The story of how the death of one man led to the birth of dictatorship in Europe. On a midsummer afternoon in 1924, an Italian Member of Parliament, Giacomo Matteotti , walked out of his house in Rome and was never seen alive again. This was the beginning of the Matteotti affair. While it lasted, the fate of Italy and indeed of all Europe hung in the balance. Mussolini, on the threshold of his career, came within a hairs-breadth of political extinction, with incalculable consequences for the future of all of us. By the time the Matteotti affair was over the balance had moved the wrong way and the shadow of dictatorship fell across Europe. The story is told by Peter Nichols , The Times Correspondent in Rome for the last 16 years, and holder of the City of Rome Prize for International Journalism for 1973. The film was shot on locations in and around Rome where the events of the story took place. Quotations spoken by Maurice Denham Sean Barrett Producer PATRICIA MEEHAN Italy - What Next? asks Analysis: Thursday at 8.45 pm. Radio 4