer camps across the US. In Feburary 1939, they held a meeting for 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York. Lucy Burns speaks to Skip Eernisse, who remembers the Bund summer camp Camp Hindenburg in his home town of Grafton, Wisconsin. We also hear from Arnie Bernstein, author of Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German American Bund. (Photo: Ger...
The Lost Manuscript of Huckleberry Finn
February 21, 2017 08:58 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn February 1990 half of the original manuscript of one of America's best loved books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, was found in an attic in Hollywood. The handwritten document had laid undiscovered for a century. Rachael Gillman has been speaking to Pam Lindholm, whose sister made the discovery.
The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic
February 18, 2017 10:15 - 9 minutes - 4.31 MBIn February 2002 the former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, went on trial for war crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The man once known as the 'butcher of the Balkans' would die in prison before the trial had concluded. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to two lawyers, Zdenko Tomanovic and Steven Kay QC, who worked on his defence. Photo: Slobodan Milosevic in the courtroom at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands, Fe...
The Silver Ring Thing
February 17, 2017 09:00 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBIn 1995, a Christian campaign started in America to encourage teenagers to promise not to have sex before marriage. It was known as the Silver Ring Thing - and it soon caught on across the country. Lucy Burns has been speaking to its founder, Denny Pattyn. (Photo: A member of the Silver Ring Thing arrives at Holy Trinity Church in Claygate, England, 2004. Credit: Ian Waldie/Getty Images)
Uganda's war on homosexuality
February 16, 2017 00:10 - 9 minutes - 4.39 MBIn 2006, a Ugandan newspaper began printing the names of professionals believed to be gay. It foreshadowed a range of strict laws prohibiting homosexuality, and a sharp increase in violent homophobic attacks on LGBT people. One prominent Ugandan doctor tells Rebecca Kesby how he battled homophobia at home before finding love with a Zimbabwean man and living happily in South Africa. (Photo: Ugandan men hold a rainbow flag reading "Join hands to end LGBTI (Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Intersex - ca...
Italy votes for divorce
February 15, 2017 10:36 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn May 1974, Italians defied the Catholic Church and overwhelmingly backed divorce in a referendum. The vote is now seen as a watershed in modern Italian history. Alice Gioia talks to two women involved in the campaign. PHOTO: A rally in support of divorce in Italy (Getty Images)
The Birth of Speed Dating
February 14, 2017 11:31 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn 1998, Rabbi Yaacov Deyo and his students came up with a new way for single people to meet each other - they called it "speed dating". It started as a programme for Jewish singles in Los Angeles, but soon spread all over the world. (Photo: Men and women take part in an evening of silent speed dating in a bar in east London on 23rd September 2015. Credit: Jack Taylor/AFP/Getty Images)
The Conman Who Married His Victims
February 13, 2017 08:50 - 8 minutes - 4.04 MBWhen Giovanni Vigliotto went on trial for fraud and bigamy in the USA, he claimed he'd married more than a hundred women. Dave Stoller was the Arizona prosecutor who brought him to trial. He's been telling Ashley Byrne the story of the man who would first charm women, then marry them, then cheat them out of their savings and possessions. Photo: a man wearing two wedding rings. Credit: Alamy.
Sanctuary Cities in the USA
February 10, 2017 09:00 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBMayors across America have vowed to resist efforts by President Trump to crack down on so-called Sanctuary Cities, which offer refuge to illegal immigrants. Simon Watts looks at the history of one of the most prominent Sanctuary Cities - San Francisco. (Photo: Supporters of Sanctuary Cities demonstrating in San Francisco, January 2017. Credit: AP)
The True Story of Whisky Galore
February 09, 2017 08:58 - 8 minutes - 4.09 MBIn February 1941, a ship carrying nearly 30,000 cases of whisky was wrecked off the Scottish island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides. The islanders began to salvage the bottles from the wreck. Lucy Burns presents material from the BBC archives about the incident that later became the inspiration for the film Whisky Galore. (Photo: An assortment of bottled whisky is displayed at Glenkinchie distillery, 2008, in Edinburgh, Scotland)
Kenya's Hit Record: Jambo Bwana
February 08, 2017 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.28 MBThe story of a 1980s Kenyan pop song which became an unlikely global hit. The song, Jambo Bwana was recorded by the veteran Kenyan band, Them Mushrooms, and first proved to be a huge hit amongst tourists on the Kenyan coast. We hear from members of Them Mushrooms, Teddy Kalanda Harrison, and his brother Billy Sarro Harrison, who recorded the song in February 1980 Photo: Teddy Kalanda Harrison and the Kenyan band Them Mushrooms presented with their platinum record for Jambo Bwana (Teddy Kalan...
The Killer Whale that Killed
February 07, 2017 00:10 - 9 minutes - 4.2 MBOn February the 20th 1991, the captive bull orca, Tilikum, drowned his trainer, Keltie Byrne at Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia, Canada. It was the first recorded killing of a human by an orca whale. 19 years later - almost to the day - Tilikum killed another trainer, Dawn Brancheau. Rebecca Kesby has been speaking to Corinne Cowell, an eye witness to the first killing, and biologist Eric Walters, the whale trainer who warned the authorities 2 years before that keeping orcas in ...
Rosalind Franklin DNA Pioneer
February 06, 2017 09:00 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBIn 1951 the young British scientist began one of the key scientific investigations of the century. Rosalind Franklin produced an x-ray photograph that helped show the structure of DNA, the molecule that holds the genetic code that underpins all life. The discovery was integral to the transformation of modern medicine and has been described as one of the greatest scientific achievements ever. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Rosalind Franklin's younger sister Jenifer Glynn. Photo: Dr Ro...
