Show Notes
Back in the deep, dark depths of winter, we met a Scottish photographer on the top of a Glasgow multi-storey car park. "The English think I am a nationalist," he tells Misha Glenny, "but you can be British and wave the saltire, the Saint Andrew's Cross." Which suggests the word British is still alive and kicking, despite the tendency to think we are about to fragment. In this final episode, the programme travels to Scotland, Wales and Ireland to discover what binds us, and what divides us. Recording on location in a mid-Wales snowstorm and a Dublin rugby match, the presenter teases out the mystery of what Britain was historically, particularly in the days of empire. It also asks why the republic of Ireland decided to break loose. With contributions from Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert of Document Scotland, Fiona Watson, Murray Pittock, Tom Devine, Mike Parker, Fintan O'Toole, playwright Rosemary Jenkinson, and historian Patrick Geoghegan, currently on attachment to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Presenter Misha Glenny is a Sony award winning reporter and the author of McMafia. Miles Warde is series producer of the How to Invent a Country podcast which has now travelled to Germany, Spain, Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands and the USA.
More from The Invention Of...
Misha Glenny returns to the Balkans to report on the birth and death of Yugoslavia. With contributions from Lea Ypi, Radina Vucetic, Ivan Veyvoda, Tim Heneage, Jelena Dureinovic, plus former soldier turned writer Faruk Sehic in Sarajevo. Includes archive of Fitzroy Maclean and Steed Wickham, plus an interview with the scientific director of the Jewish Museum in Thessaloniki, Xenia Eleftheriou. This is series eighteen of The Invention of ... on Radio 4, following on from previous visits to Taiwan, Turkey, Brazil and beyond. The producer is Miles Warde.
Churchill may have said that the Balkans produce more history than it can consume, but in this episode Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head out to discover if it's true. This is a road trip through Bosnia, Belgrade and northern Greece. The aim? To explore the collapse of the Ottoman empire and see how it fed into the start of World War One. There's also a also pause for sausage in Serbia, while they find themselves in a massive street protest in Thessaloniki. This is history from the ground, and features contributions from Dubravka Stojanovic, Ivan Krastev, Maria Todorova, James Heneage and Hannah Lucinda Smith, author of Hinterlands. And at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle they meet Dr Konstantinos Papanikolaou and Vangelis Kansizoglou. This is series eighteen of The Invention of ... on Radio 4, following on from previous visits to Taiwan, Turkey, Brazil and beyond. Misha Glenny is the author of McMafia and The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers. The producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde
June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian on a street corner in Sarajevo fired a shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable, and what lessons can we learn from that event. Misha Glenny was a famous reporter during the wars of the 1990s, well-placed to find answers in a region he's travelled for years. Is the violence the fault of the people who live here, or are there bigger, outside forces at work? This is the latest from the team behind The Invention of ... series which has recently been to China, Russia, Turkey and Hungary. Much of it is recorded on location, and contributors include Vesna Goldsworthy, Maria Todorova and Tim Butcher, author of The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Bought the World to War. Misha Glenny is the outgoing rector of the IWM in Vienna and presenter of In Our Time. His reporting from Yugoslavia won a Sony Gold in 1993. The producer for BBC Studios is Miles Warde. This is series eighteen and other contributors include Hannah Lucinda-Smith, Ivan Krastev, James Heneage, Lea Ypi, Faruk Sehic and Dubravka Stojanovic. Locations include Sarajevo, Belgrade and Thessaloniki in northern Greece and the team occasionally pause for lunch.
It's easy to forget how entwined Hungary has been in some of the worst events of the last 100 years – losers in the first world war, the country initially sided with the Nazis in the second, tried to change its mind, was invaded by the Germans then taken over by the Soviets, then tried to kick out the Soviets … and failed. What, asks Misha Glenny, are the consequences of this history now, and how does the Hungarian government of Viktor Orban view the Russians today. Recorded on location at the scenes of some of the fiercest fighting in 1956. "The Hungarian revolution and the Prague spring 12 years later - these were events that had a huge impact on me, and I have to say gave me a romantic infection for Hungarians and their struggles which has never entirely left me." With contributions from Adam LeBor, author of The Last Days of Budapest: Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance; plus Paul Lendvai, Tibor Fischer, Simon Winder nd Victor Sebestyen formerly of the FT and writer of Budapest: Between East and West. The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde
"Brussels is abusing its power," said Victor Orban, "just as Vienna once did." The date, March 15 2025 - this year - but the reference was to March 1848 when Hungary rose up against its Austrian overlords, a great moment for many Hungarians today. Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde were in Budapest when Viktor Orban made his speech, looking for the source of that revolution, who turned out to be a poet, Sandor Petofi. So is Viktor Orban right to draw parallels between then and now, or is he using history as a political tool?