Global News Podcast · · Transcript & summary by WhipScribe
In half an hour it ties a wave of youth protest across Europe to Britain's slavery-apology debate, two disease outbreaks in Bangladesh and Wikipedia's view of AI.
Tap a chapter to open that moment in the transcript; the link to it is copied for you.
“So at this Commonwealth conference, there is no Commonwealth.” Bert Samuels · at 9:58 — open in the transcript →
“The only reason your AI is pretty good is because it's read all of Wikipedia.” Jimmy Wales · at 26:39 — open in the transcript →
The thread running through this BBC World Service bulletin is young people's frustration with the cost of living and with politics as usual. In France, a third straight weekend of demonstrations ended in tear gas, water cannon and more than 500 arrests, with a curfew in parts of Paris and a presidential election six months away. Youth-led marches also took place in Germany, where shops were looted in Frankfurt, and in Albania, where opposition to a Jared Kushner-linked luxury resort grew into demands that the whole political class step aside.
A second strand concerns the legacy of empire and war. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Britain is open to a formal apology for its part in the transatlantic slave trade, while ruling out financial reparations, as King Charles arrived in Antigua for the Commonwealth summit. A Jamaican reparations campaigner called that inadequate, and the Nigerian novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani argued that the debate ignores both Africa's role in the trade and the many Britons descended from its victims. In Ukraine, evacuees from occupied Oleshky reached safety under a local ceasefire credited to Melania Trump.
The health and humanitarian stories are grim. Bangladesh recorded 173 dengue deaths in October while still fighting a measles outbreak that has killed more than 1,200 people, mostly young children. The UN is demanding an inquiry into the death of staff member Mohammed al-Shami in Houthi detention in Yemen. The bulletin closes on culture: Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia's 25th birthday and the threat from AI, e-bike jousting in east London, and a British Library exhibition on Agatha Christie.
BBC correspondent James Waterhouse reported that demonstrations which began as student protests over colleges have grown into a broad youth movement over inflation, flat wages and political alienation. On the third weekend, police used tear gas and water cannon against rioters throwing paving stones and petrol bombs, the Interior Ministry reported more than 500 arrests, and a curfew covered parts of Paris. Small government concessions on schools came, protesters said, too late.
According to the BBC, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to the British state formally apologising for its role in the transatlantic slave trade, going further than any predecessor, a month after officials said there would be no apology. He ruled out financial reparations and offered a structured dialogue instead, as King Charles opened the 2026 Commonwealth summit in Antigua.
The Nigerian novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, whose great-grandfather was a slave trader, told Owen Bennett-Jones that modern Britain includes Nigerians, Ghanaians and Caribbean people, so a state apology would partly be people apologising to themselves. She said the African role in supplying slaves is missing from the debate, and that reparations worth trillions would be paid by ordinary taxpayers, including African bus drivers and Caribbean teachers.
BBC correspondent Dan Johnson reported that hundreds of evacuees from Russian-occupied Oleshky reached northern Ukraine by bus and ambulance, travelling through Crimea, Russia and Belarus. A local ceasefire brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump made the evacuation possible, and President Zelensky thanked her for it. Residents described surviving without water or power by cooking plants. The truce was due to end and fighting to restart by Monday.
BBC South Asia expert Anbarasan Ethirajan said Bangladesh recorded 173 dengue deaths in October alone, driven by Aedes mosquitoes, patients arriving at hospital too late, repeat infections and a shifting monsoon. The measles outbreak, the world's worst, followed missed infant vaccinations during the country's 2024 to 2025 political turmoil and has killed more than 1,200 people, most under five. Hospitals are so full that patients lie in verandas and corridors.
Mohammed al-Shami, who worked for the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen, died while held by the Iran-backed Houthis, who had detained him arbitrarily since June 2024, according to the UN. His family says he died more than a month before relatives were told. UN rights chief Volker Türk called it a heartbreaking loss, said no explanation had been given and demanded an independent investigation.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told the BBC's Johnny Diamond that traffic has dipped mainly for quick answers people now get from search engines, while readers still come for long reads. He said AI companies depend on Wikipedia's human-written knowledge and should avoid undermining it, warning of model collapse if AI trains only on AI output.
