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Book of the Week: 'Serena Says' – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

This week's book of the week is "Serena Says" by author Tanita S Davis.

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Pit your wits against our fiendish quizmaster Marcus Berkmann in our literary teaser

Marcus Berkmann challenges readers to a literary quiz for the chance of winning £1,000. The closing date for entries is January 17, 2022.

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There Is No Other Career . . . Which Would Have Interfered Less With My Drinking – Quote Investigator

There Is No Other Career . . . Which Would Have Interfered Less With My Drinking – Quote Investigator
quoteinvestigator.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from quoteinvestigator.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.

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Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel arrive for another shoot ing day for America's Got Talent


Shooting for season 16 of America's Got talent kicked off on March 31 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Now, some 10 days into filming the upcoming season, judges Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel made their grand arrival for another crucial day of taping.
And the trio's fashion choices appeared to be a prefect representation of their respective personalities as they strolled into the entrance ahead of the workday.
Making an arrival: Heidi Klum and Sofia Vergara showed off their feminine side when they arrived for another day of shooting for the upcoming season of America's Got Talent
Funnyman: Howie Mandel, 65, put his comdic side on display by wearing a blazer and tie t-shirt

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BBC Radio 4 LW-20171017-233000

Unthinkable The head of Amazon Studios Roy price has resigned after becoming embroiled in the claims surrounding the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein B.B.C. Nice. Read by Luke Tottenham our book of the week in just a moment continues the witty memoir by the comedian Sarah Millican tonight she describes people's reactions when she tells them she doesn't really like children of a whole lot Thomas Shaphan acar How's the weather forecast for us has been looking Thomas thank you well it's looking pretty mixed actually over the next few days and as we head to the weekend potentially turning very very windy extremely windy across some parts of the country and we're just recovering from that nasty storm the other day particularly in but also here in the U.K. But in the short term in the short term the weather is looking quite so tonight's there are a clear spells across Scotland Northern Ireland also the North of England it will turn quite chilly in fact in the glens of Scotland temperatures could dip to around a couple of degrees which is just about cold enough for such of grass Frost further south a slightly different story it is karma but there is a lot of cloud around and we've had some rain and that rain is going to continue through the morning and into tomorrow afternoon so let's paint a picture of the morning and afternoon combined I think across the U.K. Let's start with the southern half of England and Wales tomorrow so both the morning and the afternoon is looking pretty overcast there will be some rain on and off at times it could be heavy I think particularly around the East Midlands possibly East Anglia as well but it's not really cold temperatures will be up to around seventeen degrees we have some warmer air coming in from the south so that's again the southern half of England and Wales damp cloudy but warm a little bit further north now into northern England and Northern Ireland here they'll be some sunshine around both in the morning and the afternoon but temperatures will be lower so for example in Carlisle and in Belfast temperatures will be no higher than around thirteen decrees on to Scotland now first thing in the morning there could be a few spots of rain in the lowlands but I think by the after. It should brighten up just a little bit but it still will be cool around thirteen degrees in Glasgow and in Edinburgh then on Thursday starts off bright but there will be some showers on the way it looks like Friday will be a blustery day with rain and then Friday night into Saturday possibly survey calles in the south so stay tuned back to you. So us thanks very much indeed now the new book of the week continues part autobiography part self-help manual how to be champion is the frank and funny memoir by the award winning comedian Sarah Millican today in typically earthy and occasionally outrageous style she explains why she neither likes nor wants to have children. Don't tell me not to just. Like candy in the sun mom don't bring around me. And I don't want kids I am a forty two year old woman and whenever I tell someone that I don't have kids these soon one of four things in photo selfish haven't met the one in denial it was the same without the whole when people learned that I don't drink well a pint of shandy every other year and a mouthful of champagne if I have to toss the happy couple they expect me to be a recovering alcoholic all pregnant I recently posted a photo of a mock to an Instagram I love the mock to you when you don't drink you get so sick of coke and orange juice that something fruity and an adult class fits the bill nicely I got a lot of comments implying that I was pregnant the public have never seen me drink booze have I been pregnant for years. Nope I'm not a reformed alcoholic or pregnant I work a lot drive a lot and a glass of wine makes me sick for twenty four hours allergic probably I'm not bothered enough to find out similarly I may well be allergic to children is there any allergy test for that to the robot tiny claggy hand and a square of your arm and observe the results no need to put me on a bus and watch my neck go read Lady one stop me in the street in my hometown and asked if she could take a photo of me with her child the toddler was in a sample of the dip a NE in delicacy I didn't know what to do so I said yes somewhere there exists a photo of me looking deeply uncomfortable beside a bookie inhaling the wonderful smell of the child's sausage a treat what a snapshot of South Shields the kid is looking at me like Who the hell is this and I was thinking exactly the same but what not to seem to realize that kids went just dulls you were handed as soon as you got married I've never wanted them well that's not technically true there was a five minute period when I considered it I had a baby name book for writing purposes I used to write short film scripts and how else would is to move across the excellent name pill it was during my first marriage and I thought maybe for five minutes I picked two names out of the book and went in to say my then husband two was playing kicky fighting games on his Playstation he was an adult by the way I didn't marry a teenager he stopped playing his game I told him the two names I liked if we haven't had kids he said he didn't like the names and I thought I'm not going to bother then and I haven't considered it since genuinely hate kids some of my friends disagree when I say I don't like kids here you do it if I don't then I must be some sort of monster when reminded me that is soon to me a picture once I said it doesn't mean I kept it was rubbish and waste of a magnet. When in a restaurant or cafe I usually select a seat away from families as I like quiet and I don't enjoy the face some of those do when their child to something amuse and it's all a bit Look what I did when that happens I'm always tempted to pull out my G.C.S.E. Results it's all relative though isn't it I was in a pub with my fella last week when an old couple came in and were directed to the table beside ours the octogenarians requested to be moved away from the kids we looked around Yep it was US I don't have children because I don't want children there I said it it's not because I can't the same reason I don't eat cheese because I don't want cheese no one tells me I'll be different if I have cheese of my own and that they didn't like cheese to start with recruiter love it isn't is that shuts them out the funny I don't want children because I like my life I have no responsibilities but me and some pets I have freedom and the ability to stay out later for an impromptu curry so we can stay out all night to be fair having a dog is very similar to happen a child just looking at his face makes my heart swell with love and I