Steve Punt and Jon Culshaw present a comedic look at the week's news. 
Chapters
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Plastic surgery enquiry
A major review into cosmetic surgery is being launched in light of the PIP breast implant scandal. Jenni hears from NHS Medical Director Sir Bruce Keogh.
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Summer reads: feminist classics
From old favourites to the pioneering feminist writers of the 60s to current writers. Katy Guest, Literary Editor of the Independent on Sunday and novelist Joanna Briscoe discuss.
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Children and interfaith families
A judge has ruled that a 10yr old Jewish girl can be baptised as a Christian against her mother’s wishes. Rosalind Birtwistle and Elisabeth Arweck discuss.
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Veteran athletes
An exhibition in Cambridge is showing pictures of sportsmen and women competing in the Masters Games – events for athletes ranging in age from their mid-30s to their 90s. Louise Adamson reports.
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Pioneering queens of comedy
The pioneering golden girls or female trailblazers of British TV comedy with Dick Fiddy, Curator of the Queens Of TV Comedy season at the BFI, and comedy writer and performer Brenda Gilhooly.
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Veteran athletes
An exhibition currently running at the New Hall Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge puts the lie to the idea that athletics is only for young people. The photographer Alex Rotas is showing pictures of sportsmen and women competing in the Masters Games – events for athletes ranging in age from their mid thirties to their nineties. Louise Adamson has been to meet Alex and veteran javelin thrower, Sheila Champion, to find out about the appeal of sport in later years.
Alex Rotas Photography
The exhibition continues at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge until the 2nd of September. -
Summer reads: feminist classics
Over the past three weeks, guests of Woman’s Hour have been recommending some good summer reads. This week is the turn of feminist fiction starting with that old favourite Jane Austen, moving on to the pioneering feminist writers of the 60s and 70s [such as Doris Lessing, Erica Jong, Marilyn French and Margaret Atwood] coming right up to date with the likes of Stella Duffy, Marion Keyes and Helen Simpson. Katy Guest, Literary Editor of the Independent on Sunday and novelist Joanna Briscoe discuss their favourite feminist fiction.
Joanna Briscoe -
Plastic surgery enquiry
The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has asked Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS to lead a review of the cosmetic surgery industry. It’s clearly been prompted by the scandal over the PIP breast implants and the discovery that there were few records to indicate which women might have had them and there was a shortage of evidence to show what impact they’d had on women’s health. Nor were some private health clinics keen on putting right any problems that had been caused. Jenni talks to Sir Bruce Keogh.
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Children and mixed religion families
A judge in Essex has ruled that a 10-year-old Jewish girl can be baptised as a Christian against her mother’s wishes. The judge said that the girl was mature enough to choose for herself. We ask how much children understand about their faith and whether parents with different religions are prepared for the conflicts that can bring. Jenni will be talking to Rosalind Birtwistle from the Interfaith Marriage Network.
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Pioneering queens of comedy
Female TV comedians have been making us laugh and disproving the notion that women are just not as funny as men ever since Olive Fox got her own show in 1937. Comedy may be a male dominated world, but since Joyce Grenfell in the 1940s, several talented women have achieved the rare feat of hosting their own TV shows. We’ve laughed along to comics like Beryl Reid, Marti Caine, Victoria Wood, and French & Saunders, and now they’re all being celebrated in a new season looking back at the pioneering ‘golden girls,’ or female ‘trailblazers’, of British TV comedy. Dick Fiddy, Curator of the Queens Of TV Comedy season, joins Jenni to explain why having your own TV show was such a rarity for women, and how they managed to do it. And comedy writer and performer Brenda Gilhooly describes her own experiences of making it as a female comic today.
BFI
Queens Of TV Comedy - a new season of rarely seen archive footage and live performance - is on at the British Film Institute and Hackney Empire in London from 14-28 August 2012
Broadcasts
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BBC Radio 4Wed 15 Aug 2012 10:00 BBC Radio 4
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