The British Library's exhibition Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery recreates scenes from her life and books, including an archaeological dig from her years in Iraq and train carriages from Murder on the Orient Express. Exhibits include one of her notebooks listing the building blocks of a crime story and a 1930s letter she wrote to her husband after getting stuck on the Orient Express, whose passengers inspired the novel. It runs until June.
Our own transcript of the public episode, with a timestamp about every 90 seconds. Tap a timestamp or the link button on a paragraph to copy a link that opens this page there.
0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. from a dedicated advisor. That's full-service wealth management. Mix, match, and change your mind whenever you want. Because at Schwab, you can invest your way. No matter your goals or appetite for investing, Schwab has everything you need all in one place. Visit schwab.com to learn more. Premier hosts on Vrbo deliver quality vacation rental stays with fast responses and clear instructions, so you don't have to worry about surprises. I asked our host a question about the house last night, and he got back to me super quick. See, that's the premier host move right there. I wish I had a premier group chat. I asked them where we should have dinner last night,
0:55and they left me on read. I know you saw it. It says it. Classic group chat move. Don't walk into a surprise. Book a top-rated Verbo stay with a premier host. If you know, you Verbo. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of Sunday 1st November, these are our main stories. Police clash with protesters in France for the third weekend in a row after largely peaceful demonstrations about the cost of living and public services. Masked protesters throw firebombs and paving stones at police in the Albanian capital Tirana. After a deadly measles outbreak, Bangladesh faces another healthcare crisis, this time dengue fever. Also in this podcast, the UN demands an investigation into the death of one of its
1:53employees being held by the Houthis in Yemen and... Ladies and gentlemen, you're in distinguished company. Moreover, you're in dangerous company. A new exhibition in London dedicated to the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie. We start in France, where protests have turned violent for the third weekend in a row. The Interior Ministry said that more than 500 people were arrested. Police used tear gas and water cannon to try to disperse rioters who threw paving stones and petrol bombs at officers. Some demonstrators wore Halloween costumes. A curfew is in place in parts of Paris from where James Waterhouse reports. A now familiar crescendo to demonstrations the authorities were especially hoping to avoid.
2:49It ended, as ever, with a confrontation the police eventually win. They've already deployed tear gas, which burns the nostrils and stings the eyes straight away, and it's effectively forcing people back. Over fears there'd be a repeat of widespread riots, those protesting in Paris about their country's direction were forced into an area away from the centre. I think it's important to protest, argues Titoin. The state is becoming more authoritarian. Just the fact we are protesting here on the outskirts, they are keeping us away, he says. A month and a half into these rallies, the numbers of those taken to the streets might be waning, but they are still significant. And the costumes aren't the only theme. This is a
3:36political alienation felt by most of the young activists. What used to be student protests over the state of colleges has spread. Inflation is going up, salaries are not going up, the world is burning, basically. On the student point, this week the government hasn't made small concessions, millions of euros for schools, smaller classrooms, a reform of the French equivalent of the admission system. That's something. Yes, that's something, but I think it's coming too late. I mean, the people are already too mad. The problem for ministers is that this movement has snowballed. It's almost no longer about specifics, but a political overhaul. And the direction of that change, well, that is what tens of thousands of people are trying to influence.
