Charlie Smith : aged 131

CHARLIE SMITH is certainly the oldest man ever to tell his story on BBC television; he is probably the oldest man in the Western World. If appears that he was born in Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, in 1842. Then, as a small boy, he was tricked on to a slave ship which took him to America where he started work on a Texas ranch about 120 years ago. He's still active, running a candy-store in Bartow, Florida. His memories and stories range far and wide: from the New Orleans slave market to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, from Jesse James and Billy the Kid to the launch of Apollo II. Slave ships - space ships - Charlie Smith has seen thje lot.