year. gavin grey on at 1am. now on bbc news, witness. tanya beckett introduces us to five extraordinary moments in history. hallo, and welcome to witness with me, tanya beckett. iam here hallo, and welcome to witness with me, tanya beckett. i am here at the british library in london for the last time this year to bring if i wa nt last time this year to bring if i want our favourite stories from 2016. we will meet a former member of chairman mao's intimates red guards, a woman astronaut who trained with the challenger space or crude an art restorer who brought a leonardo da vinci masterpiece back to life. but first, witness has travelled to the bamyan valley in afghanistan. for over 1,000 years to huge statues of border towered over the valley at in 2001 they were destroyed by the taliban. mr hussein was one of the local people forced to lay dynamite around the statues. this year is the 50th anniversary of the start of the cultural revolution in china. at the forefront were red kites, fanatical students trying to help eliminate vestiges of capitalism. our next witness saul yeung was one of them. in 1966i was in middle school when the cultural revolution started. the biggest nation on earth, china, is in turmoil. is china's ageing leader losing control? has mao gone mad, driven by the megalomania of the teenage red guards? mao had decided to drive the young people in a vast campaign to purify the communist party. there was to be a new revolution, a cultural revolution, a revolution in people's thinking. inspired by mao, the red guards went wild in their enthusiasm to keep the revolution alive. they worshipped mao as their leader and follow his instructions without question. they consider longhair and western—style clothes i'm communist. —— un—communist. after reports of riotings, beatings up after reports of riotings, beatings up and even murder, the red guard seem up and even murder, the red guard seem to have gone too far. their leaders have told them to cool off and go and help with the harvest. saul young, talking to witness in san francisco. injanuary 1986 san francisco. injanuary1986 tragedy struck the us space agency nasa when the space shuttle challenger exploded shortly after launch. six astronauts and a school teacher were killed. barbara morgan was another teacher who trained alongside the challenger team. my husband that i, we were sitting on the sofa, watching venues and president reagan came on and made this announcement, it was quite remarkable. today i am directing nasser to begin a search and to choose as the first citizen passenger in the history of our space programme one of america's finest, a teacher. i'll always remember my husband, who was a writer, jumped up immediately and said, whya writer, jumped up immediately and said, why a teacher, why not a writer? and i laughed and said i thought a teacher would the perfect choice. christa was chosen as our teacher in space. i was very, very lucky to be chosen as her backup. christa was very much like the girl next door. she had an effervescent smile. she was very intelligent and just soaking it all in. christa spent six months with me training with the challenger crew. some of the favourite training was with the simulators, to learn what it was like to be weightless. we did not stop laughing that entire flight. launch date was january 20 eight. we had been at the kennedy space centre for a few days and the crew had been spending time in crew quarters going through all the last—minute work and preparation for the flight. and that morning it was a very, very cold morning. we of course have school children all over the country watching. there were, you know, 100 kids from christa's son's school there. and all of the families and friends. i rememberi there. and all of the families and friends. i remember i was so excited, i so wanted to be with them. i was waving and i am sure i wasjumping up and down. really cheering them on, really really happy for them and wanting to be with them. s we have main engine start, four, three, two, one and left. lift off of the 25th station at all —— space shuttle mission and we have liftoff. very soon into the launch, things didn't look right. there wasn't one contrail going up and that look very different from the launch of that christa and i had watched a few months earlier. and then at some point you realised that something has gone terribly wrong. flight controllers, you are looking very carefully at the situation. obviously a major malfunction. we all went to crew quarters where we we re all went to crew quarters where we were waiting word and helping her families. it was, you know, a really tough situation. in september, i went back to the classroom, and i taught for many, many more years. in 1998, many, many years later, nasa asked me to apply for the astronaut office, the astronaut programme. at that point i had left teaching and went and served as an astronaut for ten years. one of the wonderful legacies of the challenger is the educational programme that the families of the challenger crew members got together and created, where young people for themselves experience the joy and wonder of spaceflight and space exploration. it is called the challenger centre for space science education. that is why the challenger crew were going into space. they were going to explore and discover an experience for all of us and to keep that future wide open for all of us. former astronaut barbara morgan talking to us at her home in idaho. remember, you can watch witness every month on the bbc news channel, or you can catch up on all of our films along with more than 1000 radio programmes in our online archive. now, a story of cold war intrigue and the bbc. in 1978, a bulgarian dissident was working in london for bbc world service. on his way into the office he was stabbed with, of all things, poisoned umbrella witness has tracked down doctor bernard reilly, who tried to save georgi markov‘s life. bernard reilly, who tried to save georgi markov's life.