4:24Because in six months' time, there is a presidential election, and rivals are either looking to capitalise on the crowds or the disorder. James Waterhouse. There were similar protests in other European countries on Saturday, which were led by young people. Some of them clashed with police in Germany, where shops were looted in the city of Frankfurt. But organisers of a youth movement said that more than 100,000 people took part in peaceful protests in 34 cities, calling for better education, lower living costs and no compulsory military service. The lack of opportunities for young people has also been a growing concern in Albania. And in the latest anti-government demonstrations in the capital Tirana,
5:09masked protesters threw firebombs and paving stones at police. Saturday's protest began peacefully outside the education ministry, but the situation turned violent after dozens of youths attacked security forces and set fire to rubbish bins. Police responded with water cannon. After dozens of youths attacked security forces and set fire to rubbish bins, police responded with water cannon. Journalist Alice Taylor told the BBC what prompted these protests. It was the proposal, or rather the beginning of works on a project linked to Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the south of the country, the development of a large mega luxury resort on an island and part of the coast, which people objected to but this mushroomed into a much wider movement a call for not just the resignation of
5:49the prime minister but the entire political class from the two main ruling parties sweeping changes to electoral laws to various laws regarding foreign investment protection of national areas and a transitional government followed by fresh elections in six months time. The youth have joined this in recent weeks. They want changes to the education system and they want to be heard, they want to be listened to, but they also want a political reset. They want to see themselves represented in Parliament, not the same two parties that have been there. The Prime Minister has been adamant that, you know, he wants to have dialogue with people, but he's not prepared to resign. Alice Taylor in Tirana.
6:28Emotional reunions took place on Saturday in northern Ukraine, where evacuees from the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky were greeted by friends and family. Hundreds of people arrived in buses and ambulances from Belarus, having travelled via Crimea and Russia since leaving the Ukrainian town. Ukraine's President Zelensky has thanked the US First Lady, Melania Trump, for her role in brokering the local ceasefire that allowed the evacuations. Our correspondent Dan Johnson sent this report. Those are the screams of teenage sisters Dasha and Anya, reunited with their father after three years apart. Mikhailo was stuck in Ileshki under Russian occupation and they feared they'd never see him again.
7:21Their mother Zana clasps his face, stroking his forehead again and again. Mikhailo told me the Russians are monsters and conditions got worse every day. Olga and Vyacheslav stayed together and stayed in Ileshki, surviving by cooking plants. In a word, it was horror, she says. We came back from hell, Vyacheslav adds. That's a short word, says Olya, but it contains all the horror, everything. This entire initiative has been extraordinary. A ceasefire negotiated by Melania Trump that came as a surprise but has been respected and has delivered these people finally to safety. It's given hope that maybe it can be repeated. It may even help bring wider peace. But there is also concern about the way Russia will try to claim credit for all this.
8:24Russian forces surrounded Ileshki, ruling its skies with drones and blocking its roads with mines. The terrified population went without water and power and with food running out. The man who eventually led them to safety told me he hopes to save more lives like this. It was a historical, new format. Was it difficult to go there? It was difficult, absolutely. You can imagine my own feeling, how you can trust like 100%. Can this happen again? We will see. This most unlikely truce has made a real impact, but by Monday, the fighting will restart. Despite the relief of reaching the freedom of Ukraine, they haven't escaped Russia's war. Dan Johnson in Ukraine. Andy Burnham has gone further than any previous British Prime Minister by saying he is open to cause for the state to formally
9:18apologise for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. It comes as King Charles is in Antigua on the latest leg of his Caribbean tour and to open the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. A month ago, officials were saying that there would be no apology. This latest U-turn reopens an issue that Buckingham Palace had taken a lot of care to step very carefully around. Bert Samuels is the Deputy Chair of the Jamaican National Reparations Commission. He spoke to the BBC about the upcoming summit and the King's Caribbean trip. He's walking in a crime scene. So at this Commonwealth conference, there is no Commonwealth. There is no wealth that is common amongst us. It's abject poverty. And these are issues that we want to be resolved. And a simple, we regret what happened
10:12is not sufficient. King Charles cannot walk into the Caribbean and think that he'll be greeted by young children waving flags. We have nothing to celebrate. We have a lot to mourn for what has happened to our country and our people. Bert Samuels. Ahead of the summit, Andy Burnham said he wanted to offer a structured dialogue with those affected, but ruled out considering financial reparations. Here's our political correspondent, Billy Kenber. The UK's long-standing position has been that it won't apologise or pay reparations for what the King has called the darkest days of colonial era slavery. But Andy Burnham has now opened the possibility of going further than his predecessors and offering a formal apology for
