that's all from witness history this month here at the royal academy.but for now, from me and the rest of the witness history team — goodbye. there is an area of rain at the across the british isles this afternoon, so some of us have had a bit of a soggy saturday so far. behind that, we are getting the return of some sunshine. though the sun reappears, it is turning cooler, there is a change of air mass going on. it has been thoroughly wet across much of scotland, especially at the north, but it is now moving eastwards. with the change of air mass, cooler colours coming in. temperatures are coming down so the feel of the weather is changing, even though we get to see some sunshine behind the rain, not much rate left on this system. sun elsewhere in england, wales, northern ireland, southern parts of scotland. the heavy rain and loving scotla nd scotland. the heavy rain and loving scotland beginning to ease. the sunny spells reappearing to the west and south, some showers into northern ireland, some heavy, maybe with thunder. north—east england, the midl

hello, and welcome to witness history here at the royal academy in london. i'm tanya beckett.ay we present five extraordinary moments in history as told to us by the people who were there. coming up, we meet the scientist to try to find the cure for the common cold. the diver who discovered the lost plane belonging to the author of the little prince. and the african man who ran away as a boy to live in the arctic. but first, it's a0 years since the end of the brutal regime of the khmer rogue in cambodia. around 2 million people are thought to have been killed under its extremist rule. sokphal din survived for years in what became known as the killing fields. a warning, this piece contains some distressing images. the cambodian people are the victims of a hideous experiment in communism that failed. the khmer rogue guerrillas triumphed in the spring of 1975. the man who emerged as the leader of the new cambodia was pol pot. it was a living hell. you cannot imagine. for the communist regime, time began when they took over. for them, 1975 became year zero, a time of grotesque soc

have you to the first opera given in paris at the tender age of seven and went on to create the royal academy of music in. sixteen sixty nine a fire destroyed the economy almostt centntury later. in thehe paris operara also bece the scene of an assassinination plot against napoleon the third. the ship the emperor's hot was hit by a bullet. a an answer record indicates the performance was not interrupted. not because it the other way. the show must go on already in the nineteenth century -- deserves. the incident having by y naming salted napoleon's l love of f te opera the m. for commission the building we know today. a monument showcase twenty unobstructed perspective of the oprah avenue the replaced what had been a country to maze of little streets. todaday the gun a palaces reputation is forgeged by miss s much as music. this box is reserved for return it for the oprah's famous phantom. and a dent on the grand staircase is thirteen step. also comes with a haunting stor. service and also living in i said to have been dancing on the skylight about the grand staircase and when the glass broke

hello, and welcome to witness history with me, tania beckett here at the royal academy in london.t five extraordinary moments in history as told to us by the people who were there. it is alternative to prison, the moment you mean expelled ugandans in the 1970s, and an artist couple who wrapped germany's rice target in fabric. but first, we go back to a defining moment in chinese history. in1989, defining moment in chinese history. in 1989, the chinese army opened fire on tens of thousands of stu d e nts fire on tens of thousands of students in the centre of beijing. they'd be demonstrating for weeks, demanding greater political freedom —— they had been. dan wang was one of the process leaders and here is his account of what happened. the noise of gunfire rose from all over the centre of peking. translation: someone called us from a phone box in the street near tiananmen square. he said, the gunman had opened fire on students. i have never thought anything like that would happen. i was in shock! the troops had been firing indiscriminately, but still there are thousands of people on

and then you went to the royal danish academy of arts, studied there, and moved to new york. went back to europe from america when you began to start making art seriously. was that sort of tied up with your identity — that you were a european, and you could only work properly when you got back to europe? yes, i was a young artist. i started art school when the berlin wall came down. i was so optimistic. i said, why even stay on at school? let me go to new york and get it over with. it was only when i realised, actually, this is a little harder, maybe studying art is not so bad after all. so i went back and realised i'm being honest with myself, taking this serious, slowing down a bit. and this is sort of when i actually started, as i say, to get more serious. and you're now a world—renowned artist, and particularly famous for your large—scale installations. and here at tate modern, in london, there's a retrospective of some of your major works over the last 25 years. one very striking one — the rainbow. what are you trying to tell people there? one of the very early works of