am responsible for disposing of his shit see same it's just we can leave him on his own for four hours so he's better a better baby I have no idea whether I am fertile a while ago I was at the doctors and asked about the possibility of having a fertility test if not I could relax a little on the protection front being in a long term relationship my doctor said such a test exists but you can only have it if you've been trying for a baby for eighteen months the death of may consider going back to a different doctor in the practice and pretending I've been unsuccessful for eighteen months but then the one my look I don't do accidentally and I there I'm too polite. I suspect I'm not photo given that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome P.C.O.S. Something I was checked over for when I was twenty two but wasn't diagnosed with until twelve years later it's like my body caught up with my brain when I was twenty two I had an explained pain and an old male twat of a doctor lifted up my nightie to see how hairy my belly was and decided it wasn't P.C.O.S. From that I should go back to him I think I now have piece US on my chin. For my pace us I take metformin which all pharmacists think is for diabetes because I'm a big fat and I always look like I'm thinking about chocolate I take great pleasure and tell them that I don't have diabetes yet like when I was put on tablets for migraines that were normally used to treat bed when I laughingly told a chemist that they were for migraines but the Bedouin had cleared up a lovely haha she smiled and said Oh that's good and a Congo in there anymore I've had one pregnancy scare in my life urged to by excited women at work they had no idea I took a tube of way to the doctors when I rang to get the results the receptionist said I'm sorry to have to tell you before the news that I was not pregnant how did she presume what would be the good and bad news it was like The X. Factor but before the X. Factor I'm sorry to have to tell you yes through to bootcamp I'm sorry to have to tell you you don't need to negotiate. The women at work did not understand why I was worried about me being pregnant they hadn't listened when I'd said I didn't want kids they had noticed me making cups of tea when someone brought a baby and are not really listening when they told stories about their kids my supervisor backed me into the kitchenette to tell me it was going to be the happiest time of my life but I had to tell her that I didn't want kids and that if I was pregnant I would probably have an abortion she walked away from me silently as she didn't know what to say someone much more of my wavelength is my best friend whenever a period started we would say to each other I don't see. These days the possibility of having your own kids no longer ends at forty as people tell me I could change my mind it's sixty and still have a small chance of becoming a mother thanks to science well science can bugger off I suppose this works for some women and all power to them but it's not for me I love sitting down and drink intake Now what makes you think I do want to do not full time when I'm old the only body weight and then is my husband's and he'll be doing mine we'll try to make it sexy to friends and I have a great that if we survive men not all of them in some kind of sex in the city apocalypse our men we were retired to a hot tub in the Lake District England's ultimate Lake District attraction and Crockett docks and he chips and dips until we pop off I don't think that I am selfish I am an OK daughter a generous and warm friend and a cork and wife is a little needy and hokey at times I wasn't robots that's who my parents never ask about grandchildren regardless of the fact that they a constantly asked by friends why they don't have grandchildren yet yet such an assumption as they say to me we brought you into the world to run your own life we've got our lives you have yours my parents believe way then me and my sister all adults all equal I once asked my mom if I could have a key to their house she said as long as I can have a key to yours I do not have a key to my parents' house there's no need anyway if they aren't in a find them in the Metro Center in denial do you know how hard it is to prove to someone that you're not in denial that's not to say I don't have maternal instincts I do but they are seemingly directed towards everything except children adults animals by car. But a little pang struck worst of all with cats some women like cats deal with it I had to give up my first couple of cats in my divorce circumstances prevented me from taken them with me and while they were probably having a great life been struck by younger women I imagine I miss them badly I always hoped I'd get a new cats I'm day one that would refuse to be petted by anyone under thirty for an eight year period there was You Tube and cats and Hoover's cats on print as cats in boxes I never have two cats and a dog and feel like an actual mom we call them the bins on the drive home from picking up Chief Brody office cat I commented to Gary that it was like watching a really long you Chub video I would have expected a male from You Tube asking if I was OK sometimes I think babies look nice but that's because they're on Facebook and a two dimensional and silent I had one past me recently and it didn't cry or wriggle it just looked at me with a face that said you don't do this much do you I held it until it's mom took it back off me people think that because you're a woman you instinctively know what to do with them what if I dropped it what if it cried I could not guarantee that neither of these things would happen I've dropped my phone loads and I love that you should be able to get a protective cover for babies a rubber Rice shield with an anti Claire film and a power doc so you could still charge it when you're a beginner you don't know how to do the passes you just have it put on you then taken off you you have to communicate I'm done with your face too apparent or you'll never get rid of it oh so bloody hell it was heavy I had no idea they were that heavy like one and a half at cats no one demands a good like navvies. I like the idea of having something that looks me unconditionally but would rather it was my family and friends and partner that actually created a whole new person is there really no one else in the world who would love me unconditionally that I have to make my own and anyway that's what pets are for they rely on you for everything and you read that is love well that's what I used to think when we just had two cats but now we've got a dog I know it's definitely love he works his tail when he hears my voice he has rested his little soft head on my big squashy belly without judgement the way does sometimes sniff my jeans and decide not to sit on my lap I think if we get any more pets I make sure that old rescue ones you want your pets to be old when you are no pensioner ever buys a kitten they go to a shelter and adopt a cat with a similar walk and speed and grow to disposition is themselves maybe if I did change my mind about kids when I'm older I could adopt a forty year old son I mean motherly towards him four times a year my birthday his birthday Mother's Day and Christmas friends have changed their mind did it when they hit their thirty's or when they settle down with a partner I am past that age group and I'm pleased to report that aside from coal and animals in the garden our pets I have not moved on maternally I won't change my mind which IS am unlikely to decide I want to start wearing heels or sign up for paragliding lessons when you hit forty you are who you are and who you will always be. The outside may get soggy and Greer but the inside stays the same I think and what I am is a woman a comedian a wife and a mother of three fairy babies my friend who is in the same camp as me has started a fair into actual babies as skin babies the babies in skin babies it makes total sense to me say is going to look after me when I'm old that's a question I get a lot well maybe I'll be lucky enough to be able to afford help but I have preferred some younger women who are likely to outlive me just in case. If they can open jars five years after my hands cannot I will still be able to have jam and you can get squeezy jam now anyway I'm not childless unless I'm also cheese I'm a woman who was made the decision not to have children and I'm entirely happy with that I tend to think that if you're of childbearing age and having regular sex it's quite the achievement not to fall pregnant Yay maybe swings bloody jam Ragab ahead .