10:57Britain's historical role in slavery. The Chancellor, John Healey, told the BBC that this won't mean agreeing to demands for financial compensation. We are open to a discussion about an apology. He feels that that's the right thing, but he doesn't believe that reparations are the right approach. And considering a formal apology doesn't mean accepting that British people now should accept the financial liability for any party in things that happened hundreds of years ago in which they had no role. Britain, like some other European nations, has faced pressure to make amends for its central role in the transatlantic slave trade. The Labour MP, Belle Ribeiro-Addy, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group for African reparations,
11:37said reparatory justice wasn't just about financial reparations, but should include a broader range of measures, such as education programmes and debt relief. The fact that we talk about it in financial terms, I think, is actually just to stop the debate, because you can refuse a cheque, but you can't essentially refuse the truth, and you can't essentially refuse the idea that we have to go about fixing these things that we got wrong. My worry is the focus on financial reparations, and I think that is deeply problematic and has not quite listened to what people have said. Mr Burnham will be hoping that setting out his position on this contentious issue might ensure he's given a more welcoming reception
12:15at the Commonwealth Leaders Summit than Sir Keir Starmer received two years ago. Adobi Trisha Ngo-Bani is an award-winning Nigerian novelist and journalist based in London. She was aware from childhood that she had slave traders in her family history and she says she is not ashamed of that. She's just had an article published in The Times and spoke to Owen Bennett-Jones about this latest announcement by the British Prime Minister. I'm highlighting an aspect of the conversation that is missing. People seem to forget that Britain today is not made up entirely of the white people of 1751. Britain today includes people from those countries that were historical victims of Britain's crimes. It includes Nigerians, Ghanaians, people from the Caribbean who all carry British passports today.
13:05So Britain is apologizing. Are all these people apologizing to themselves? Whether it's African supplies of slaves or Africans who are part of Britain today and who are partakers of the good things Britain has to offer and therefore the crimes that Britain committed in the past as well. That acknowledgement is missing. The same way the acknowledgement of the African role in the slave trade is missing in the conversations. And I'm just saying, can we have a fuller conversation? Otherwise, everything else sounds disingenuous. You have this extraordinary history where you know your great grandfather was a slaver. There's a former BBC correspondent, actually, who also discovered she had slavers in her history. And she and some relatives got together and made personal reparations.
13:45Can you reflect on how that BBC correspondent reflected on this and you do? Even by the customs of my people, the Igbo people, I have no right to apologise on behalf of my family. My culture doesn't give me that right. And then in my Times article, I referred to a New Yorker article I had written in 2018, which was the first time I went public with my family's story. I described how my family had had some sort of atonement ceremony. My father felt that we had offended the God because at the time these things were happening, our culture sanctioned slavery. They were not committing any crimes. The view, all men are created equal and slavery is bad, came with Christianity. The fact that I can atone for something my great
14:25grandfather did, it's arrogant. I mean, when you say how far should you go? I mean, there are leaders in the Caribbean who are saying, you know, several billion pounds. If Britain is going to pay those trillions, this cheque will not come from beneath King Charles's mattress. African taxpayers in the UK, the bus drivers will pay, the Caribbean teachers will pay. How much can you pay to atone? So if Britain pays the trillions, do we suddenly draw a line under the composition about slavery and not refer to it again? Nobody points fingers. Nobody says anybody should be ashamed. Is that the guarantee we have when a number is put on it? Adobe, Tricia N. Gurbani, speaking to Owen Bennett-Jones. When it comes to Halloween costumes, vampires, zombies and witches are familiar sights.
15:12Medieval knights, less so. And rarer still are knights who hire electric bikes and challenge each other to a joust in a public park. Hundreds of people in East London watched two men do just that after footage of their first showdown attracted millions of views online. Ella Bicknell picks up the story. An ancient tradition with a modern twist. an estimated 5 000 people descended on london fields to watch jack carden and cameron carnegie brown duel on their electric steeds the accidental social media success of their first joust inspired the pair to stage a charity rematch both were dressed in full suits of armor helmets chain mail and capes they even decorated their bikes in heraldic colours to match their lances.
