Category: Arts & Culture

The Little Black Fish That Created Big Waves

 

Little Black FishNegar Esfandiary looks inside the covers of one of her favourite childhood books from Iran and discovers a powerful political allegory that has inspired countless activists and artists since it was first published in 1968. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast  August 2011     BBC Radio 4

Storyteller Richard Neville & Letter readings by Ravin Ganatra

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

A little hymn to freedom – Simon O’ Hagan, The Independent

 

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

Word for Word

 

paul_allenPaul Allen traces the history of verbatim theatre from Peter Cheeseman’s early experiments in Stoke on Trent 50 years ago when he collected the stories of local people and put them on stage to the latest production at the town’s New Vic Theatre. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast April 2012 BBC Radio 4

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

 

The Other Mobiles

 

theothermobilesContrary to all the gloomy predictions, decades on and the Mobile Disc Jockey is alive and well – and still playing Bee Gees records. Andy Turvey takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the strobe-lit world of the Mobile DJ, from spinning shellacs in the 1940s to cueing computers today. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast  November 2004 BBC Radio 4

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Move Over Wodehouse

India’s English-speaking middle class is expanding fast and expected to reach 500 million by 2025. It represents a dream market for publishers and one that is set to become the biggest in the world. So what books are Indians reading? How are the perennial classics such as Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse faring against the emerging Indian authors? And what does it take to become a bestseller in India? Mukti Jain Campion reports from the Jaipur Literature Festival and from Trivandrum in Kerala, India’s most literate state. (1 x 28′)

The programme was full of humour, interest and symbolic import – D J Taylor, The Tablet

First broadcast   May 2012 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: best-selling authors Jeffrey Archer, Chetan Bhagat, William Dalrymple, Jaishree Misra and Tarun Tejpal.

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Sunday Times

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

The secret to writing a bestseller in India

Read DJ Taylor’s Tablet Review

Reclaiming the Swastika

 

RECLAIMING THE SWASTIKA

A symbol of fascism or a universal sign for good luck?  Mukti Jain Campion uncovers the long history of the swastika and examines calls for it to be reclaimed from its Nazi links. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast October 2014 BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

 

fair, fascinating and exemplary – Paul Donovan, The Sunday Times

 

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

BBC Radio 4 Pick of the Week

You can see the swastikas discussed in the programme

Read BBC News article   How the world loved the swastika – until Hitler stole it

Hearing ear