Speechification

I don't usually go for documentaries about Australian indigenous communities on ABC Radio National. It's not that I think such matters are unimportant. Quite the opposite. It's just that there's a certain ... well, hand-wringing to much of the ABC material in question. This, however, is very different. It's a great doco from a few years back concerning Arnhem Land- up there - and its people in the context of Colin Simpson's original ground-breaking radio broadcasts from there in 1948. But it's also about radio journalism, documentary-making - particularly as regards the recording of indigenous culture, and the issues in repatriating media - and some lovely glorious sound itself.

ABC Radio National: Return to Arnhem Land [mp3]

An excellent and engrossing discussion between Night Waves presenter Philip Dodd and historian and journalist Timothy Garton Ash, ranging across Communist Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Orwell, Greene, the soixante-retards, the USA and the Bush administration, and England's place in Europe.

I feel sort of blessed that this level of intellectual discussion is available free to air, just coming out of my radio when I switch it on... [MP3]

Roo reminded me about this From Our Own Correspondent 50th anniversary special from 2005. FOOC (that's what they call it) is a show whose format hasn't changed in 50 years: short reflections from foreign correspondents. No other voices - no matter how good your material is. Is there another broadcast show in the world you could say that about?

It's a measure of how seriously the Corporation took the abduction and ultimate release of Middle East correspondent Alan Johnston that they saw fit to vary FOOC's 50 year-old format for a one-off featuring only Johnston (still no interviews, though).

Here's an MP3 of the anniversary show and here's a nice page of stories from the FOOC archive. Here's a page of background and here's a FAQ.

Photo of Tintin (the ultimate foreign correspondent) by rmx on Flickr.

I'm looking for help, and perhaps we have enough friends out there now that a lazyweb request has a chance of working.

Last Saturday, there was a repeat of a documentary about Tintin which I think had been on before, some months ago. Some time this morning the stream seems to have been replaced by this week's programme in the same slot, "The Nun Who Nurtured Reggae", despite being accessed by a URL ending with "radio4/tintin_journalism". Presumably it redirects to some underlying stream which is reused. It's annoying, in any case.

Did anyone happen to record it when it was on?

Update: Jem points out in a comment that it's this week's entry on the Radio 4 Choice podcast. Wonderful! (And how did I miss that? Another podcast I need to which I must subscribe).

There's also something unbearably romantic about From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4, but perhaps especially when listening while bundled up in warm blankets during a lie-in on a grey winter weekend morning.

In case you're not familiar with the show, it describes itself as "personal reflections by BBC correspondents around the world" which is a wonderful thing indeed. It's not a travel show, but a glimpse into the quiet moments of the lives of British journalists on foreign assignments.

Personally, I can't help picture the faces and suitcases behind all these lovely British accents sitting in front of their microphones in lonely hotel rooms in distant and exotic places. This week's epdisode brings us thoughts on the impact of recent strikes in Paris, contemplations of the Commonwealth from Uganda, a glimpse into family life in rural China, a hunt for size ten shoes in Yemen and even enticing descriptions of twenty-first century Timbuktu. (MP3, Real)

The whole thing is tied together by Kate Adie, the much loved flack-jacketed BBC chief reporter who was apparently once shot at by an "irate Libyan" on one of many war assignments.

I have only just now realised that From Our Own Correspondent is available as a podcast. I'll be subscribing to that now then.

[Photo by ny156uk on Flickr]