16:11Huzzah for the Knights! Cameron, a cosplayer who goes by the name Camtholomew I, won the contest. But he says that's not what matters. Hearing the crowd roar was phenomenal, honestly, so, so good, yeah. I love wearing armour, I love medieval stuff, and I was just like, yeah, let's do it, why not? And, yeah, we put it together very, very quickly and we just did it. Despite safety warnings from the e-bike operator Lime, the pair secured police approval for the gathering, but they hadn't anticipated quite so many people turning up. I cannot imagine any other event like this ever existing. I'll be honest, we didn't even know it was going on until the last minute. Bonkers, bonkers. It was about as expected from a joust and they did a great job. I think I'm very, very proud of everyone.
17:00People want imagination. It allows us to be engaged with our inner kid. Also, it's Halloween. What a better time to do it. And the event has won approval from the professionals too. Andy Dean of Britain's Royal Armouries team says cycling jousting is a legitimate sport, an ideal for anyone who can't afford a horse. Ella Bicknell. Still to come in this podcast. When the Queen died, in this case, I actually mean Dolly Parton. We got millions of people who came because they really wanted to read the whole story and history and all of that. And you're not going to get that from a quick question and answer session with an AI model. Wikipedia celebrates its 25th birthday. It looks like they're holding up ancient architecture using only their finger. Though we are not responsible for any of this,
18:05we are proud to provide comprehensive financial planning services designed to help clients achieve their goals. So, we're sorry, and you're welcome. PNC Wealth Management member Finn Recipic. Results vary by customer and are not guaranteed. Imagine buying a toy for your kid, but it doesn't come with batteries. That sucks. But honestly, it's even worse when you buy business software. You end up with fragmented, disconnected systems that cost a fortune and don't talk to each other. Odoo completely changes that. Odoo comes fully complete, with all your business apps perfectly integrated and working together seamlessly. It's everything your business needs in one place, saving you time, headaches, and serious money. Stop paying for missing pieces. Thank you. putting off. Claude is the AI for just that. It's the collaborator that understands your entire
19:06workflow and thinks with you, not for you. And Claude isn't just for quick questions. Handed a whole task, like turning a folder of scattered notes into a report, and it does the work and hands back something finished that you can open and edit. Claude can now draft a doc or deck right in front of you, and Claude Design now lives right inside Claude. Describe the website or prototype you're picturing, attach your design system, and it comes back in your own design language, ready to edit, right on the canvas. It works with your files and the tools you already use, like Gmail and Slack. And whether you're debugging code at midnight, building a financial model, or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter.
19:49For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at claude.ai slash solve. That's claude.ai slash solve. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. Claude.ai slash solve. Support comes from Wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. Fed up with losing out to hidden fees when you send money abroad with your everyday bank? Choose the smart way. Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that where's my money feeling. Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get wise. Download the Wise app today. T's and C's apply.
20:40This is the Global News Podcast. To Bangladesh, where experts are sounding alarm bells over an unusually bad outbreak of dengue fever. Recorded infections have reached the highest monthly total this year, with 173 people dying from the disease in October alone. It couldn't come at a worse time. Bangladesh is also battling the world's worst measles outbreak. Ankur Desai spoke to our South Asia expert and Barasan Etirajan. The Bangladeshi health system is struggling to cope with these two outbreaks. First, let us look at the dengue one. And what the doctors are saying that in many hospitals, people are coming in large numbers and they're not able to manage. They can't find beds. People are staying in verandas and in the side corridors because of
21:30lack of space. Now, the reason why it is spreading, first of all, people get it through Aedes mosquitoes and many people come to the hospital very late. People think they get the fever, maybe it is a normal flu-like symptom, so they can hold on for a few days instead of going to the hospital, but then it gets worse. So what the doctors are saying is that if you get fever, come as soon as possible. The second thing is repeat infections. People who get it like two years or three years ago or even six months ago, they get it again. So that makes the situation worse because they are very susceptible. If you already had a dengue, it is likely that you can get it. And that's when it becomes very deadly.