|j bernard reilly, who tried to save georgi markov's life. i remember walking into the cubicle and georgi markov was on the trolley, setting up. he was hot, toxic, he had rapid pulse rate and his temper bridge was up. the first thing he said that, i was warned three months ago that they are out to get me. and i have been poisoned by the kgb and i am going to die and there is nothing you can do about it. georgi markov was driving to work at the bbc. he parked as usual below waterloo bridge. georgi markov came up the steps of the bridge, towards the bus stop on the road above. as he reached the bus stop, suddenly something happened to georgi markov. he suddenly felt a sharp stabbing at the back of his right thigh, and he looked around expecting the person behind him to apologise for prodding him with an umbrella. instead of which the man hailed a taxi. mr georgi markov finished his shift and it wasn't until late that night at his home in clapham that he developed a high fever. when i examined him systematically, the only thing that i could find was on the back of his thigh he had, perhaps, sort of a centimetre diameter swollen area, with then around one or two mcnamee the central puncture mark. i thought, well, at best phoned scotland yard special branch because they are the sort of people who deal with defectors. his own room at the bbc bulgarian service was used by anti—terrorist squad detectives investigating the murder. anti—terrorist squad detectives investigating the murderlj anti—terrorist squad detectives investigating the murder. i thought it can't be cyanide, that would kill you to quickly. it can't be thallium or arsenic, that is too slow. it had to bea or arsenic, that is too slow. it had to be a toxin. and if there was a toxin it might be an antidote. so i then went home, and my wife said you should read more agatha christie. and she had just read a book called the house of the lurk lurking death, rice and in the face. i don't think this was an intruder diagnosis, it was because of the book she had read at the time but the whole thing was that she was proven right, it was right in. his heart had started giving out, and ijust saw the hype machine die away, and shortly after that he died —— ricin. machine die away, and shortly after that he died -- ricin. i had to go to the postmortem. i remember the pathologist taking a segment of thigh tissue where this area was. as this was being handled, very small metallic object was dislodged. as a sort of role under the table, and they then looked at it under a microscope and realised that it was actually a very round, circular, tiny little ball about, sort of, just under two millimetres in diameter, and that it had holes in it. and obviously something could have been contained in those holes. they decided almost straightaway that this was going to be ricin. it isa that this was going to be ricin. it is a poison which is incredibly toxic. it is strange that as you encounter one patient so early on in 1's career that actually changes your entire life. all i wanted to be was a forensics pathologist. i wa nted was a forensics pathologist. i wanted to be someone who looked at dead bodies, looked at laboratory findings, and decided white people died. and this was the first patient iam died. and this was the first patient i am trying desperately to keep alive, and failing. and realising that actually i didn't want to find out why people died, i wanted to try and keep them alive. doctor bernard reilly with that extraordinary story. finally this month, caty cap witness has travelled to milan to meet the woman charged with restoring one of the world's great masterpieces, leonardo da vinci's last supper. she finished her painstaking work in 1999 after spending 20 years on the project. last supper was painted here 500 yea rs last supper was painted here 500 years ago for the refectory of santa maria. but due to his experimental fresco technique, it started to fla ke fresco technique, it started to flake away almost as soon as leonardo da vinci had finished it. now, a mouth on restoration has attempted to save one of the world's masterpieces from disappearing completely. by by stripping away centuries of botched restoration attempts, lines which were crude and inexpressive are now delicate and refined. the mural isn't by no means perfect and some critics feel too much paint has been removed. —— is by no means perfect. pinin brambilla, speaking at her studio in malang. that's all for witness for this month and this year. we will be back in 2017 with more stories from history told by the people who were there. from me and the rest of the witnessed him, good light —— milan. —— goodbye. good morning. some contrasting weather conditions to close out our final few days of 2016. take, for example, yesterday. it was cold and foggy in the south—east pretty much all day for some of us. temperatures just a couple of degrees above freezing, and not much to be seen from the london eye. by contrast, into the south—west, it was a beautiful afternoon with plenty of sunshine, as seen by this weather watcher's photo in st ives. 12 degrees the high here, and it was mild in the north and west of scotland as well. but it is going to turn increasingly wet and windy. high pressure, though, into the south just hangs on, and so fog is certainly going to be an issue. it is certainly worth bearing in mind if you are out and about on the roads early on. there could be further disruption to travel, as that fog may well be dense in places. so temperatures struggling just a couple of degrees above freezing, and it will be a pretty murky start. mild to the north—west, but that rain is on its way. but let's concentrate with the fog across east anglia, down into the south—east corner, and to the south of the m4 corridor. here, some of the fog could be dense in places. so it is going to be a cold, grey start, eventually that fog lifting to low cloud. there will be a little of your brightness, though, across much of wales and the north of england. you should get to see some sunshine, and that will stay with you for much of the day. across northern ireland, southern scotland, the winds picking up, the rain into the north—west, some of that turning quite heavy for a time, and that will gradually drift away south through the day. we should get to see a little bit of sunshine into the north of england and north wales. hopefully the fog lifts away, and it may well feel just that little bit milder. a bit more of a breeze around, at eight or nine degrees here, ten or 11 further north. now, as we go into new year's eve celebrations, unfortunately that weather front a bit of a nuisance through northern ireland and northern england, perhaps into north wales as well. so it means a wet end to the year. behind it, colder, and there will be some snow showers. so i suspect, as the clock ticks towards midnight, that weather front will be setting, really, through the north of england and into wales. to the north of it, showery, those showers turning increasingly wintry. to the south of it, it stays mild and quiet. now, eventually, as that front sinks south once again, the colder air digs in from the north. so we start of new year's day with some wet weather moving your way through the midlands, eventually pushing into the south—east corner. so a pretty miserable new year's day here. further north, it stays cold and showery. it will be a colder day on monday, but at least there will be some decent spells of sunshine, and it stays largely dry as well. donald trump has praised the russian president, vladimir putin, for his decision not to retaliate after the us expelled 35 russian diplomats. the outgoing obama administration said it was throwing out the diplomats in a row over hacking during the american election, a suggestion rejected by the kremlin. with the latest from moscow, here's steve rosenberg. near the kremlin tonight, they were putting on a seasonal show, ahead of the new year celebrations. there was song and dance,