The Road to Mandalay: Burma 1984

The year 2011 has seen change in Burma.

The Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was finally freed from house arrest and hundreds of other political prisoners were released from prison.

The future may at last look brighter - but what can we learn from the country's past?

In a special programme from the archive, Owen Bennett Jones introduces a despatch filed in 1984. Veteran correspondent Bob Jobbins describes a journey through Burmese history and culture as he travels from Rangoon to Mandalay.