Salah Sid

In 2012, the BBC World Service moved from Bush House, its iconic home for over 70 years, to Broadcasting House. Sid said of the move, "The BBC Arabic Service will not be the same".

2005 - Holy Warriors: Richard the Lionheart & Saladin

On 22 November 1999, a few years after his interview with Sid, Hachani, the former FIS leader, was assassinated in the waiting room of a dental clinic in the Bab el Oued district of Algiers.

The conflict effectively ended with a government victory, following the 1997 surrender of the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) and the 2002 defeat of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). However, low-level fighting still continues in some areas.

The Algerian Civil War began in December 1991, when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) party gained popularity amongst the Algerian people and the National Liberation Front (FLN) party, fearing the former's victory, cancelled the elections after the first round. At this time the country's military, Algerian People’s National Army (APNA), effectively took control of the government, and president Chadli Bendjedid was forced from office.

In 1991, Sid covered the Algerian political conflict for the weekday BBC news bulletins and BBC News. Many of his broadcasts were syndicated across the United Kingdom, United States, France and Germany.

Sid produced and presented a Panorama programme, which investigated the cancellation of the first round of the 1991 legislative elections. He used a report in which he interviewed the leaders of the three main parties: Abdelhamid Mehri (FLN), Hocine Aït Ahmed (Socialist Forces Front/FFS), as well as the new leader of the FIS, Abdelkader Hachani, just moments before his arrest in 1991.

In 1979, at the age of just 29, Sid was selected as the first ever Algerian broadcaster at the BBC World Service, where he broke picket lines in creating a completely new style of radio broadcasting. He later began voice-coaching broadcasters in his new style, commenting that it made the broadcaster sound "less like a dictator and more like a democrat".

He began his career at Radio-Télévision Algérienne (RTA) as an actor and presenter in the 1970s, where he presented television and radio shows such as Good Morning (صباح الخير) and Between High Schools (بين الثانويات,).

Between 1970 and 1979, Sid went on to work as an actor and presenter at Radio-Télévision Algérienne (RTA), a radio and television centre in Algiers, where he wrote and performed in radio dramas, and presented both radio and television programmes. But he was perhaps best known as a presenter of Between High Schools, a site-specific television and radio show resembling University Challenge.

In the early stages of his career in the late 1960s, Sid trained as an actor at the Conservatoire de Musique et Déclamation (Conservatory of Music & Dramatic Arts) in Algiers, where he performed several stageplays.

Mohamed Salah Sid (Arabic: محمد الصالح الصيد ‎), (born 20 June 1950) is an Algerian-born British radio broadcaster, producer and voice-over artist who has worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom for most of his career.

Sid has been a leading personality in North Africa and the Middle East, where his voice has become a trademark to millions of Arabic-speaking listeners around the world for decades; "Huna London" (هنا لندن) are considered two of the most famous words since the establishment of the BBC Arabic Service in 1936.