Category: International

The War Widows of Afghanistan

 

BBC Radio 4 BBC World ServiceLisa and Jacqui live in Britain. Tajbibi and Marzia live in Afghanistan. All four women have lost their husbands in the war against the Taliban. As the deadline for NATO troop withdrawal approaches, Zarghuna Kargar hears their moving stories of love, loss and survival. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast July 2014   BBC Radio 4 & BBC World Service

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

One of the most gripping programmes I have heard in years. – Lesley Abdela

 

The interweaving of the experience of Afghan and British widows, with each commenting on the similarities and contrast in each other’s experiences, was masterful. – Peter Horrocks, Director BBC World Service

 

Radio Choice: The Daily Mail & The Sunday Telegraph

Hearing ear

 

A Celestial Star in Piccadilly

 

csAnna Chen pays tribute to her heroine, Hollywood screen idol Anna Mae Wong, star of the classic 1929 movie Piccadilly. On the occasion of the film’s 80th anniversary she celebrates its glamorous star and explores the impact Wong made during her time in Britain. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast  January 2009 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: biographer Graham Gao Hodges, composer Neil Brand, film historians Kevin Brownlow and Jasper Sharp, actor Alice Lee, cultural anthropologist Diana Yeh, film makers Elaine Mae Woo and Ed Manwell.

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

Radio Choice: The Guardian, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the Independent

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

 

Chinese in Britain

cibA landmark series in which Anna Chen explores the early history of the Chinese presence in Britain (10 x 14′)

First broadcast April – May 2007    BBC Radio 4

Readings by David Tse Ka-shing

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

  1. The First Chinese VIPs: the earliest recorded Chinese to arrive in Britain
  2. The Creation of Chinatown: the myth and reality
  3. From Ship to Shore: experiences of Chinese seamen in Britain
  4. Steam and Starch: life in a Chinese laundry
  5. Educated in Britain: the history of Chinese students
  6. Feet unbound: pioneering Chinese Women in Britain
  7. Mixed Blessings: growing up half Chinese
  8. Artistic Pursuits: stepping out on Britain’s cultural landscape
  9. Screen Beginnings: the first British Chinese screen actors
  10. Peking Duck and Chips: early Chinese restaurants

Each episode sounded effortless only because it had been crafted with such supreme care.  – Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph

Visit the BBC series website

Original interviews have been archived with the British Library  accession number C1353

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

Radio 4  Pick of the Week

A Legend Before Slumdog

 

lbsNavid Akhtar explores the phenomenally successful career of Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman – dubbed by Time magazine as “The Mozart of Madras”. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast April 2007 BBC Radio 4

Contributors include:  Andrew Lloyd Webber, film director Mani Ratnam, commercials director Rajiv Menon, biographer Kamini Mathai, writer on Indian cinema Nasreen Munni Kabir, lyricist Don Black and A.R. Rahman himself (pictured in his London studio).

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Guardian , The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail, The Times, Time Out.

 

A Sunparched Country

 

spcCaroline Holmes discovers how Australia is facing up to its worst drought on record and meets people who are at the vanguard of innovative, practical adaptations to the new reality of climate change.  (5 x 14′)

First broadcast April – May 2008 BBC Radio 4

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

 

This series is clear, unpreachy, imaginative, positive.  – Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph

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Bridging the Morphine Gap

 

btmgMukti Jain Campion investigates why, despite producing most of the world’s medical morphine, India’s own people have virtually no access to it and how a hospice in Shrewsbury is helping pioneers of the Indian palliative care movement to overcome the ignorance that surrounds this vital pain relieving-drug. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast March 2008   BBC Radio 4

Producers Mukti Jain Campion and Chris Eldon Lee

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Hearing ear

Broken Paradise

 

bpAcclaimed 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

Bush Lessons

 

bl23-year-old Shrewsbury graduate Ruth Charlton went to teach in one of the most remote bush schools in the Limpopo Province of South Africa for three months – but stayed for twelve. Her vividly written diaries and letters home chronicle a year of her class’s progress and her own journey from the naivety of an innocent abroad to a woman drawn into the complexities of modern South Africa. (3 x 14′)

First broadcast December 2003  BBC Radio 4

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Designing The Impossible

 

dtiHow would you like to experience a volcanic eruption in your living room? Could you create dark energy in your kitchen sink? Or, perhaps you dream of becoming an astronaut?

Enter the surreal world of Nelly Ben Hayoun, acclaimed designer of fantasy experiences, who brings the thrill of cutting edge science into everyday life. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast Sept  2013   BBC Radio 4

 

Contributors: Thrill engineer Brendan Walker, Foley Artist Sue Harding, former NASA astronaut trainer Annette Rodrigues, musician Arthur Jeffes and the International Space Orchestra

Producer / Presenter Mukti Jain Campion

Bengal to Baker Street in 80 Paintings

Mukti Jain Campion discovers the story of pioneering Indian modern artist Jamini Roy (1887 – 1972) and how the largest collection of his work came to hang in a private apartment in central London. (1 x 28′)

See Slideshow of the paintings discussed in the programme.

First broadcast March 2014  BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Professor Nirmalya Kumar (pictured), Collector of Jamini Roy’s paintings; Richard Blurton, Curator of South Asian Art at the British Museum; Partha Mitter, Emeritus Professor of Art History, University of Sussex; Sona Datta, art historian, curator and author of book on Jamini Roy “Urban Patua”; Artist Sir Howard Hodgkin

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

This is a fascinating programme about art, its collection, its inspiration, its social value and how attitudes of critics and art historians change over time – Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph

 

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