1995 Peru-Ecuador Border War
February 03, 2017 08:58 - 9 minutes - 4.52 MBIn early 1995 Peru and Ecuador went to war over a strip of land that both claimed to be theirs. The "Cenepa War" was the last time that two armies from Latin America fought each other. As many as 500 people were thought to have died in the brief conflict. Mike Lanchin has been hearing from (retired) Lt. Col. Juan Alberto Pinto Rosas, who led his troops in the cross-border fighting. Photo: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori poses with soldiers in the Cenepa River at the border with Ecuador....
The End of Apartheid
February 02, 2017 10:25 - 9 minutes - 4.26 MBOn February 2nd 1990, the South African president FW de Klerk surprised the world by announcing in parliament that he was dismantling apartheid - the system of institutionalised racial segregation which had denied black South Africans their basic rights for forty years, including the right to vote. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to Adriaan Vlok, FW de Klerk's law and order minister, about that day and about coming to terms with the crimes committed in apartheid's name. Picture: Anti-aparth...
Battle of Mogadishu: Black Hawk Down
February 01, 2017 08:50 - 9 minutes - 4.16 MBIn 1993, the United States launched a disastrous raid against the forces of the Somali warlord General Mohamed Farah Aideed. During the operation, two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down, 18 American troops were killed, dozens more were injured. Somali casualties were estimated to be in the hundreds. The disaster would have a major impact on US foreign policy in Africa and was made famous by the film Black Hawk Down. We hear a Somali account of the operation, and from one of th...
Crossing Antarctica Alone
January 31, 2017 13:18 - 9 minutes - 4.13 MBIn January 1997 Norwegian polar explorer Borge Ousland became the first person to cross Antarctica alone. It took him more than two months to ski across the frozen territory. He spoke to Louise Hidalgo about the highs and lows of his dramatic journey. (Photo Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Sexual Harassment in India
January 30, 2017 09:00 - 9 minutes - 4.2 MBIn 1988 a woman in India accused the Director General of Police in Punjab, KPS Gill, of sexual harassment. It was the first case of its kind to reach court and the country was forced to confront the taboo. Claire Bowes has been speaking to Rupan Deol Bajaj about the incident she couldn't ignore and why she spent 17 years of her life trying to convict KPS Gill. Photo: Rupan Deol Bajaj (courtesy of Rupan Deol Bajaj)
Desert Island Discs at 75
January 27, 2017 09:00 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBIn January 1942, the BBC broadcast the first edition of its longest-running radio programme: Desert Island Discs. The idea was simple: persuade a well-known person to imagine they were marooned on a desert island and ask them which eight records they would like to take with them. Simon Watts introduces highlights from over 3,000 interviews with film stars, musicians and public figures. PHOTO: Long-time Desert Island Discs presenter Roy Plomley (BBC)
The 'Aboriginal Tent Embassy'
January 26, 2017 08:50 - 8 minutes - 4.07 MBOn 26 January 1972 four Aboriginal men began a protest for land rights in Canberra, Australia. First they erected a beach umbrella on the grass outside Parliament House and labelled it an 'embassy'. Soon they were joined by other activists with tents. Ashley Byrne has spoken to Gary Foley, an aboriginal activist who took part in the demonstration which lasted until July 1972 when it was broken up by police. (Photo: Aboriginal demonstrators with flags outside Old Parliament House on Australi...
Roald Dahl's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
January 25, 2017 11:55 - 9 minutes - 4.13 MBOne of the best-loved children's stories of all time, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, was first published in January 1964. Roald Dahl's nephew Nicholas Logsdail was one of the few people to read the first draft. He tells Witness what he thought of it and talks about the adventures he and his uncle had together when he was a small boy. Extracts from audio book ©2014 Roald Dahl & Penguin Books Ltd. (Photo: Roald Dahl, 1971. Credit: Ronald Dumont/Daily Express/Getty Images)
The Atocha Lawyers Massacre in Spain
January 24, 2017 09:57 - 8 minutes - 4.08 MBIn January 1977, fascist gunmen killed five people at a left-wing law firm in Atocha Street, Madrid. The murder was a turning-point in Spain's transition to democracy. Simon Watts talks to Alejandro Ruiz-Huerta Carbonell, the last survivor of the killings. (Photo: A monument to the Atocha Street Lawyers in Madrid. Credit: Getty Images)
Microwave Ovens
January 23, 2017 09:00 - 8 minutes - 4.01 MBDomestic microwave ovens first became widely available in 1967 in the United States. Until then they had mainly been used in restaurants or vending machines. Dr John Osepchuk, an engineer and expert in microwave technology spoke to Cagil Kasapoglu about the innovation. Photo: A Londoner demonstrates how to use a new vending machine with frozen meals and a microwave oven for heating. Credit: Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images
Dungeons and Dragons
January 20, 2017 08:58 - 8 minutes - 4.1 MBIn January 1974 the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons was launched from a Wisconsin basement. Within years it was being played by millions around the world. Witness speaks to Michael Mornard, one of the first people to play the game. Photo by Paul Brown/REX/Shutterstock (193168d) Teenagers playing Dungeons and Dragons FIRE, 1991
Roots - The TV Series
January 19, 2017 08:50 - 8 minutes - 4.06 MBThe epic mini-series about slavery in the USA hit TV screens in January 1977. Based on a novel by Alex Haley it imagined the lives of his ancestors who had been brought to the US from Africa on slave ships. It revolutionised perceptions about African-Americans and their history. Ashley Byrne has spoken to Leslie Uggams who played the character Kizzy in the series. (Photo: Actors LeVar Burton, Todd Bridges and Robert Reed in Roots. Credit: Alamy)