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BBC Radio 4 LW-20171016-233000

Preventing the Civil Guard from doing their job during the disputed referendum B.B.C. News read by Charles Carroll Sarah Millican describes the life changing moment she discovered her talent for comedy that's in a couple of minutes now they tell us chef and I go has the weather forecast for us out of us hello there Tom thank you we still have some severe weather around across the country river the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia moving across the far northwest of the pretty sheilds as I speak in fact the worst of the winds currently moving through the Irish Sea around the coasts of nor the Nile and Southwest in Scotland and we are still going to have some very rough weather during the early morning rush hour across the north of the country I want to start the forecast here so Scotland and the North of England very windy first thing in the morning gusts could still approach sixty or seventy miles an hour certainly around fifty or sixty in Glasgow and Edinburgh but the northeast of England up to seventy miles an hour and these winds are still capable of producing some structural damage and might bring some trees down and certainly course some delays on the roads so take it steady if you're traveling first thing in the morning across northern and northeastern areas by that stage in the morning around the rush hour the winds really will have died down across Northern Ireland still blowing quite hard around the Irish Sea and the coasts of Wales northern Wales but further south it really is a different picture and has been a different picture no winds to talk about in the south. And then Tuesday afternoon most of England Wales should have bright skies there will be a little bit of rain around later in the afternoon in Cornwall and Devon in Northern Ireland and Scotland they'll be some showers around during the course of Tuesday afternoon but a bit of sunshine too and the temperatures will range from thirteen degrees in Glasgow Edinburgh and Belfast fifteen in Cardiff and around seventeen degrees in London and it looks like we should all end the note on a fine note on Tuesday and the outlook for the week ahead is looking pretty unsettled and just a little heads up I don't think we've done with the storms yet come the weekend it could turn very very windy with heavy rain once again back to you and that's good snow in advance thanks very much indeed Thomas this is B.B.C. Radio four where is now time for The Book Of The Week use part or all part autobiographical part self-help manual the comedian Sarah Millican reads from her frank funny and occasionally outrageous memoir how to be champion. Please stand up stand up. Having been a very quiet child had a book very few friends it must be odd to those who knew me then that I now do stand up comedy is a job until my first gig I performed in front of a group of people only a handful of times. I was Mary in the Nativity and reception but had no lines patriarchy going mad I had to sit down as well because Joseph was a short ass I was five and had to be encouraged by Miss Charlton to cuddle the baby Jesus my arms were loose and the baby Jesus was slip and I clearly hit it kids even then or maybe it was the religious bullshit I could smell she kept saying Could him could you the baby Jesus and I reported the complained that he had penned on him snobby child Taitz an atheist at the age of five I was the narrator of the Nativity when I was ten I auditioned for the Angel Gabriel because she got to go up a ladder they said I had a good speaking voice so I was given the red to roll I wore my sister's thick blue color necked dress which was far too hot for the occasion I must have looked forty I was in the third year and the sure performed by third and fourth year juniors was an evening performance while the first and second years had a matinee I was pulled out of my lesson because the narrator for the matinee had stage fright look at the Nativity is generally the same across the board no matter what your take on it a banged it out no fear. In the first year of senior school the drama teacher a terrifying woman called Mrs McHugh decided we'd do a Christmas carol because most of the boys had little interest or were a bit crap my friend Kimberly got the lead role fairly redress in the balance of my silent sitting turn as Jesus mom I wanted to be involved but didn't want to big role I mostly like being there and watch me or I've never been great at learning lines your own show that you've written is a totally different deal so probably good that my rule third child only had the one he is not the mother which I nailed each time in my little mockup. Then there was the time I talked to someone I knew on the Metro about how I was taking my grandest books back to the library I distinctly remember the people all around us laugh and along that what I would say in sort of my first gig on a team building day should as when I was working for the job center we were put into groups did some exercises and had to report back our findings at the end of the day to everyone else the rest of my group bottled it and pushed me to the front I did it it was a very dry subject but somehow I managed to make a whole room of civil servants laugh my love for my favorite theater which is Live theater on the quay side in New Castle is strong I spent many a night there just after my divorce keeping myself occupied and soaking it all up I did a six week play writing course with Jeremy heaven and Jess Casey that put much fire in my belly and love to write a full length play for life the it is some day but time hasn't allowed it so far I see it involved with a scratch night's The idea behind them was that you'd send in five to ten pages of something you were writing and should be chosen it would be read aloud by proper actors in front of an audience it was a total thrill I was always leaning towards the funny and because of that mine always got picked and I'd sit there at a cabaret style table alongside people I didn't know and hold my breath hear in your words which sound so flat on paper brought to life by wonderful wonderful actors is a maison the actors would act the audience would laugh and I would skip home Jeremy Herron bloody lovely man would gather votes in at the end for people's favorite and I invariably won not because I was the best writer but because I had made fork laugh and often my conversation between two pensioners was started after a tense seven minutes of nuns in a war comedy wins. Creative Writing was my way out it was my release from the heartbreak I was beaten down by from jobs I hated I used to regularly say to myself I'm going to write myself out of this shit all and eventually over many many years I did but back then I was a bit lost I think I was looking for something but I didn't know what it was I was working six days a week killin every spare minute I could shorten it all down read in self-help books and then one day during my lunch break at work I booked myself in a bloody performance workshop I have no idea why it was for people who had written but never performed before then I had written a film column for the free paper a few short films a few short plays I hadn't performed at all save the previous examples I'd written but never performed so I qualified there was a gap between book in the course and doing the course so I forgot all about it I just got on with work and all the cry and I had days when I felt like I could do nothing I was just broken my whole future gone I had that what the hell must post to do now feeling that it only previously had when confronted with a massive run in Spider when a truck dogged it all over a friend's house and lie that it wasn't me I'd go to work but outside of the actual job I was barely function and I was convinced I would at some point run out of tears and never did the numbskulls control in the tear ducts must have been knackered. I also had days when I felt like I could do anything and felt pretty much invincible and never experience this feeling before I think most of us live our lives somewhere between the two between can't do anything and can do everything I call them my she road days and expectedly as a moral Wonder Woman era I wake up full of energy ready for the day a week properly a week if someone had said you have to climb this mountain I've asked for time to pop to Millets for the right sucks and then given it a bloody good go I signed up to this course on a she wrote Day The day came along and I was excited and nervous it was a half day workshop in Gateshead run by Kate Fox the poet stand up and all around brilliant woman followed by a performance that even at Kidman whole talk about being chucked in at the deep end it was a very practical course less about what you'd see more about how you'd see it we were encouraged to bring something we'd written so mine was a monologue about the breakdown of my marriage cheery hey you have to remember that this wasn't standup it was just a monologue just me trying to thing it never tried and in my new found freedom the possibility of anything was sexy I knew I had potential but in what most of the others on the course were poets who wanted to become performance poets we walked around we even in and out of each other saying words out loud the sort of thing I hated but really needed to do Kate had created a very safe space where no one would be anything other than supportive poets Oh in my experience a smashing bunch gentle generous interested it was a great environment to be myself in my new self and we did a show that night God knows how to a lovely receptive crowd I read my monologue aloud. The paper I held shook with the aftershock of my crazy heartbeat that's why if you see me do new material now every day from a notebook or index cards books and cardboard do not shake like paint the does look I stopped there and didn't end up with a plank of wood or a brick with my notes scrolled on I read the monologue and parts of it were brutal and parts it turns out were hilarious I went into the ladies' loos after my set and jumped up and down in a cubicle identifying I was terrified of and it felt amazing what was so terrifying about standing in front of a roomful of people and telling them about your personal horror the scariest thing in the world had already happened I was at rock bottom it turns out people laughing at something you've said feels like nothing else and that your friends the people who don't know you who have no obligation to laugh at you who have paid to be entertained I jumped in the lose and on the walk back to the Metro I rang my dad and simply said I Did It My family must have seen a turning point in me then for me it was a thing ticked off my list never to be done again no need done it four months later I rang Kate out of the blue I suppose I just rang and told her I wanted to try stand up and she said I know actually been waiting for the call she got me a gig and offered to meet me there before it to give me some tips they gave was at the Cumberland arms and bike and run by John Cooper I had five minutes on stage and went straight from work and realised on the way that I'd forgotten the page of jokes had written it was the bits from the monologue the crowd laughed at and a few more I'd written since I had no time to go home so I just decided to busk it remember what I couldn't see what happened Kate as promised met me at the PO before the audience came and I stood on stage mike in one hand and cable in the other as I learned on the course. With no idea what to weigh I brought a Moxie's Batwing long sleeved black top and jeans the way comedy gigs usually work is that the new people go on in the middle and this was no different the opener then the newest in the middle and the most experienced or best at the end John the Booker was MC and Ben's go for it was open and with the late Mark rough close and when I went on the audience sat there a lot of arms folded and for the first two and a half minutes remained much the same I remember silence but maybe it was less harsh than that than it did a joke about my dad being the voice of doom and my life changed the room went from silence to a roar of laughter a big wolf of recognition pity acceptance and poor booka but laughter all the same and at that moment I realize that even though my ex didn't love me fifty people upstairs in a pope in biker did or at least liked me a lot to find out what the joke was you have to buy my book turns out no one cared about the but when top that's one of the things I love about stand up no one cares what you wear and I can do a photo a and get a couple of people and social media ask away me dresses from and two hundred nineteen thousand nine hundred ninety eight people who couldn't give two hoots as long as I was funny then Scoville came up to me after the gig and said Are you willing to travel I said yes and he gave me the number of the matches to promote it to contact for a gig I smiled and as he walked away I deleted the number I was going to travel for this was he mad Can I just remind you that I've sensed in show business trailer and New Zealand. I left my leather gloves at the gig and when I mentioned that to comic radio host and all round good egg Stephan Petit he offered to drive by the pope to see if they were still there and then give them to me the next time we get together one adorable man that was after meeting him once I thought he was trying to get my pants as it was just a nice bloke my second gig is significant as it was where I met the love of my life if you don't cut the dog which I shouldn't but sometimes do it was at the courthouse in New Castle and run by Warren speed the opening act was supposed to be neck open but he'd been replaced by a bloke called Gary something today's how to be champion tip is if there's something you really want to do work out how to do it and get cracking sometimes vocalizing what it is you want to do makes it all seem much more feasible my friend and I used to make an annual list of what we wanted to achieve that year and the rule was that it had to be achievable goals so we couldn't say I want to come on the B.B.C. But we could say I want to write a simple sitcom script and get it on the desk of someone at the B.B.C. She also added in domestic stuff like new carpet for the living room whatever it is you want write it down and do it with a friend is a great idea then at the end of the year look at the list and see what you managed you'll be surprised we'd usually take it off at least half. Pinpoint what it is that you want look at how to get from way you walk to where it is just get started there's no magic involved be focused and work hard. Sarah Millican was ready for my mom how to be champion the book is a bridge produced by custom Cameron tomorrow the award winning comedian will set out her reasons for choosing not to have kids so the shipping bo's'n is just around

