Lara Marlowe met Bashar al-Assad twice during his early years as president of Syria. The writer and journalist also interviewed the dictator's father, Hafez, who seized power in the 1970s and groomed Bashar to assume the presidency before his death in 2000. The regime collapsed on the 7th of December after 13 years of civil war, which claimed the lives of at last 560,000 Syrians and made refugees of six million more. Marlowe recounts her interactions with the totalitarian rulers, profiles the dynasty which includes Bashar's British-born wife, Asma, and explains why the their tyrannical regime crumbled so quickly and breathtakingly at the weekend.

Prresented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Aideen Finnegan.

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