The e-Sportsmen, 4 and 11 June 2010. BBC Radio 4
Produced by Paul Peachey
They call themselves the e-sportsmen – the young men at the cutting edge of a vibrant, new social scene driven by the computer games industry.
Kate Russell investigates the emergence of a pursuit that began in the nation’s darkened bedrooms and is now being played out in exhibition centres attracting several thousand players for a weekend of gaming. Kate meets the man behind Dignitas – a multinational team of 88 players – who is attempting to turn young
gamers into professional players on full-time salaries and establish his organisation as Britain’s premier e-sports team
Book of the Week: Manhood For Amateurs, 19 - 23 April 2010. BBC Radio 4
Produced and Abridged by Jane Greenwood
Jason Butler Harner reads from Pulitzer prize-winning author Michael Chabon's moving, warm and witty memoir about life as a husband, father and son.
In exploring what it means to be a man today, Chabon reflects on the personal and family history that haunts him even as it's being written every day. At the centre of a large and complex family, and with four young children, Chabon evokes memories of his childhood, of his parents'
marriage and divorce and of moments of painful adolescent comedy.
The Great Writ, 29 March 2010. BBC World Service.
Produced by Matt Thompson.
Crime writer Frances Fyfield discovers how the ancient legal principle of Habeas Corpus is still one of our most fundamental rights.
The Essay: Mentors, 22 - 26 March 2010. BBC Radio 3.
Produced by Paul Quinn
A series of essays in which 5 distinguished writers reflect on their enriching, transforming, or vexing, experiences with illustrious mentors.
In the first essay the American novelist and short-story writer Rick Moody (author of novels like The Ice Storm and The Diviners) remembers the culture shock he felt when first confronted with British writer Angela Carter. Second the writer and French scholar Andy Martin remembers his years studying in Paris, desperately seeking to enlist the great philosopher Jacques Derrida as a mentor. Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochhead recalls her early mentors: in particular “the mentor`s mentor”, Philip Hobsbaum, and American novelist and critic Alexander Theroux reflects on his relationship with his mentor and Cape Cod neighbour, Edward Gorey, a highly influential but wholly idiosyncratic artist, writer and illustrator. Lastly British science fiction writer Ian Watson describes the extraordinary, hothouse experience of being “Kubricked”. Watson was selected by Stanley Kubrick to write a script for an early version of his long-cherished project A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)
Mothers And Daughters - Lost And Found, 10 March 2010. BBC Radio 4.
Produced by Elizabeth Burke and Kim Normanton.
For a special feature for Mother`s Day, we asked listeners to `Woman`s Hour` to tell us about their experiences as mothers and daughters. Hundreds of women replied.
This feature tells three exceptional stories of mothers and daughters, lost and found. All have been through years where the relationship broke down completely – divorce, alcohol, religious differences – all played their part. For years they lost each other. But then they found each other again. Now reconciled, both mother and daughter talk movingly about rediscovering their love.
The Ballets Russes in England, 25 February and 4 March 2010. BBC Radio 4.
Produced by Frances Byrnes
What did Britain do for Diaghilev? Diaghilev's company performed in London more than in all their other 140 venues, worldwide, put together - including Paris. The most exciting, consequential ballet company of the last hundred years could not have survived without England. Yet when they arrived here, ballet in Britain was toe dancing in the music hall.
When Diaghilev died in 1929, the British attitude to ballet was transformed: audiences, producers, patrons, designers, dancers, composers, writers turned reviewers, had been discovered and fundamentally moulded by the Ballets Russes. So without the Ballets Russes, British ballet would be unrecognisable.
Too White Too Be Black, 19 January 2010. BBC Radio 4.
Produced by Kim Normanton
Kim Normanton talks to 3 people who are white but black – they come from a black or asian background and live with albinism. Their unusual situation provides thoughtful insight into questions of identity.
Naseem is 30 and British Asian. She has long fair hair, white skin and pale eyes. She’s struggled to be accepted by her Asian community and eventually left home and married Richard who is white British.
Mian is 30 and was born and raised in Punjab in Pakistan. He came to Britain 3 years ago to study political research because he found it impossible to live and study in Pakistan due to intolerance and an absence of discrimination law.
Ayo is 18 and lives in London with his parents who originally come from Nigeria. He talks about the complications of having parents who are black when he has white skin.
Jane Austen’s Ipod, January 2010. BBC Radio 4.
Produced by Elizabeth Burke.
Jane Austen collected songs all her life, but many of them have only just come to light, in manuscripts inherited by one of her descendants. In this programme, jazz singer Gwyneth Herbert performs Jane Austen’s favourite songs, with new piano and clarinet accompaniment by David Owen Norris.
At Jane Austen’s house in Chawton, Hampshire, David Owen Norris, scholars and biographers discuss how they cast a new light on one of our best-loved writers.
The Sound Of Snow And Ice, 1 January 2010. BBC Radio 4.
Produced by Joe Acheson
In Sound of Snow and Ice, we are taken to the 'School for the Visually Impaired' in Finland, to discover how children there gain the confidence to live more independently by learning to explore the world through sound. Produced and presented by Joe Acheson, this is a remarkable journey away from the visual.
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