Bbc , Radio-program , Book-of-the-week , Radio-bbc-4-lw , Stream-only , Radio , Radioprograms ,

BBC Radio 4 Extra-20171012-014500

Love for Lydia was written by H.G. Bates and dramatized by Vivien Allen the producer was Tracy Neal. Two giants of American fear to confront their troubled past in Radio four extras drama next Wednesday after ten years of a strange moment Arthur Miller and easier than a force to confront how their intense friendship was derailed by the great moral and political dilemma of the time when his and named names to the House Un-American Activities Committee out of fear of being blacklisted by Hollywood the two men didn't speak for over ten years they were reunited when a struggling Miller agreed to let his on direct his new play after the four. Parts but the whole McCarthy and I Calvinist thing in the play I learned as a character in a Mickey who does on the stage pretty much what I did in real life that caused so much trouble and made everyone hate me it's the second act where the character the leg burns up the stage the play really comes alive I with all of Art's writing he's unflinching honesty the way he digs in Dave's self his past his pain the second act is all Marilyn because whatever art says Maggie is Marilyn Monroe he's thrown it all in a public marriage going sour love curdling the condemned hysteria obsession and suicide attempts it's just electric. Memories of Marilyn Monroe and the McCarthy hearings of folk an era in American history art and Gadg next Wednesday morning at a quarter past eleven and again in the evening at a quarter past nine. B.B.C. Radio four extra. Now David Yep takes us back to a rural province north of Shanghai in the late one nine hundred fifty S. As he continues his reading from Tombstone. To. A nanny is a rural province north of shall hide the Chinese Communist Party's three red Ballas wave highest here and the famine likewise hit hardest. Perfect in the south east of her administered eighteen counties and was home to eight point five million people is lush region was the province's main producer of grain and cotton yet from the winter of one thousand nine hundred fifty nine to the spring of one thousand nine hundred sixty at least ten million people starve to death here one out of every eight residents in September in one thousand nine hundred nine I went to see a company by two other reporters though the municipal party committee was clearly disconcerted by the purpose of our visit and arranged a scenic tour of the mountain we managed to interview a number of Carters and villages who'd lived through the famine and we gained access to documents that shed light on the infamous single incident in a political system such as China's those below imitate those above and political struggles are replicated in an even more ruthless for this is what happened in Singh Yes Following a provincial led campaign against right deviation sing Yang's going sang County conducted a criticism or struggle session against the secretary of the county secretary at Channel four Hung who was labelled a right a deviation ist. The county party secretary ma LONG SAN took the lead by kicking Chang after which others set upon him with fists and feet other struggle sessions were conducted by county level cutters during which Chang was beaten bloody his hair ripped out and his uniform tall leaving him barely able to walk by the time he was handed over to commune Carter's he could only lie on the floor while he was kicked and punched after several more days of struggle Chang Fu Hong died Singh Yang's professional commissioner Chan Hsu fan subsequently related in his memoir why Chang Fu Hong was targeted in the spring of one thousand nine hundred fifty nine in order to alleviate famine conditions among the peasants ma LONG SAN Senchenko to a production team to launch a pilot project in which output quotas were assigned to each household subsequently join the central committees low sand conference Mao gain the upper hand against his critics and reversed corrective measures taken against Russia advance and such quotas were labeled as right opportunism so moch denied responsibility saying Chiang Fu Hong that initiated the use although Chang insisted he was following my instructions an official one level higher can crush his subordinates and that's what happened here campaigns against right deviation in other counties were similarly brutal in one nine hundred fifty eight sing Yang sway ping County was given nationwide publicity for great leap agricultural production successes referred to as Sputniks or satellites these grand the children's were attributed to the struggle against right deviating conservatism. In an atmosphere of extreme political pressure anyone who dared question the accuracy of the reported crop yields risk being labelled a doubter or denier engaging in casting aspersions on the excellent situation and anyone who exposed the fraudulence of the high yield model was subjected to struggle a drought in one thousand nine hundred fifty nine drove down seeing Yang's crop yields but party Carters overcome by fanaticism proposed the slogan big drought big harvest and claimed higher yields than the year before Chiang Shu fan who was directly responsible for agriculture convened a meeting to provide practical and realistic appraisals of the disaster and adopt a divides measures such as very crop plantings to prevent a famine under the political pressures of the time when the professional party committee are asked the counties to report their projected yields each feared being criticised for reporting the lowest target you the homeless staff member at the meeting recalled that the first projection totaled fifteen billion kilos Chuang shoe Fund and others thought this excessively optimistic and asked everyone to submit new figures which subsequently produced a projection of seven point five and finally three point six billion kilos but Changsha fun expected a yield of only one point five to two billion kilos when he went to the provincial party to report the projected crop yield he expressed his concerns the Provincial Committee was dissatisfied and subsequently asked the professional party secretary Lucy and wouldn't what's going on in sin young under pressure Lou convened another meeting of county party secretaries requesting new projections. Soon afterwards right deviating elements were sought out and subjected to struggle and Chang Shu fan who had dared to speak the truth was stripped of his official position exaggerated yield projections meant higher procurement quotas by the state junction fan recalls the provincial party based his procurement on the big one nine hundred fifty eight harvest a Doppler effect but a quota by taking every kernel of grain Russian and seed grain from the peasants the provincial party committee subsequently found after the perfection met its mid October procurement quota three thousand seven hundred fifty one communal kitchens three hundred and seventy thousand people were left without food in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight seeing young perfect organized about thirty percent of the fetches working population for the great iron and steel production campaign the steel furnace is didn't actually smelt any ion rather the walks and cooking utensils of the peasants and the door knockers from their homes in the Bells on the temples were all melted out in order to report success in addition to the one point two million labors used for this campaign more than half a million were engaged in ball bearing production another two million in irrigation projects feeding these labor has left much less grain for the farm production teams if farmers were unable to hand over the required amount the government would accuse production teams of concealing grain a struggle between the two rows of socialism and capitalism was launched using political pressure mental torture and ruthless violence to extort every last kernel of grain from the peasants anyone who uttered the slightest protest was beaten sometimes fatally. The wife of Changsha fan was the chair of seeing young perfect Federation of women in June one thousand fifty nine Leroy in lead a work group to reach the mountain commune to report on a pilot project to produce five thousand kilos of Paddy per meal of land the brainchild of the county party secretary during her month long stay Levy's team learned that this model commune was a fraud and the peasants there were starving she wrote to the affectional party secretary requesting grain but was refused and labeled a right deviation ist a card or a century place or also truthfully reported the hunger of the commune members only to be labeled as vacillator the replacement one being Lin try to appease the party secretary by organizing an on the spot meeting to oppose false reporting of output and private withholding the arcane official formulation for hoarding all that was produced where rice husks covered by a thin layer of grain the perfect true party committee ordered local cutters to stifle the public outcry stop villages from fleeing in search of food after that anyone who claimed to have no grain was labeled a the gator of the three red ballasts a negate a after great harvest or a right deviation ist and was subjected to struggle punishments were inflicted on cutters and villagers alike ingoing son County two thousand two hundred and forty one people were beaten one hundred five fatally and five hundred and twenty six cutters were stripped of their official positions in the incident chief out pay who are described the situation in one village. At the end of September one thousand nine hundred fifty nine one ping way a member of the one C.L. One production team was forced to hand over grain kept in his home and was beaten with a shoulder pole dying of his injuries five days later not long after Wang's death the rest of his four member household died of starvation on October one thousand nine hundred fifty nine June one production team member chancy out T.N. And his son one hung from the beam of the communal dining hall when they failed to hand over any grain they were beaten and doused with cold water both dying within seven days two small children who survived them eventually died of starvation on November twenty eighth one thousand nine hundred sixty a report was sent to the one hand party secretary in the calamity of Wang sound counties people's commune the commune's average yield per meal was eighty six kilos the Communist Party committee reported a yield of three hundred and thirteen kilos the procurement quota set by the county exceeded the county's total grain yield in order to achieve the quota every scrap of food had to be seized from the masses all of the communal kitchens were closed down and deaths followed the secretary in charge of the anti hoarding campaign attributed the kitchen closures and deaths to attacks by well to do peasants and sabotage by class enemies they continue the campaign against false reporting and private withholding for eight months within sixty or seventy days not a kernel of grain could be found anywhere and mass starvation followed between September one thousand nine hundred fifty nine and June one thousand nine hundred sixty thirty three percent of the total population died. Seven hundred and eighty households were completely extinguished the village of T.N. One originally had forty five inhabitants but forty four of them died leaving behind only one woman in her sixty's who went insane the official communal dining hall was divided into three types a special dining room for party secretaries a slightly larger room for party committee members and a large mess hall for ordinary Carters the special dining room meat fish eggs and fried peanuts Meanwhile with no means of escaping a hopeless situation ordinary people couldn't adequately look after their own families were scattered to the winds children abandoned and corpses left along the roadside to rot as a result of the extreme deprivations of starvation three hundred eighty one commune members desk.

