In History

Richard Burton, born 100 years ago this month, was famously married - twice - to Elizabeth Taylor. In 1966, a BBC interview with them saw a furious Taylor come to her husband's aid.

Elizabeth II's sister had to choose between ending her engagement and renouncing her title in 1955. Or did she? In 1978, the BBC talked to the war hero who almost married a princess.

When the single was released in 1955, it was a big hit – but only after the original lyrics were changed. In 1972, the singer told the BBC that "there's nothing bad" about his music.

Albert Speer distanced himself from the Nazis' atrocities at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal in October 1946. In History revisits a 1970 BBC interview with Hitler's former friend.

A hotel manager's glimpse of something strange in 1933 helped to create a modern monster myth. In 1987, the BBC reported on the scientists who used sonar to hunt for Nessie.

On 2 October 1925, John Logie Baird transmitted a moving image of a human face. Forty years later, the world's first television star told the BBC about that dramatic moment.

The play was infamous for its nude scene, but other aspects were just as radical. In 1968, its director told the BBC how it had fallen foul of an outdated censorship law.

In 1955, the British Empire planted the Union flag in its last piece of territory – a bleak, uninhabited rock. A Royal Navy commander told the BBC about securing Rockall.