Celebrity Mastermind
Specialist subject: Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Behind the scenes of Art of Persia – episode 2
We’ve had such amazing audience praise and enthusiasm for Episode 1 so I thought I’d give some more insights and answer a question. A number of viewers asked why we described the Cyrus Cylinder -with its declaration of tolerance for … Continue reading
The art of making Art of Persia
It was 2016 when I was first approached about the possibility of going to Iran to make a major series about the history and art of Persia. It took 3 years to get the visas and we filmed exactly a … Continue reading
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Broadcasting Press Guild award speech 2020
This is the text of the speech I gave on winning Audio Presenter of the Year at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2020 at the Guildhall, London. I’d like to add my thanks to producers and editors Jon Tolansky and … Continue reading
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Why the 90s was a bloody brilliant decade to be a young woman (despite the backlash)
Wrote this 2 years ago. It inspired 3 bonus questions on University Challenge in August 2018. (A lot has happened, like #MeToo) But posting it here Marcel Proust- style after finally seeing kd lang on her Ingenue at 25 tour … Continue reading
The story behind How I Found My Voice
The podcast is the idea of Intelligence Squared’s Matt McAllester and was developed by producer Farah Jassat – one of the brightest young talents in broadcasting – who recently joined Intelligence Squared after several years at the BBC as a … Continue reading
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Tagged adam buxton, benjamin zephaniah, how I found my voice, katherine ryan, philip pullman
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How we made The Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt
Have you ever wondered why ancient Egypt lives in so many museum collections across Britain? Not to mention Germany, France, the USA and other former colonial powers. Why it haunts our dreams and our films and since childhood our imaginations? … Continue reading
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Duran Duran and the glamour v grit music wars of the 80s
Ahead of tonight’s BBC4 Duran Duran night.. There is one rather interesting section of my interview with John Taylor and Roger Taylor we couldn’t quite get into the final Front Row edit on Monday night.  So here’s the transcript. … Continue reading
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Tagged 1980s, 80s, culture, Duran Duran, front row, james bond, music, pop videos
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What made America great? On the trail of Laura Ingalls Wilder
It was the 2008 crash that somehow inspired me to finally read the Little House on the Prairie books. I was clearly craving comfort, safety, a kind of nostalgia for a vaguely remembered 70s girlhood in which I half watched … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged almanzo wilder, ayn rand, BBC America, BBC Sunday Feature, dean butler, laura ingalls wilder, mansfield missouri, Radio 3, rose wilder lane, the fountainhead, USA
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Making news in the “fake news” age
These are links to further reading from today’s Kingston University journalism/media lecture. Newswatch – on the Theresa May speech/cough – to see the connection between audience, traditional BBC news and the impact of “viral” social media on traditional news. The … Continue reading
Posted in journalism, Kingston University class notes, Uncategorized
Tagged fake news, journalism, media
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The Prisoner: An Anglo Saxon poetic meditation
Was meditating on the enduring power of The Prisoner TV series for Matthew Sweet who wrote a rather excellent piece about its 50th anniversary. If you’ve read it you know IÂ came up with a thesis that it has more … Continue reading
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Tagged 60s, anglo saxon, culture, media, patrick mcgoohan, the avengers, the prisoner, tv
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