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BBC Radio 4 LW-20170927-233000

Of his own party it is quite something to behold in this hall in this city this week he's proved beyond doubt that the vast majority of Labor members the new influx think he's right but there are some nice divisions in the party are much diminished but haven't completely disappeared Lauren Burk B.B.C. News and The news is read by Charles Carroll now let's find out what's going on weather wise here's Chris Faulks that's not regular Take a look back at so Wednesday's U.K. Wide records if you like for the day graves and the warmest spot twenty two degrees Celsius was about five Celsius above average for the time of year so yes it was another warm late September day it wasn't dry everywhere we had some wet weather working into county for man are picking up thirty five millimeters of rain here so just over an inch and a half and that weather is moved away pretty much from Northern Ireland now or is clearing up and it's heading across Scotland England Wales with what weather continuing overnight some heavy bursts of rain to come as well but it's a given all the cloud and rain it's going to be a mild nights temperatures are in range for eleven to fifteen degrees Celsius Now look at the weather picture for Thursday we'll start off with the forecast across southwest England Wales and northwest England where although we start off on a rather cloudy note some sunny spells will break through fairly quickly and should be a dry day sensually some bridges reaching a high of eighteen degrees Celsius sixty four in foreign Heights crescents will southern England the middle and southeast England eastern England and northeast England starting rather cloudy Thursday morning backload back clouds can be quite low so misty over hills and still without breaks of rain or drizzle fairly widely initially during the morning that rain will very slowly peter out and the cloud will then begin to break up but probably not really turning very sunny until we get to the afternoon the sunshine them bursting through the clouds and some bridges lifting quite nicely not quite as warm as it was today but still on the warm side the average is if you like for the time of year temperatures between eighteen and twenty degrees Celsius. An improving weather picture for these areas in Northern Ireland now starting with a rather cloudy they'll be some sunny spells coming through for a time but then thickening cloud late afternoon will threaten outbreaks of rain to western counties the next Atlantic weather system there knocking on the door and also turning increasingly windy through the afternoon a brisk suddenly when setting up it will still be relatively mild temperatures of sixteen degrees here and in Scotland a cloudy and damp start to the day for many areas the rain reluctant to clear away from the northern hours in fact here be rainy for much of the afternoon make me feel rather cool fifteen degrees Celsius the top temperature here but the rain for the mainland the rain will clear white will see some sunshine breaking out through the afternoon so a fine afternoon in prospect and it will be relatively mild highs of seventeen degrees right thanks Chris Christie folks there for us at the B.B.C. Weather Center. Of the week wounds focus continues the story of his family's involvement in the struggle for Irish independence at the height of the fighting brutal killings took place on both sides today the story of a district inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary. A special correspondent of the Yorkshire Post remember District Inspector Tobias O'Sullivan. A big bluff hearty Irishman who might easily have been unsuspected of any subtlety of thought there that day the reporter dramatically changed his mind about the lack of social to O'Sullivan had taken a lift in the direction of Limerick with the journalist and his colleagues driving in a touring car along the main road leading west outside Newcastle West the car skidded and crashed into a deep ditch. It was a close thing had the car overturned the inspector and his fellow travelers might have died what transpired next puzzled the English journalist O'Sullivan looked in the car mirror and then declared that he would return to list or if I go into Limerick in this state he said the news will go round like quick fire that Inspector all Sullivan's been seen bleeding and there's been an attempt on his life it doesn't do to let the people around here realize that you're vulnerable and you can bleed O'Sullivan flagged down a passing police lorry and began his journey back to list all with the newspaperman said a laughing farewell he had arrived in the late autumn of one nine hundred twenty as the war around North Kerry was descending into a vicious cycle of ambush and reprisal around list all the women of common the man were increasingly active alone country girl like my grandmother had a partner could easily smuggler evolver through roadblocks since at the time the police didn't employ female searchers the gun that killed could be smuggled past police and army posts within an hour of the attack and also told one of her daughters how she transported communiques and other information hidden in her underwear the IRA operated without the feelers telephones of regular armies so plans lists of personnel and names of suspected informers were committed to paper and sent by courier for the British such documents captured from the IRA where a significant source of intelligence the first mention of Tobias O'Sullivan in the local Iraqi Council describes him leading a raid on Bali Longford at the end of November one thousand nine hundred twenty soon after his arrival in list of. The only witness accounts come from surviving members but they are consistent one man remembered how several lorries of our I.C.M. Black and Tans arrived and began a house to house search and valley Longford adjourning from time to time to visit public houses which they looted houses were burned a creamery saw mills and shops the local IRA had no weapons to fight back as they had been dumped outside the village a week earlier to avoid searchers while one IRA party went to recover weapons several men hid behind a wall about a quarter of a mile from the Longford footsteps approached which they took to be those of other are a man one of those waiting at the comedy called out there the lads but stepping into the road he saw a party of black and tans a comrade recalled He turned and ran but the town's opened fire shooting him in the back he managed to throw himself across a law in front of the doctor's house the town's found comedy behind the wall pulled him out on the road and shot him dead on the spot what happened in Bali Longford would have been enough to drive dangerous attention to District Inspector O'Sullivan but rumors had been mounting from the moment he arrived in North Kerry he was the or soul of them who a few months before had led to the famous defense of the Royal Irish constable or a barracks in Kilmallock against an IRA attack during the fight Liam Scully and I are a captain from Kerry was shot dead now in order had come from one of the most senior Iraqi commanders for Tobias or Sullivan to be killed volunteers were sort of NS assassination the call was heard by the men of the North Kerry IRA including my great uncle make a protocol and his friend. Eventually Canon three other men from his parish Dan