Arts & Culture – Page 3 – Culture Wise Productions

The Drawings on the Wall

Archaeologist Dr George Nash of Bristol University visits five of Western Europe’s most significant prehistoric rock art sites to examine whether the modern mind can ever successfully interpret the mysterious graffiti created by our ancestors. ( 5 x 14′)

First broadcast February 2008 BBC Radio 4

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

1.The Legless Ladies of Creswell Crags Church Hole cave in Derbyshire has spectacular images of prehistoric animals. But who was carving them and why? And what is the modern equivalent?

2. Graffiti Gorge George Nash meets Dr Mila Simoes de Abreu, whose bitterly-fought campaign in the Côa Valley saved thousands of prehistoric tribal rock carvings from being lost under the waters of a proposed reservoir.

3. Irish Illusions Dr Muiris O’Sullivan of University College, Dublin inside Fourknocks Passage Grave, Eire

4. The Master of Paspardo Italian archaeologists Professor Angelo Fossati and Dr Andrea Arca explore the biggest rock art area in Europe.

5.Architecture of Death Mike Yates and rock art photographer Adam Stanford visit Barclodiady-Gawres Neolithic burial chamber in Anglesey

See the BBC website for the series.

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Broken Paradise

Acclaimed translator Lakshmi Holmström introduces some of the most powerful Tamil poetry to emerge from the 26 year long conflict in Sri Lanka in which an estimated 70,000 people were killed as the militant Tamil Tigers tried to establish a separate Tamil state in the north of the island. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast April 2013 BBC Radio 4

Poets featured include Cheran, M.A.Nuhman, Sivaramani, Shanmugam Sivalingam and Kutti Revathi.

Poem readings by Hiran Abeysekara, Vayu Naidu and Vignarajah

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

In a Time of Burning (Arc Publications 2013) is a collection of Cheran poems translated by Lakshmi Holmström

Crossing the Black Waters

From the first sailing of its ships to India in 1607, the English East India Company began a movement of people, goods and ideas that has linked the imaginations and fortunes of the people of Britain and the Indian subcontinent for 400 years. Mukti Jain Campion explores the extraordinary social legacy of the Company and of the early travellers who crossed the kala pani, into the unknown. (3 x 28′)

First broadcast January 2002 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Dr Huw Bowen, Dr Kate Teltscher, Rozina Visram, Professor Om Prakash, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Dr Laxshmi Subramanian, Dr Indira Ghose and Tapati Guha Thakurta.

Readers: Vincent Ebrahim, Christopher Holmes & Malindi O’Rorke

Producers Mukti Jain Campion & Chris Eldon Lee

A compelling listen – Paul Donovan, The Sunday Times

1: Identity How the Company changed the way Indians and Britons looked at themselves, and each other.

2: Sex The Company’s role originated many of the enduring myths about each country’s sexual behaviour.

3: Wealth How the Company changed the fortunes of millions of Indians and Britons.

Radio Choice: The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, Time Out, The Sunday Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Like Another Mahabharata: Indian Soldiers in the Great War

“This is not a war. It is the ending of the world. This is just such a war as was related in the Mahabharata about our forefathers.” – an Indian soldier’s letter from the Western Front

On Remembrance Day Mukti Jain Campion pays tribute to the contribution of over a million men from the Indian subcontinent who volunteered to fight for the British in the First World War. A fascinating insight into the soldiers’ experiences on and off the battlefields of the Western Front comes from the poetic and poignant letters they wrote home. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast November 1999 BBC Radio 4 & November 2000 BBC World Service

The message powerfully and feelingly conveyed in Mukti Jain Campion’s documentary is that First World War historians have signally failed to acknowledge the part played by those Indian volunteers who fought on Britain’s side. -Peter Davalle, The Times

Contributors include: Dr David Omissi, Professor Linda Colley, Dominic Rai, and Dominiek Dendooven

Letter readings by Vincent Ebrahim, Rez Kempton and Dev Sagoo.

Soldiers’ songs performed by Baluji Shrivastav and the Man Mela Theatre Company.

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, The Scotsman, The Observer, Evening Standard, Time Out, Radio Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Photograph: IWM photos Q53887

Dexter and Dodd

Colin Dexter, creator of the Oxford detective series “Inspector Morse” and the Liverpool comedian Ken Dodd are amongst each other’s greatest fans. But the two octogenarians had never met – and had certainly never shared a stage together. Not until the arts interviewer Fiona Lindsay brought them together for the first time… (1 x 28′)

First broadcast December 2011 BBC Radio 4

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

Radio Choice: The Radio Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Times, The Daily Mail

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Grandmothers’ Footsteps

Two travel documentaries in which Mukti Jain Campion accompanies her children back to the childhood homes of their two grandmothers – a rural village in India and a remote crofting community in the Scottish Highlands – and discovers that the two women have more in common than just grandchildren. (2 x 28′)

First broadcast November 1997 BBC Radio 4

Original Music by Nick Sargent

Producers Mukti Jain Campion & Chris Eldon Lee

Two documentaries of the kind radio does well: contrasting social histories told by people who have lived them. The moving spirit in more ways than one is the producer Mukti Jain Campion – Peter Barnard, The Times

Radio Choice: The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard, Radio Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Hobson-Jobson

Poet Daljit Nagra revels in the legendary dictionary of British India which brought hundreds of Indian words such as bungalow, shampoo and dinghy into the English language. With a new edition due to be published in 2013, Daljit looks back at its history and how it has seduced countless writers and poets since it was first published in 1886.

First broadcast July 2012 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Dr Kate Teltscher, Professor Javed Majeed, Tom Stoppard and Amitav Ghosh.

Readings by Tim Pigott-Smith and Vincent Ebrahim

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Telegraph, The Scotsman, The Daily Mail, The Times, The Independent

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Read BBC News article

Imperial Gardens

Garden historian Caroline Holmes explores how former empires transplanted their plants and garden designs to the countries they ruled. (3 x 28′)

First broadcast April 2000 BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

1: The Roman Gardens at Fishbourne Palace, England

2: The Moorish Gardens of the Alhambra, Spain

3: Nuwara Eliya, the Garden City of Sri Lanka

Sheer, unadulterated pleasure for the listener – Martin Hoyle, Financial Times

Radio Choice: The Independent, The Observer, Daily Mail, The Evening Standard, The Financial Times, Radio Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Man vs God

Storyteller Seema Anand explores Muhammad Iqbal’s epic poem Shikwa, one of the most famous and enduring works of Islamic literature. The poem is an extended and heartfelt complaint in lyrical Urdu about all the many ways in which God has let Muslims down. When it was first recited by Iqbal at a public gathering in Lahore in 1911, a fatwa was issued by Islamic scholars who were shocked by its seemingly outrageous impudence. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast March 2011 BBC Radio 4

Contributors: Professor Javed Majeed and Navid Akhtar

Readings by Sagar Arya, Saeed Jaffrey and Pervaiz Alam

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

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