Martin Bell Interviewed by Mary Hockaday

Former BBC war correspondent and former MP Martin Bell reflects on more than six decades as a soldier, reporter and UNICEF ambassador in 18 war zones.

Bell looks back at efforts to keep the peace since the end of the Second World War and the birth of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the new state of Israel. He describes the failures of Bosnia, Rwanda and South Sudan, the resurgence of nationalism, and the rise of alternative facts, and says we need to learn from past mistakes before it is too late.

Bell served as an acting corporal during the Cyprus Emergency. He joined the BBC in 1962 and went on to cover many conflicts as a foreign, diplomatic and war correspondent. He was injured by shrapnel while covering the war in Bosnia. He won a seat in the House of Commons as an independent anti-sleaze candidate in 1997 when he defeated the sitting MP for Tatton Neil Hamilton. Here he talks to Mary Hockaday, former controller of BBC World Service.