O'Grady Jack Sheehan and Jack Ahern volunteered to kill the District Inspector Khan had never killed before his comrades likewise his family was devout and respectable. Except that Khan had also learned in the ranks of the volunteers that Irishman had fought British rule for centuries on the night of January nineteenth one thousand twenty one Jack Ahern state of congressman's house in Newtown sans the gunmen made their way into List all separately the following morning at about ten o'clock Brosnan by bicycle in the stall it was market day there would already have been crowds of farmers and travelling salesman on the streets Tobias O'Sullivan's wife May was at home with their three children waiting for her husband to return for lunch Vincent Carmody walked me over the ground they say locally he's a fair man to talk storytellers are valued here it's why Vincent loved my father who sponsor stories to everyone he met on Church Street when he was a boy but where my father mythologize the past and colorful tumbling sentences Vincent Carmody is list all historian of the real I came to him because of what he knew about the tan days in list of all we started at side my grandparents' home forty five char Street these days it is a solicitor's office the old wooden entrances gone and so too are the door jambs where my father used to point out a bullet hole left by the town's one night when they were firing down the street my memories of list all begin in the middle of the one nine hundred sixty S. I remember a relentless parade through my grandmother's front door of country relatives and neighbors like the publican who always brought her tips for the races and Toddy O'Connor who sold Harry bacon and cabbage with the first of their of a gold smuggler. I wondered how my people reacted to the District Inspector Tobias O'Sullivan and his young wife up and down the country are I.C. Families were frequently boycotted in the manner of the Land War of the previous century the Canes who lived a Church Street would have avoided the policeman although he was their neighbor with their future daughter in law my grandmother Hanna active in the IRA It would not have been prudent for them to be on anything other than nodding terms with the most senior police officer in the town but Tobias O'Sullivan's wife may went to the same shops as the Canes on Church Street and went to Mass in the same church she must surely have felt the hostility of Republicans towards her husband did people acknowledge her and pass the time of day when she came up and down Church Street with her three children the two little boys and the toddler girl from our old front doorstep on Church Street I looked up at the barracks on the opposite side of the road it took me less than a minute to walk there with Vincent comedy we called in at the squat three story mid-Victorian building a younger brother answered the door and politely informed us that he didn't have the keys so he couldn't admit us to the up stairs room where Tobias or Sullivan had his office let's go across here said Vincent beckoning me to follow him up the street to the place where Tobias O'Sullivan met his destiny I imagine the inspector busy with work before heading home to his lunch there would have been meetings with his sergeants army officers and auxiliary commanders the building was well protected with sandbags barbed wire and sentries. Or Sullivan would have realized by now that Republicans wanted him dead but he insisted on living at home and not being barricaded into the barracks he looked at the clock and saw it was time to set off home just a few minutes walk to the left of the gate and up Church Street towards where it becomes the road to Tarbert. A local man a former policeman down Farrel had spoken with the district and Specter and walked away down the street when he heard a succession of shots the first three shots were fired so closely together that I thought at the time there were one shot he recalled another witness heard a shot and saw a man with his hands raised to his head staggering on the footpath the image of the wounded man with his hands to his head is haunting the raised hands could not close the wound they could not ward off for other bullets the strong man staggered his last yards before tumbling into death. And remember that he and Dan O'Grady fired four shots each Jack Ahern said he fired six making sure that the execution was complete as he put it the post-mortem recorded that only four of the fourteen bullets hit their target but at that range Tobias or Sullivan had no chance of survival the killers went a few yards swerved to the right into a lane way which led towards a sports field and beyond that the immediate safety of the wards of court in ARD they ran to put as much distance as possible between themselves and any pursuers back on Church Street down feral turned around and walked back to find to bias or Sullivan lying face down in the gutter between the wheel of a donkey cart on the footpath he saw some children standing near the corpse the publican to me heard his wife cry out Oh my God there's a man shot to me and another man brought the stricken policeman into the public house the limpness of the body told him that the doctor would be too late more children were appearing at the scene it was lunchtime and there were flocking home from the two local schools. The news of the killing spread fast to gunning down a senior or I.C. Officer in such times invited swift reprisal locals retreated indoors businesses were closed some townspeople headed for the homes of relatives of the stole from my grandfather's front door the Keen's could see the furious activity around the barracks all that afternoon and through the night lorry loads of towns roared around the streets for hours but the presence of the army deterred immediate violence in the crucial hours after the killing command of list all seems to have been taken over by the military I imagine my grandmother and her brother at this point make protocol was on the move with the IRA taking part in ambushes and vanishing across bogs and mountains there was little time for him or his friend Khan Brosnan to dwell on what had happened and list all Hannah was still running messages and weapons on deterred by threats from the towns they were brutal killings all over Ireland in those days children in other places had lost their parents they had become victims themselves but these things happened elsewhere the shooting of Tobias or Sullivan happened at the front doors of the people of Church Street the pool of blood between the weight of the cart on the footpath was drying on their street how could this killing be acknowledged and understood in the houses where people heard the shots among those who walked past the blood heard the cries of the dead man's wife and children schoolchildren had seen the Gore this was the killing of an Irishman in the name of Ireland Tobias or Sullivan would be carried away from the stall in silence and into silence he would vanish for decades mediated by my own family into a ghost story. The green shape summoned by my father moving night after night across the ceiling of forty five trucks trees. The war coming to the time. For cocaine was reading from his book when switch was abridged by Anna Magnus and produced by Pip of one it was enough to production for B.B.C. Radio four.

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BBC Radio 4 FM-20170922-084500

