Yesterday's Witness (1969)

CHARLIE SMITH is certainly the oldest man ever to tell his story on BBC television; he is probably the oldest man in the Western World. If appears that he was born in Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, in 1842. Then, as a small boy, he was tricked on to a slave ship which took him to America where he started work on a Texas ranch about 120 years ago. He's still active, running a candy-store in Bartow, Florida. His memories and stories range far and wide: from the New Orleans slave market to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, from Jesse James and Billy the Kid to the launch of Apollo II. Slave ships - space ships - Charlie Smith has seen thje lot.

Jan. 26, 1974, midnight

In 1915 the German High Command hoped that their brand-new monster airships would quickly help them win the war. But those who flew the Zeppelins knew that if they hit a town, let alone a specific target, it was more by luck than judgment. Kurt Dehn , as an Oberleutnant, flew on several of the raids. It was an entirely new kind of warfare. Eye-witnesses tell the first bomb stories and pilots tell of the first war in the air.

Feb. 2, 1974, midnight

Woodgreen is a small village eight miles south of Salisbury, on the edge of the New Forest. There was a time when they used to have country dancing on the common there, when a travelling press went the rounds at cider-making time and when the young girls always went to Sunday School wearing their best frilly bonnets. Times have changed, but on the walls of the village hall time has stood still. For here, 40 years ago, two young artists, ROBERT BAKER and TED PAYNE , painted some remarkable murals of the life of Woodgreen. The two artists, and many of the villagers who appear in the murals, tell the story of how they came to be painted and what village life was like then.

Feb. 9, 1974, midnight