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Last broadcast on Sat, 3 Dec 2011, 09:00 on BBC Radio 4.
Synopsis
Richard Coles with rising opera star Noah Stewart, poet Aoife Mannix, the fashion photographer turned photojournalist who went to Afghanistan where he stepped on a landmine and lost three limbs, the art teacher who taught Young British Artists Damian Hirst and Marcus Harvey, the Parliament choir, and the Inheritance Tracks of Sporty Spice Girl Mel C.
Producer: Anna Bailey.
STUDIO GUEST :: NOAH STEWART
Richard's guest is Noah Stewart, opera's rising star.
Noah is performing at The Royal Festival Hall on December 9th and making his debut at the Royal Opera in March 2012. His first album is out in February.
FEATURE: THE PARLIAMENT CHOIR
MPs, peers and staff across the Palace of Westminster sing together in The Parliament Choir. Their Westminster Christmas concert is on December 7th.
AMPUTEE PHOTOJOURNALIST :: GILES DULEY
Giles Duley is a fashion photographer turned photojournalist who lost three limbs when he stepped on a landmine in Afghanistan.
DAMIEN HIRST'S ART TEACHER :: DAVID WOOD
David Wood is a retired art teacher who taught two Turner Prize winners: Damien Hirst and Marcus Harvey.
INHERITANCE TRACKS :: MELANIE C
Sporty Spice Girl Melanie C chooses Stevie Wonder's 'I Wish' and 'Eternal Flame' by Bangles. Melanie's new single 'Let There Be Love' is out now.
POET :: AIOFE MANNIX
POEM :: WARM GREETINGS
So it’s that time of year when all that we hold dear
is celebrated by inebriated party staff having a laugh.
Glasses tinkle as the lights twinkle, those who dare
prepare to brave the snow but no for this December
we must remember the bees and butterflies who
are still alive, who survive far past their sell by date
for even winter’s running late. As Pippa tempts fate
by trying to skate across thin ice, we wonder
what’s the price of all this unseasonable warming.
Could it be Santa Claus is sending us a warning?
POEM :: BECOMING THE STORY, SELF PORTRAIT
From the street children of Odessa
tumbling from the rubble of their home
to Sudanese boys brandishing machine guns
as Bangladeshi refugees hold each other up,
these photographs cut open with surgical precision
the soul of each survivor. They explode
the myth of meaningless statistics
in wars we know so little about.
Their black and white faces spell out
the illiteracy of our ignorance,
as if to say we all walk on egg shells,
we all lose pieces of ourselves,
we are all struggling to return
to the place where we first understood
what it is to frame a human connection.
Our grief caught forever in the old man eyes
of a baby who has yet to know peace,
and as the lens cracks open, we see at last
that their story has always been our story,
all that we have are self portraits,
there is no other kind, just the raw beauty
of those who are wounded
but still look you in the eye.
Broadcast
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Sat 3 Dec 201109:00
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