Friday night at ten forty five and then available on the B.B.C. Radio four website. On longwave and D.A.B. Digital radio it's time for the daily service led by Nigel Swinford now on Radio four F.M. The final programme in the series followings and know this he and his team prepare for the opening of the role of prisoner production lab O.M. The story of the loves and losses of young artists in one thousand sentry Paris tunnel been presents following up on a. Coffee gardens floral hallways packed with expectant operators although the premiere of a new production is momentous it's the full dress rehearsal the provides the production team with their first audience response for the twenty seventeen Richard Jones on turn your partner staging of Loughborough M. This is a critical night but without the critics. In the relaxed setting of his office two hours before curtain up my strip upon our allows himself a moment of calm I have four wonderful portraits of put Cheney up near the ceiling actually their unique such an elegant man put Cheney and is something festive about him and that his music is like that elegant festive Yes but somehow if you look at the eyes burning eyes you see the passion and. The grit. We don't in the opera world have the luxury of previews and getting to perform the evening many times over into tweaking little things but. I'm looking forward to what actually is the reality of the production and what we've worked on when an audience is there everything changes somehow our impulses are different the adrenaline is going in a different way and so mainly today is about keeping my antenna up and speaking aware of what's really going on and try to be as alert as possible to help the singers and to help the orchestra for the. The corridor also filling with dressers makeup artists and singers and up from his stage side seat and still on the move the stage manager and returns are just talking through a few notes Maastricht upon I talk to the general rehearsal also at the moment just doing my checks checks for the show making sure everything is all set for the to go obviously this is the first. Young. First time with a general of a new position so you know the pressure is on a little bit but it's tremendously exciting I'm really proud of the production I think it's fantastic and I think the singers are just amazing just want to get it going now another stab at it with an audience is obvious it's the first time that we have an audience that makes such a difference. To the running of everything and it's going to be told to. Your. Downstairs never come team chorus members in one thousand sentry dress mics over coffee with the orchestra who are just beginning to arrive among them principal viola I'm really resound I think we're in good shape we've had quite a lot of rehearsal because it's a new production so we've had more time than we would usually have on the piece so it feels I don't know how the stage technicians are feeling I know there are lots of challenges for that for them but you look set kids in good shape so you know yourself think about changing what is add on though I haven't seen it today it's. That it's there while it seemed OK in the rehearsals he didn't get sometimes he gets very tense and I don't think you did this time so I think it's going to control pretty. Thank you very much. Wanted to do you know. Or if you want. Five minutes before curtain up and behind closed office door my strip upon a visitor's piano. Calling for help why are they suggesting this your concept of I'm going to school first I'm going to school one of these is the be on especially if. You how come they found me after they rocked. Through me he must walk to the stage takes him first past the soloists changing rooms to see if I see . It they might have. Been a. Few while yet when it is your second act for me it's called the next family's cool is the function now nothing to do with your Sunday shower and I was out from snow and that was on Monday from I believe it now better yet little thing here I think I still know you're. Up in the snow but on your knees on a. Saturday morning I did find. That I was going to die first. I'm. Going to. Be entering the backstage area the audience can be heard for the first time. Funny. To me said oh oh. Hello good evening good evening a. Couple months of the Olympics every time a. Stage Manager amateur and that is the escort under the stage two people with entrance. For. Both a calm and I want to communicate through the lighting stage in front of house crews my strip on a rolling his shoulders if I warm up before performances just to try to loosen my muscles and trying to get. My whole posture to to be in the healthy position it's a workout to conduct. And is fishy the beginning of this opera as it's kind of a nonstop. Shooting. But it's a moment also where you're thinking through different moments here praying that everybody is remembering the little details that worked on but also there's a huge curiosity about the audience about what they will think that's what preoccupies me is I'm very conscious of the pact between performers and audiences and that to me is such a holy contract and us performers we have to honor have to really do our best for every audience. OK. I want to think it is about this particular opera lover and that's made it so unbelievably poppin I mean it's one of the top three most popular prisoner at the time well it's ordinary life I mean people fight people fall in love people. And it's very ordinary and it bubbles along and then something devastating happens at the end that's very shocking. Experience and I think that's why people first feel very strongly that there's a need for these kind of big pieces and these big challenges somehow these events bringing people together the most difficult thing is to in that environment where the expectations are so high from the unions to still do the job as Honestly this thrillingly as you possibly can there are themes of poverty and there are things that will help I think what's relevant about it is the experience of going to see it because its function is to bring joy to your heart and also break your heart and that's a very important and is an experience the production for. And I'm turning. Couldn't put this information very gently and already of course ladies and gentlemen just to clarify it's just greedy for me on that stage Monsanto and. Everybody else back to us and have to take such important decisions on do over there is just for that it's a box of matches gas station and they actually took only a gold star on the second body you retreat to make it. And as well as retrieving matches the course also have production notes pins to the changing room door to be put into effect when they reach the stage for us to be aware that your promenading as the mummy struck traveled on with Paul two for stage right and ended up marking Mary as he was singing in the restaurant as it came into being please travel further left more quickly so that he has a clear line to tell me and the audience it's a newt at. The we we need to say that when the restaurant truck comes on we're not marking one of the print principles say he's got a clear view to the my straight to change. My name to Mandelson and that's his primary in the royal house course I think I've been involved in for eighteen formative by them in Korea in opera not here but it Welsh national And tonight I'm delighted to be here and be doing this production that she's just happiness means peace. Was. This simplicity sometimes can. Not satisfy everybody from the obvious and we do it with acceptation and understanding but Richard wants us not to react like people in the opera react on stage it's hard to say if this is beautiful for the traditional opera lovers they may say that it's not enough I hope they were looked. Picture and sings the role of the Bahamian painter. Three days later in front of a packed and critiqued Laden Coffee Garden he and his fellow performers delivered a brilliant operatic performance the critics largely applauded the production as a worthy successor to the forty year old version the proceeded it one writes that although it may not last forty years so long as it has singing and acting in this high quality it will deserved. I was relatively quiet at dinner quite introspective the melancholy of the piece along with the exuberance but the melancholy of the piece and the tragedy of the end is marks here somehow at least temporarily also for me it was really coming full circle because I made my debut in this house in one nine hundred ninety with level M. And it didn't go particularly well and so this was a Somehow I don't know that some offered as really American say closure. And you know little sense of pride Oh I'm very proud of the orchestra chorus and the forces of the house I'm very happy for Richard Jones you really have to know somebody very very well to be able to work in such detail and not kill each other. He's done a tremendous job and he's been very very focused and concentrated and it's given a view of this piece which I think is fresh and young and alive. You can like it you can not like it but you cannot deny its energy of all the generous things said about him during the making of these programs and there were many from the stage door staff to the chief executive the most clear sighted came from the viola principle I merely Roussel is not really a conductor is a storyteller really is just a cesspool with the drama it sounds obvious it sounds like any of reckoned up to should be preoccupied with that but it's not necessarily what happens being called a storyteller is probably the best compliment I've ever received so I'm thrilled Yeah that's that's what I do that's what I love to do that's why I work in the theatre if you're not telling stories if that's not a of primary interest and I don't know what you're doing in the theater. Following panto is producing presented by Tom Alben and you can hear live from called God man Radio three on Saturday the seventh of October at six thirty in the evening. This is the song of elected sale one of Antarctica's top predators and my guest is the world's leading expert on this fearsome species of marine mammal next week Jim here is about the life scientific of tracing Roger. Thank have. Very stereotyped. Each individual seal at the different man School range those cools in a different culture so each one has a different song I see. The life scientific Tuesday mornings at nine on B.B.C. Radio four.

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BBC Radio 4 LW-20170919-233000

