The History Hour - Banky's 'Dismaland' and the Paris climate agreement
Download Banky's 'Dismaland' and the Paris climate agreement
Max Pearson presents a collection of Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes.
We start with the street artist Banksy, and his 2015 dystopian 'bemusement park'.
Then, we talk to roller coaster enthusiast Megan MacCausland, from the European Coaster Club.
Plus, we go back through the BBC archives to tell the story of the coelacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for 65 million years.
Next, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up after the abolishment of apartheid in the 1990s. This programme contains contains harrowing testimony and graphic descriptions of human rights violations throughout.
Also, the six-day IRA siege on London's Balcombe Street in 1975, where a couple were taken hostage.
Finally, it's been 10 years since 193 countries and the European Union adopted the Paris climate agreement, in December 2015.
Our Sporting Witness programme this week looks at how an international skiing scene developed in the mountains of Bamiyan province, Afghanistan, in 2011.
Contributors:
Kurtis Young - steward at Dismaland. Megan MacCausland - European Coaster Club. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer - South African museum curator (from archive). Sisi Khampepe - served on the Amnesty Committee. Steven Moysey - saw the Balcombe Street siege unfold. Christiana Figueres - head of climate negotiations at 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Alishah Farhang - Afghanistan skier.
(Photo: Dismaland in Weston Super-Mare. Credit: Kristian Buus/In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images)
Published on Saturday, 13th December 2025.
Available Podcasts from The History Hour
We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the The History Hour webpage.