Category Archives: Germany
The making of Do Pass Go: boardgames in the internet age
Do Pass Go my BBC Radio 4 documentary, airing on Friday April 14th 2017, has its origins in a piece I wrote about the Libyan dictator General Gadaffi playing chess on TV in the run up to his toppling, and … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Children, Culture, Design, Games, Germany, Radio
Tagged boardgames, british museum, climate oasis, culture, dagnis skurbe, essen, friedemanm friese, FTW, Germany, grant dalgliesh, irving finkel, James wallis, jessy bradish, magic the gathering, mombasa, pandemic, royal game of ur, the dice tower, the last spike, tom vasel
6 Comments
How should broadcast news journalists interview and talk about extremists?
Over the weekend I spoke to veteran ex BBC journalist Robin Lustig, Berlin correspondent Damien McGuinness for an insight into Germany’s media and Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s 2012 senior strategist for 2 articles I wrote for The Guardian and The … Continue reading
Posted in Germany, journalism, Media, Politics, Radio, Religion, TV
Tagged AfD, alt right, BBC, Berlin, BIG ISSUE, Damien McGuinness, Donald Trump, journalism, Luegenpresse, media, Mitt Romney, Nazism, Newswatch, Nigel Farage, Pegida, politics, Robin Lustig, Stuart Stevens, terrorism, tv
8 Comments
Ladybird books: Constructing the future past of modern Britain
I used to visit a beloved university English professorĀ and his wife. He had won the Military Cross for hand to hand combat in the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945 but never talked about the terrible things heād seen. … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Design, Environment, Germany, History, Media, Uncategorized, War
Tagged 60s, Bachelor of Hearts, books, conway hall, culture, Hardy Kruger, Ladybird books, media, michael balcon, politics, publishing, Sylvia Syms, war, wolf rilla
23 Comments
Bryan Singer on: Chariots of the Gods, Valkyrie, Star Trek & the mythology of X-Men Apocalypse
Here’s my full interview with the very well-read Bryan Singer on X-Men Apocalypse. We talked the Bible, classic Star Trek, the 60s vogue for theories on space seeding aliens, and why the Holocaust is a presence in so many of … Continue reading
Posted in Comics/graphic novels, Film, Germany, History, Media, Science Fiction/Fantasy, TV
Tagged 60s, bryan singer, chariots of the gods, cinema, film, Hollywood, Star Trek, who mourns for adonais, x men, x men apocalypse
5 Comments
The Teen Within…
This week’s Something Understood gives voice to people who I reckon are rarely heard on radio. Teenagers. The readings are all done by young actors and much of the music and poetry you’ll hear was written by them, or about … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, France, Germany, History, Media, Music, Radio, Religion
Tagged adolescence, alom shaha, BIG ISSUE, cat stevens, claude tardat, Hairspray, harlem renaissance, janis ian, john steinbeck, John Waters, letter to my younger self, maxim leo, peter capaldi, plum bun, red love, teenagers, the young atheists handbook
8 Comments
Where are all the women refugees?
A version of this column first appeared in The Big Issue magazine in September 2015 One of the strange realizations of being on the Channel 4 series It Was Alright In the 1970s was, when they showed me clips, how … Continue reading
Posted in Germany, Politics, TV
Tagged angela merkel, East Germany, feminism, refugees, star maidens, Syria, unhcr
47 Comments
The Iran hostage crisis, the Stasi and why the past cannot be left behind
I ate my first Passover Seder meal recently, as a guest of Rabbi Jonathan Romain at his synagogue. I had had the ingredients and their symbolic meaning on the seder table memorized since that sheet Miss Thick gave me to … Continue reading
Posted in Crime and Justice, Germany, History, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, Holocaust, Iran, Iran hostage crisis, kindertransport, Obama, Passover, Stasi, Thomas Tsasz, US Embassy Tehran
4 Comments
Transience: Clocks, Voyager & Potsdamer Platz
My programme for this week’s Something Understood on BBC Radio 4 is about transience: the fact that all things must pass. It begins in the clock room of the British Museum, where time is made physical by its embodiment in … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Germany, History, Radio, Religion, Science
Tagged Berlin, Carl Sagan, potsdamer platz, saga narada, star trek tng, vishnu
7 Comments
The Drag Queen Tombola and other tales of cross dressing glory
This column first appeared in The Big Issue magazine. I was once asked what was the best night out I ever had in London. My husband, thought Iād say it was that romantic night we went to the National Theatre … Continue reading
Posted in Comedy, Culture, Film, Germany, Theatre, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 80s, Adam and the Ants, Adam Ant, Amy Cudden, Berlin, cross dressing, culture, drag, film, Jeeves and Wooster, Monty Python, One Man Two Guvnors, pantomime, pop videos, Prince Charming, Roger Lloyd Pack, Spitting Image, Steve Nallon
2 Comments
An embroidered insult to Hitler: A story about hand made things
My Something Understood for BBC Radio 4 this weekend is all about hand made things. You can listen to a clip of here. And the whole programme here. As well meeting a carpenterĀ who makes fossil-inspired objects about of ancient … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Design, Germany, History, Radio, Religion, Uncategorized, War
Tagged Alexis Casdagli, Army, culture, embroidery, FTW, Hitler, morse code, needlework, POW, Royal Navy, Something Understood, Tony Casdagli, war
26 Comments