Destroy North Korea if it threatens America or its allies hurrican Maria which has devastated the Caribbean island of Dominique or has strengthened as it heads towards Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with winds of one hundred seventy five miles an hour B.B.C. News. The news is read by Luke Gardner Now storm for the Wherever you are hopefully not as bad as those in the Caribbean Here's Dr demands no not at all. Sorry if male sorry male my caution exuberant names today have done so many shifts in a row as well it's been really busy of course that's hurricane as being very severe and is heading into the islands of British Virgin Islands and also the U.S. Virgin Islands and also puts a Rico and he's going to make landfall as a very dangerous Category five storms will keep you chewing on that today though hasn't been too bad at all as forecast Tuesday's fine may need to ride a variable cloud sunny spells along with light winds temperatures reached a high nine hundred twenty places but it was mumbles and Cardiff in South Wales which saw the day's highs temperature of eighteen point eight Celsius but it wasn't Sunday's place that was Lucas in Fife which saw ten point eight hours worth they it was largely dry but there were some early showers across the Southeast Division which were the remnants of the previous day's weather fronts in this game chroma ten point six millimeters of rain making this the day's wet his place now tonight most of the country will also remain dry with clay spells leading to another fairly Cheney night with temperatures dipping to low single figures in the countryside along with some mist and folk patches However it's not going to be chilly everywhere is across western parts the cloud will be thicker is a weather system pushes in off the Atlantic so here a little bit milder to end the nights than of late with some patchy rain into Northern Ireland and western Scotland so for today and it's mostly going to be a fine dry start rather chilly some early mist and fog which will cool left in clear through the morning Northern Ireland then western Scotland will start of cloudy breezy with outbreaks of rain and this rain will become heavier more persistent as it continues to push for the east by the afternoon the rain will be across most of Scotland and will also fringe into parts of northwest England western Wales and the southwest of England but the heaviest rain will be across the west and southwest of Scotland and Northern Ireland. For East and Wales and for the rest of England that may need dry through the day with sunny spells in light winds temperatures in the brightest places will reach highs of one thousand or twenty degrees maybe twenty one Celsius in North East Wales and South East Midlands so warmer than it's been for quite a while. When the thing stabbed Americans with the latest weather now imperiously ready for the second in our series following her and Tony and his team at the Rural Opera House Government garden as they prepare for a new production of Puccini's nearly papa opera. Could it be that great ANDERSON COOPER three Can morning to see you. So rehearsals for the royal opera's new production of La the now well under way you are. My strip on I was working in minute detail with my cello scratching from Poland and Rudolfo the American Michael Fabiano. The atmosphere speaks of an easy trust between singers conduct on. The moon and then you are your lover the river. I'll never trust the work that you do. And there's another vital member of the team over my strip upon I was a brilliant pianist himself for her souls he needs someone else. I'm James Hendry I'm on the second of the young artist program the packing artist program hand as a opera Repetto to conduct a repetitive have the see that don't know it's just a pretty much a fancy word for a pianist works so we really in opera and so I play for all the rehearsals up to the point where the singers will get with the orchestra and. Having been a pianist myself and having been a rehearsal pianists for many years and playing his first poem it's first of all it's ferocious to play it's very difficult and sometimes I know I've become impatient but he's an incredibly talented boy and he's definitely going to become the conductor he's of natural. And he's got the nerve in him so sometimes he's a little bit too quick but he's learning the score and when we go back and repeat things he's never makes the same mistake twice. James and he will go to the place. My job as well is to actually have my full score which is what all the instruments are playing by my side as well to try and recreate as much of that color and as many of those notes as possible propound I asked May towards the end of revolvers Arianna. And I played there. And actually there is. Not that which isn't written in the focus but Maestro knows the score so well it was like no there's a D. Flat that so he asked me to put it in that note make such a difference. From that to. It's a completely different color it will say something to the singers the was. I believe that conductors are formed through the opera house through playing rehearsals getting to know the pieces from the inside that's the way I came up he's in our young artist program and this is a big chance for him also so you know he's really in the trenches here but it's a very important opportunity for him and going to try to share as much information with him as possible. Do from the third part yes you. Can walk into the real. This rehearsal thinking you know the scar actually by the end of it it's in your bones it really is and what better person to work with arguably probably the best cheeni interpreter alive at the moment really in doing it so it's really pretty incredible. The. By contrast director Richard Jones works in previous eras performers blocking the movements of the main characters. All of them have been involved in previous productions of the opera either here or elsewhere so they're getting used to the set a series of large mobile units or trucks which carry the attic of the first and last scenes and the moved during the second and third to create the space and color of nineteenth century powers. In this movement rehearsal one of Richard Jones assistance is piecing together the flamboyant seen at the cafe moments where Mazetti played by Simone I mean high he's arriving with an elderly and temporary partner Doro played by wind and carried. The letter. That. I surf a and I'm a movement director and get to the knife spend days and day sitting in his kitchen with him talking to me about what he imagines for the pace and I write up stories from our conversations together and he briefs me so we've got together at the same musically and he'll say what he wants to happen when. He was right here was contriving. Yet I've done that OK we've been working together quite a long time no I think about ten years and so I understand the way that he approaches things and the specificity in corner of thought that sounds strange but I mean just every thought has kind of corner before it goes to the next thought and I know. How he. Once that to be clear and I know how to help the former physical eyes that you would see thought I want to see an animal once it's almost like you know when the faults of someone suddenly becomes aware of danger or food in the space it's a sense of that OK so. My job is to make for example in this scene to make a restaurant that's really believe as a restaurant all the actors need to really be able to do very convincing so for service they need to know why they are in the room they need to know the hierarchy of all their status is within the remit relation to the make today he's leading them and the thing that makes acting crazy clear and readable is when everything is live through the body and it's actually the thought that drops into the body that the text in the action then comes out of and yes I am like. In the kind of studio and some of that road for example had lots of people who would actually make the sculptures work but it's very much the vision of Richard from this. Whole. Band that it. Has lost some of. What would you know. It's quite exciting it's also I'm I'm feeling a lot of empathy for the singers at the moment because Richard is very very specific and Tony is very very specific and together there it really feels like a complete collaboration in the way that they're relating to the saying is and I'm there in the peripheries then helping clarify or give practical solutions to the saying is in order for them to really then be able to embody what's being asked of by everybody. So it's on the down. Thank you lovely John part of the piano when the going to push back down into your chair at me and he will kind of the see and that both of you going to sit down again but immediately again with a lot of energy. Featuring the Baratunde singing the role of Marcelo Yes and I'm seem when I'm high singing that one of them was that the opening night is on September eleventh it means we have two and a half weeks that operates done it's finished now we are doing the details and we are putting all together with a chorus with parts of the set and the actors costumes so on next week we started rehearsals with the orchestra the work is full of excitement and full of questions we are fighting about few things we love or love less some some Since So this is wonderful that with Richard we can always discuss and he's telling us very clearly no or maybe I prefer to have a precise idea as coming from the stage director and that's what we get here I have totally agree with what modesty is saying both Richard and my step up on are starting with a blank page yes and they are working in so much detail that it may be strange for some especially Richard Jones I've worked before with Richard and I know his style I know the way he wants to make every single word realistic which is quite a challenge in the operatic world I would say because a lot of the time there can be the good old operatically share where you just stand there and you seeing the wonderful pine note. But I think he wants to make it a bit more than just the high note. So the simplicity sometimes can not satisfy everybody from the audience. We after three weeks we started to understand it and we do it with yeah with acceptation and understanding but who knows what the audience would like if the audience were like it or not so we are not making big gestures with our hands and legs and eyes sometimes we just hold each other and that's what we do we hold each other we are listening looking into the eyes of the colleagues on stage but nothing more and well that's beautiful but. It's hard it's hard to say if this is beautiful for the traditional opera lovers they may say that it's not enough I hope they would love to. Watch. It of course with a score like this and most of the attention is actually on the words in the delivery the timing of the delivery for maximum effect maximum theatricality maximum communication between the characters themselves and between them and the audience. The score is very detailed but it's very easy because there are so many the it is very easy to just to skip right by them and to forget them and because as with anything that's been around for over one hundred years traditions tend to form there are many recordings many famous recordings and you know decisions are made to as to how things are done and sometimes they veer away from what is written in the score now the score is not a bible it is a guide but when something is so meticulous I think it behooves you to please pay attention and to try to achieve the freshness of delivery that is so key to this piece. This. All goes. With. The. Having the music director during all rehearsals from the first one that's very unusual it never happens but here five weeks of rehearsals and we have twenty pop on the from the first second. A situation we know exactly what he wants from us and I believe for the opening that it would be just that even a well prepared performance. From some of. The . Following to ponder was produced and presented by Tom album and in the next programme rehearsals moved to the Covent Garden stage the shipping forecast is coming up shortly.

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