Category Archives: Religion
The making of The Stars of Sergeant Pepper
What are Mae West and Diana Dors doing on the cover of Sergeant Pepper’ Lonely Hearts Club band? If you feel you’ve heard too much already about the 50th anniversary of the record, then fear not. Producer Luke Doran (who … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Media, Music, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged 60s, beatles, culture, Hollywood, media, music, Sergeant Pepper
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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
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The economics of burkas, bikinis & The Nice Guys
According to a recent BBC World Service programme about Malawi, the nation’s population hit 17.6 million this year and is expected to double by 2040, which the country’s finance minister described as “scary”. “A ticking timebomb of poverty and … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Comedy, Culture, Film, Media, Religion, TV, Uncategorized
Tagged 70s, BIG ISSUE, charlie perfume, Charlies Angels, cinema, culture, feminism, film, Hollywood, Islamic fashion, laurence rossignol, lynda carter, media, The Bionic Woman, the nice guys, virginia slims, Wonder Woman
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Why Obi Wan Kenobi is pure evil & why R2 D2 is Moses
An excellent panel of minds got together at Conway Hall’s latest #LondonThinks event last Thursday to discuss the theology and ethics of Star Wars films. You can watch it in full here on Youtube (below). Or open it in another … Continue reading
The men are weeping in the Oval Office…
Lucy Dichmont and I have made a Something Understood for Radio 4 about Weeping. I knew I wanted to talk about the Wailing Women in the Bible and especially that I wanted to talk again to award-winning poet Andrew McMillan … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, History, Politics, Radio, Religion
Tagged Alice In Wonderland, Andrew McMillan, Something Understood, The men are weeping, weeping
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Ice, ash and fury: A meditation on eruptions from Mt St Helens to the Temple of St Paul’s Cathedral
Since I made The White North Has Thy Bones a year ago about our obsession with the Arctic and the North West Passage I’ve realised January has become a favourite time of the year. For this Something Understood the starting … Continue reading
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
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The Other Place: A journey into the Underworld with the Witch of Endor
(image from Genius.com) At the age of 6 or so I drew a picture pretty similar to this one in my school RE lesson and it’s been a question in my mind ever since and inspired my latest Something Understood … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Radio, Religion
Tagged Christianity, dante, francis dashwood, hellfire club, ireland, Islam, john agard, judaism, limbo, limbo babies, monteverdi, orfeo, orpheus, orpheus and eurydice, rabbi jonathan romain, saul, sheol, the divine comedy, william hogarth, witch of endor
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Plotting Paradise: A journey through medieval maps and the mind
Strains of Paradise may start with medieval maps and the Garden of Eden, but producer Anthony Denselow and I didn’t want to shy away from difficult questions too. So we ask a Muslim theologian about the power of a … Continue reading
Posted in History, Radio, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged big rock candy mountain, calais, jihad, mappa mundi, migrants, nico muhly, shakespeare, wilton diptych
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Young, British and Imam-in-Training: Who we met and why
There were two things producer Georgia Catt and I tried to do with this half hour documentary for Radio 4. One: avoid random isolated Muslim voices claiming to speak for a majority saying “That’s not Islam” about anything problematic, like … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Media, Politics, Radio, Religion, Uncategorized
Tagged BBC, imam in training, Islam, radio 4
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