22:12That's why people are struggling. And people are also talking about, you know, this is the monsoon season. They have to remove all the puddles, water puddles where the mosquitoes breed. And they have to go for these anti-mosquito activities like you know using smoke and then various medicines where you can spray all over the place and then also the monsoon pattern has changed a bit that is also giving a reason for you know high breeding of mosquitoes. Yeah and there's also been a contribution of added measles and so in terms of the pressure on and the strains on the resources of the, tell me a bit about that. The hospital system is already facing problem with the thing and then the measles. The measles could have been avoided because it is normally
22:53transmitted through human to human when I talk and you sneeze. But what happened was in 2425, when the government was going through, Ghatri was going through a political turmoil, then they missed out on the number of people who could be vaccinated, basically babies. So the children were not vaccinated up to the numbers. And that's why you have the resurgence of measles. Now, more than 1,200 people have died, most of them children under the age of five. But now they have vaccinated 20 million children. And UNICEF and other international agencies, they are working to provide more vaccine and the government hopes that at least by the end of this year they can bring the situation under control.
23:30And Barasan Etterajan. The United Nations has condemned the death of one of its employees who was being held by the Houthis in Yemen and has demanded an independent investigation. It said Mohammed al-Shami had been arbitrarily held by the Iran-backed group since June 2024. Our global affairs reporter Mimi Swaby has more details. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said no explanation had been given for what he called a heartbreaking loss. Mr al-Shami worked for the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen. His family says he died more than a month ago, but relatives had only recently been informed. Yemen's information minister has also condemned his death, citing the mysterious circumstances surrounding it.
24:15There are currently at least 70 UN personnel being held by the Houthis. Mr Turk has expressed serious concern over their safety and well-being and called for their release. He said the detention of employees significantly undermines the organisation's ability to help Yemen's population amid a severe humanitarian and human rights crisis. Roughly 80% of Yemen's population are in need of humanitarian aid and protection. The UN has a substantial presence in the country. It's represented by 21 agencies, funds and specialised programmes. Yemen slid back into war this summer after four years of relative calm. The Iran-backed Houthis are fighting the Yemeni government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition.
24:55Mimi Sueibi. Wikipedia is celebrating 25 years since it was founded. The free online encyclopedia is written and edited by a vast army of interested volunteers. Anyone can contribute to its content, including you or me. It's been hugely successful, but is AI encroaching on Wikipedia and can it continue in its current form? Johnny Diamond asked Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales. We are seeing some decline in traffic. We think it's mainly the short answers. So people ask a quick answer from Google. And that's actually what's eating into Google's advertising revenue from what I read today. We thought that was kind of interesting. But the long read stuff, like people really still come to Wikipedia when they really want to learn about something. I mean,
25:43I give you an example. When the Queen died, in this case, I actually mean Dolly Parton, we got millions of people who came because they really wanted to read the whole story and the history and all of that. And you're not going to get that from a quick question and answer session with an AI model. Can you see a world where AI severely disrupts the model that you have at the moment. You see the undermining of all kinds of different industries through AI. Yours may well not be immune. Certainly, it's not hard to imagine that as AI improves and gets better, that it could do a better job of not hallucinating and so on and so forth. And that will be a competitor in some sense. But what's funny about us is we are a community of nerds and we
26:26write an encyclopedia as our hobby and we just enjoy doing it. And then we look around the world and we're like, oh, wow, look, people seem to like what we're doing. That's great. But that's not why we do it in the first place. And certainly we are talking to a lot of the AI companies to say like, look, the only reason your AI is pretty good is because it's read all of Wikipedia. And so you want to be really careful not to undermine us because without that human layer of judgment and taste and thoughtfulness, the AIs are just going to be forced to train on, I don't know, X, and it's going to be pretty angry and stupid if that's what it's training on. And so we really do think preserving quality
