PODCASTS/AUDIOBOOKS
Legacy Various platforms, review by Yvette Huddleston
Hosts Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan take a look at historical figures and ask refreshingly frank questions about them, assessing their place in history and exactly what their legacy might be. In the opening episode they assess Napoleon – the new film starring Joaquin Phoenix in the title role has recently been released – and look at how a young Corsican, a bit of an outsider by all accounts, took an opportunity to make a name for himself when France was disrupted by a long, violent revolution. Hirsch and Frankopan ask whether Napoleon was a warmongering dictator or a charismatic, visionary leader. Forthcoming episodes include an exploration of singer-songwriter Nina Simone’s important role in the civil rights movement and whether Picasso should be cancelled.
Doctor Who: 60 years of Frends and Foes BBC Sounds, review by Yvette Huddleston
One of the BBC’s most successful and longestrunning TV projects is put under the microscope at it celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Here Sue Perkins explores how the programme has reflected the country’s social and history and cultural shifts over the decades both on screen and off. Among the topics discussed are politics, gender and sexuality and advances in technology. There is plenty of archive footage from episodes of the programme featuring the doctor’s various incarnations plus insightful conversations and interviews with many involved with the series including screenwriter and showrunner Steven Moffat, former companion Janet Fielding and the voice of the Daleks Nicholas Briggs.
Where It’s At: A Short History of Girlbands BBC Sounds, review by Yvette Huddleston
Hosted by the Saturdays’ Mollie King, this eight-part series explores the history of allfemale groups and in particular how the girlbands of the 1990s and 2000s inspired a generation of young women. They did after all give us some iconic outfits and dance routines and some of the biggest pop hits of the past few decades. The Spice Girls, All Saints, Sugababes and Mis-Teeq are among the bands that King references. She looks at the Spice Girls’ meteoric rise to international fame and looks at how girlbands had to be resilient in order to survive in a maledominated industry and suggests that they are more radical than you might think. A new generation of writers and artists are looking to them for inspiration.
Ghost Story Wondery, review by Yvette Huddleston
Journalist Tristan Redman works in Al Jazeera English’s Paris bureau and has covered many international stories in his career. He is a man who deals in facts and most certainly does not believe in ghosts. However, he does remember some strange experiences in the house he lived in as a teenager. Years later he discovers that subsequent occupants of the house spoke of being visited by the ghost of a faceless woman. In a bizarre coincidence it transpires that Redman’s childhood home was next door to the house in which his wife’s great grandmother Naomi Dancy was murdered in 1937 – shot twice in the face. In this compelling seven-part series, Redman investigates whether there is a connection between the ghostly sightings and the murder.