The shadow of Algiers

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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. The insect all but wiped out the French wine industry and caused huge numbers of French people to move to Algeria. From the Algerian War of Independence, he hears about the intriguing story of a knife abandoned in a house in Algiers on a night in March 1957. It was allegedly left behind by French paratroopers after the father of the household was tortured and killed. The man's son kept it hidden in the family's sideboard until, many years later, it became a vital piece of evidence in a court case. Edward talks to the 'Milk Bar Bomber', immortalised in the film The Battle of Algiers. Zorah Drif, was 20 when she walked into a cafe in the Algerian capital with a bomb in a beach bag. She planted her bomb and left. The explosion killed three people and injured dozens more. It made the National Liberation Front or FLN a model for insurgent groups throughout the world. At 87, she is still unrepentant. And he looks at the efforts being made by the French government today to right the wrongs of the past. (Photo: French and an Algerian flag. Credit: Alain Pitton/NurPhoto/Getty Images)