0º Longitude [audio 15min]

Explorer Benedict Allen heads to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich - 0º longitude - to try to solve the riddles of the world time-zone map. Over 100 years of international political intrigue and manoeuvring have left us with an oddly jagged vast jigsaw puzzle. In 1884 The Greenwich Meridian was agreed on as the prime meridian, centre of the world time zone map, as the globe was divided into 24 convenient, equal-size segments. Who could argue with the logic? But it wasn't long before the map began to provide the perfect stage for international political manoeuvering and global nose-thumbing as countries divvied up the globe and chose their own time zones.