Heroes and Heroines

Personal recollections of Gandhi, Eva Peron, Gamal Abdel Nasser, JFK and Princess Diana

• 28 mins

Circumnavigating the World in a Hot Air Balloon

Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones were the first to go round the world non-stop

• 4 mins

Steam-driven Fairground Organs

George Cushing went to the fair in 1910 and saw fairground organs for the first time

• 4 mins

Swing Dancing

Norma Miller was 12 when she was spotted dancing on the street in New York

• 4 mins

The Origins of Life on Earth

In 1952 Stanley Miller showed how life could have started on earth 3.5 billion years ago

• 4 mins

The Search for Dinosaur Fossils

Tim Leland wanted find the world's first dinosaurs - he went to Valle de la Luna

• 4 mins

One of the Best Days of My Life

Happiness and personal achievement - dancing, going to a fair and the birth of a child

• 28 mins

The Start of Modernism in Music

Igor Stravinsky's work had a revolutionary impact which marked the start of modernism

• 4 mins

Sounds of the Century

Stravinsky, The Beatles, Jazz, Maria Callas and Bob Dylan

• 28 mins

Jazz Drumming

Elvin Jones joined the Benny Goodman Orchestra in New York in 1953

• 4 mins

Singing with Callas

Giuseppe di Stefano on her fiery temperament and her ability to move audiences to tears

• 4 mins

Rail Travel by Steam Engine

"Ladies always wore hats in the dining car..." George Behrende recalls steam travel

• 4 mins

Air Stewardesses

At 77 Loretta Burke was one of the oldest working flight attendants in the world

• 4 mins

The Wright Brothers

Wilkinson Wright explains how his great-uncles built the first working aeroplane

• 4 mins

The Rock Documentary

DA Pennebaker filmed Bob Dylan on tour in Britain as the civil rights movement began

• 4 mins

The Beatles at the Cavern Club

Pat Delaney was a doorman at the Cavern club, Liverpool, UK when "four scruffs turned up"

• 4 mins

Building the Moscow Underground

As a young woman Tatyana Fyodorova volunteered to build the Moscow Metro in 1932

• 4 mins

Bangladesh's Boatmen

Abdul Khalek Bapari earns his living carrying goods and people up and down the river

• 4 mins

A Century of Art

Painters, sculptors and those who knew them discuss their work and the importance of art

• 28 mins

The Father of Conceptual Art

French artist Marcel Duchamp questioned 19th Century ideas about art and aesthetic beauty

• 4 mins

On Holiday with Picasso

Tony Penrose spent much of his childhood staying with Pablo Picasso in the South of France

• 4 mins

Painting Through the Cultural Revolution

Huang Yongyu on his responsibility to express political views through painting

• 4 mins

Life with Frida Kahlo

Guadalupe Rivera Marin on the atmosphere of the Blue House, living with artist Frida Kahlo

• 4 mins

A Sculptor of Africa

El Anatsui transforms the ancient symbols of African art and Africa's colonial heritage

• 4 mins

Becoming a Jesuit Priest

"I felt a call from God. It has given me an opportunity to serve others"

• 4 mins

Russian Soviet State Atheism

Ravil Bukharaev on his relation to Islam after growing up with Soviet state atheism

• 4 mins

Living in Colonial Mozambique

"I realised I didn't have a chance to be myself: as an African, as a Mozambican."

• 4 mins

Writing the Century

Authors and actors choose their book of the century and explain what makes it so special

• 28 mins

Working with Samuel Beckett

"I looked at his work like music and to me it was rhythm and pauses, and lack of pauses."

• 4 mins

French Novelist Marcel Proust

Edmund White talks about Marcel Proust's view of love and art

• 4 mins