27:00human knowledge, and that includes, by the way, quality journalism, academic work, books, novels, all this kind of stuff is really, really important. And it's important as well for the AI companies. If they undermine the very thing that they're feeding on, that's going to be a big problem. Do you get the sense that the AI companies that you speak to are listening? Yeah, some more than others. But certainly, I think people are aware. I mean, there's a lot of talk in the industry about what they call model collapse, where if AI only trains on the output of AI, it can quite easily spiral into nonsense. And, you know, you really do need something somewhere, a human's pretty good, that can actually look at the facts of reality and say, no, actually,
27:40we need to ground this in some ground truth. You journalist who was there on the scene and saw the thing, a Wikipedian who read all the papers and made a judgment, that kind of thing is still very, very important. Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales talking to Johnny Diamond. Who, why, when, how, where and which? Those are the building blocks of the classic crime novel as itemised in one of Agatha Christie's notebooks. It's on show at the British Library's new exhibition about the Queen of Crime, which has just opened in London. It was a formula that undoubtedly worked. Her murder mystery books, featuring Miss Marple and the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, have sold over two billion copies. Jonathan Fenton Fisher went to the British Library to take a look at the show.
28:35Ladies and gentlemen, you're in distinguished company. Moreover, you're in dangerous company. People often ask me what made me take up writing. You see, I put it all down to the fact that I never had any education. No education and writing at a time when being a female author was as hard as ever. Yet Agatha Christie defied the odds. She went on to become the best-selling novelist of all time. This major new exhibition at the British Library looks back on an extraordinary life and legacy. It recreates scenes from her life and those books, including an archaeological dig from the time she spent in Iraq. And it's there where I meet my first victim. The murderer is with us. And every one of you is a suspect.
29:21And who are you? I'm Sophie de France. I'm curator for romance collections here at the British Library. And I was also project curator on this exhibition on Agatha Christie. Here we are in a section that we call the dig. People tend to imagine her in England writing from her cottage. But she actually spent a good part of her life in the Middle East working on these archaeological digs. So she used a good part of her life in the Middle East working on these archaeological digs. So she used that in many of her novels, for instance, Murder in Mesopotamia, where you can find an object that you can see in the exhibition, which is a wonderful dagger. She used it in her novel, and she did that a lot with the objects that surrounded her.
30:01Another of the exhibition's recreated locations, train carriages from probably Christie's most famous book, Murder on the Orient Express. We have a wonderful letter that she wrote to her husband at the beginning of the 1930s when she was travelling on her own on the Orient Express and she actually got stuck on the Orient Express. There were floodings, then turned into a snowstorm, and she started observing the people around her in the dining car. Some are conspicuous by choice. Some are insignificant by nature. Others are incognito by right. On the Orient Express. She wrote that wonderful letter to her husband, starting with the words, Oh, my darling, what a journey. And she describes the people who are actually the character
30:47that you then discover in her novel Murder on the Orient Express. So it's wonderful how she used what she observed to put it in her novels. And there is someone else at this exhibition with a rather special family connection. I am James Pritchard, Agatha Christie's great-grandson. She was self-educated. I'm not quite sure why her siblings were deemed worthy of an education, including her sister, and she taught herself everything and didn't do too badly, did it? Will you please raise your glasses? And the toast is to Mrs Agatha Christie, Commander of the Port of the British Empire. By 1962, Agatha Christie's fame was already set in stone. Her novels had sold in their millions, translated into dozens of languages.
31:32Her West End play, The Mousetrap, had been on stage at that point for ten years. Today, with over 30,000 performances, it is the world's longest-running play. That report from Jonathan Fenton Fisher and the exhibition Agatha Christie, A World of Mystery, continues at the British Library here in London until next June. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Pat Sissons and the producer was Emma Joseph. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye. or check out the all-new RAV4 and RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid. Toyota. Let's go places. Click the banner or visit toyota.com for details.