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The shadow of Algiers

Stories from France’s troubled history with Algeria and why they still matter today..

It is 60 years since the Algerian War of Independence. But it still casts a shadow over the present. As France goes to the polls to elect a new president, Edward Stourton presents stories from the country's colonial past which still affect day-to-day life. He tells the surprising story of how, in the 1870s, a tiny insect called phylloxera created the climate for the Algerian War. He hears about the intriguing story of a knife abandoned in a house in Algiers on a night in March 1957. And he talks to the "Milk Bar Bomber", immortalised in the film The Battle of Algiers.

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51 minutes

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