Category Archives: Children

From avenger to screamer: How Dr Who assistants remain trapped in time

Posted on April 9, 2013 by samiraahmed

The Reunion programme for Radio 4, produced by Peter Curran, recently brought together some of the original cast and crew of the first episode of Doctor Who. The first Dr Who team was notable for its diversity — Waris Hussein … Continue reading →

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How The West Was Fun: When Britain loved cowboys

Posted on April 5, 2013 by samiraahmed

The Unforgiven (1961) – The Searchers in reverse This is about the back ground to the April 6th documentary I made for Radio 4 about the Western in British culture. You can listen again here: Archive on Four documentary Riding … Continue reading →

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Loving the Alien: Bowie and the ‘Burbs

Posted on March 15, 2013 by samiraahmed

              How did  I come to make a documentary for Radio 4 called I Dressed Ziggy Stardust? It was pitched and commissioned about 6 months ago, long before anyone thought Bowie might be releasing new … Continue reading →

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Mocha in the Family Latte: Race on American screens

Posted on January 15, 2013 by samiraahmed

“He should not be here, ” said the fish in the pot. ” he should not be here when your mother is not.” – The Cat In the Hat Dr Seuss (1957) It is a conundrum worthy of the massive … Continue reading →

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The secret elite club of ex-Virgin Marys

Posted on December 23, 2012 by samiraahmed

“I was always the sort of child who got picked on to DO things, you know?” recalls Julie Christie’s Darling, in the 1965 film, as we see her as a 6 year old Mary in the school nativity play. (watch … Continue reading →

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Troublesome slags: What Rochdale reveals about our attitudes to teenage girls

Posted on September 27, 2012 by samiraahmed

Heywood, Rochdale (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA) A provisional multi agency report into the scale of sexual abuse of young girls in Rochdale published today admitted there were issues about the legitimate sexual “consent” of 13 year old girls that the … Continue reading →

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Aliens, abortion and baby machines: HG Wells & John Wyndham

Posted on June 7, 2012 by samiraahmed

Woman’s Hour ran a fascinating interview today with novelist Kishwar Desai, about India’s burgeoning  surrogate baby industry. Her exploration of this massive business (an estimated 20,000 babies produced  each year) seems to differ from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale only … Continue reading →

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No Children of Ours: Rochdale and conveyor belt grooming

Posted on May 10, 2012 by samiraahmed

15 years ago the renowned filmmaker Peter Kosminsky made No Child of Mine, a controversial drama about a teenage girl in care who’d ended up being passed around by men for sex. The phenomenon was called “conveyor belt grooming”. The … Continue reading →

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The Fantasies of Youth

Posted on May 4, 2012 by samiraahmed

Every generation has its teen moral panic exploitation movie. In the 1930s it was Reefer Madness. In the 50s it was Beat Girl (the evils of Soho coffee bars and bongos). For my generation it was 1982’s Mazes and Monsters … Continue reading →

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Can we laugh about this? Race on film

Posted on March 21, 2012 by samiraahmed

I spent an hour with the Film Club charity in Battersea Park School in South London today,(I’m a trustee) discussing the treatment of race and racism on film. It was Anti-Racism Day, apparently. I chose clips from a sample of … Continue reading →

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