Category: Arts & Culture

Chopsticks At Dawn

 

Anna Chen reducedWhy is it that Chinese decorative arts are revered in the West, but composers from Debussy to George Formby have constantly parodied  “Chinese” music? Comedian Anna Chen investigates. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast June 2010  BBC Radio 4

Contributors: musicologist Dr Jonathan Walker; Derek Scott, professor of Music at Leeds University; Rachel Harris of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and contemporary musicians Ben Chan, Jane Ng and Liz and Sarah Liew of Chi2

Producer  Chris Eldon Lee

Radio Choice:   Radio Times, The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Time Out, The Stage

Creative Forces

 

cfComedian Dawn French is the daughter of an RAF technician. Actress Juliet Stevenson’s father was a British Army Officer. In conversation with Fiona Lindsay (herself a Navy child) they explore how their highly nomadic childhoods may have shaped their adult careers. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast November 2013   BBC Radio 4

Producer Chris Eldon Lee

 

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

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

 

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.

 

Black Screen Britain

Actor Burt Caesar presents two programmes exploring how British film and television drama from the 1950s to the 1970s portrayed the lives of African-Caribbean immigrants. (2 x 28′)

First Broadcast  March – April  2009   BBC Radio 4

1: Ambassadors for the Race  The pioneering black actors who made their names in  A Man from the Sun, Fable, Pool of London, Flame in the Streets and Jemima and Johnny.

2: Reclaiming Our Image  Burt Caesar charts the landmark screen dramas such as Pressure, Empire Road and Burning an Illusion which presented an alternative view of black lives in Britain during the 1970s.

Contributors include: actors Earl Cameron CBE, Mona Hammond, Cy Grant, Joan Hooley, Rudolph Walker, writer Michael Abbensetts, film makers John Akomfrah OBE, Menelek Shabazz, Alrick Riley, commentators June Givanni, Dr Jim Pines and Baroness Lola Young.

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

Radio Choice: The Guardian, the Observer, The Independent & The Times.

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

Most of the films discussed in this series can be viewed free of charge at the BFI Southbank’s Mediatheque in London or at the Quad in Derby

Bone in the Kebab

 

bitk“Theatre should be like a bone in the kebab: unexpected, and with bite.”– Jatinder Verma, Director Tara Arts

To mark the 25th anniversary of the pioneering company Tara Arts, Mukti Jain Campion presents two programmes exploring the distinctive contribution of British Asian theatre.(2 x 28′)

First broadcast February 2002  BBC Radio 4

Contributors: Jatinder Verma, Sudha Buchar and Kristine Landon-Smith, Shobana Jeyasingh, Nina Wadia, Sir Richard Eyre, Vincent Ebrahim, Naseem Khan and Dominic Rai.

Producer Mukti Jain Campion

An enthralling survey of British Asian life over the past quarter of a century – Paul Donovan, The Sunday Times

 

1: Acting Ourselves From its explicitly political beginning in the wake of the killing of a Sikh schoolboy in Southall, Tara Arts has charted the story of the Asian presence in Britain, warts and all.

2: Ghetto Blasters? The British Asian theatre scene has never been a more vibrant showcase for British Asian theatre talent, talent which is now reaching out to new audiences through TV and film as well as the stage.

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

Radio 4 Pick of the Week

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

Darwin Songs

 

dsEight top folk singers from Britain and the USA are holed up for 7 days in a remote Shropshire farmhouse at the invitation of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival. Their task: to write new songs inspired by the life and work of the eminent naturalist Charles Darwin in time for a public concert at the new Theatre Severn, near where Darwin was born 200 years ago. (1 x 28′)

First broadcast  March 2009  BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Rachel MacShane of Bellowhead, Stu Hanna of Megson, Emily Smith, Chris Wood, Mark Erelli, Krista Detor, Karine Polwart and Jez Lowe. Randall Keynes – great, great, grandson of Charles Darwin, Jon King – director, Shrewsbury Darwin Festival

Producer Chris Eldon Lee        

Radio choice: The Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian

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

Digital Folk

 

dfMusician John Kirkpatrick shares the delights of  The Full English, a newly digitised online collection which brings together a vast archive of early 20th century English folk music. ( 1 x 28′)

First broadcast August 2013  BBC Radio 4

Contributors include: Billy Bragg, Lee Hall, Malcolm Taylor, Mary Keith, Nell Leyshon, Fay Hield and Nancy Kerr.

Producer  Chris Eldon Lee

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

Visit The Full English Website