Bel Powley, UTIs, Thai Elections, Theatre for Teenagers, Under Pressure
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2023
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most of us are familiar with the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who wrote a diary while hiding from the Nazis with her family, in Amsterdam during the Second World War. You are probably less familiar with the name of the woman who agreed to keep them safe in those secret attic rooms. Miep Gies was Otto’s secretary, and when they were eventually located and sent to their deaths, it was Miep who found Anne’s diary and kept it. A new TV series tells the whole story from Miep’s perspective, and she is played by the British actor Bel Powley. Bel joins Nuala to talk about playing an ordinary woman who displayed extraordinary courage.
Plans have been announced to allow more patients to use high street pharmacies for some common drug prescriptions and routine tests to ease the pressure on busy GPs. Pharmacies are being asked to take on the prescribing of drugs for seven common ailments, including sore throats, earaches, shingles and urinary tract infections or UTIs. Women are up to 30 times more likely to get a UTIs than men. Half of women will have at least one in their lifetime and 20% will have more than one. So is easier access for women for UTI treatment a positive move? Mary Garthwaite, a former consultant urologist and chair of the Urology Foundation joins Nuala to discuss.
As voters in Thailand head to the polls on Sunday for a general election, who are the frontrunners and what are the issues that female voters care about? Women played a key role in the 2020 pro-democracy protests and many are seeing the election as a way to challenge the power of patriarchal institutions such as the military and the monarchy. The current Prime Minister has been trailing behind opposition candidates in the polls, including Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who gave birth just two weeks ago. Nuala is joined by Jonathan Head, the BBC's South East Asia correspondent, to discuss.
We hear the next in our series about how relationships are changed and put under strain when life happens. Zoe and James talk about how 'Ed' which is what they call Zoe's eating disorder has affected them since they got together as a couple when they were at school. Zoe's anorexia was 'atypical' - her weight wasn't low but she was in the grip of anorexia, all the behaviours and disordered thinking were there - her body was under terrible stress and she was regularly collapsing. Only James was really aware of what was going on, a fact that put their relationship under pressure. Jo Morris went to meet Zoe and James in Lincolnshire and they tell their story.
What was your experience with theatre when you were at school? Was there that one show you saw that inspired you and that you’ll never quite forget? Playwright Hannah Lavery and writer and actor Sarah Middleton have recently taken to the stage with their respective plays, Protest, and SHEWOLVES, which are aimed at teenagers and ensuring that young women’s voices are heard on the stage. They join Nuala to discuss the impact theatre can have on young people.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Hanna Ward
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.9 | Hello, this is Nulam Agauverin and you're listening to the Woman's Hour Podcast. |
| 0:09.4 | Hello and welcome. I hope you've had a very good week end. Maybe you're back at work today. |
| 0:15.7 | Well, good to have you with us wherever you are. Now, you might have just heard in the news |
| 0:19.6 | bulletin there that NHS England will ask patients to use high street pharmacies for some common drug |
| 0:26.0 | prescriptions and also routine tests. They say it'll ease the pressure on busy doctors |
| 0:31.3 | and there are seven common ailments that will be part of the plan. It includes urinary |
| 0:36.5 | tract infections. Is that something that gives you pause? The UTIs, they do affect women so much |
| 0:42.1 | more than men. But is a pharmacy the right place to diagnose and treat a UTI? Well, we'll discuss |
| 0:48.1 | that. Also, to Thailand, parliamentary elections are taking place there next Sunday. The early voting |
| 0:54.0 | has already started. We're going to take a look at the candidates, including one woman who |
| 0:58.4 | gave birth just a couple of weeks ago and is already back on the campaign trail. Also, we're asking |
| 1:04.4 | could this election challenge the patriarchal systems within the country? We do have also another |
| 1:10.8 | conversation in our under pressure series. It's looking at relationships when something happens to |
| 1:18.0 | intense pressure on that connection. Today, it's how an eating disorder affected young couples |
| 1:25.6 | live. So we'll talk about that and we also want to talk about theatre. Did you see something on |
| 1:31.3 | stage when you were a girl that affected you? What was it and why? Well, you can text the program. |
| 1:37.2 | The number is 84844. Text will be charged at your standard message rate. On social media, |
| 1:44.0 | we're at BBC Women's Hour or you can email us through our website or if you prefer WhatsApp |
| 1:49.6 | notes or voice notes or WhatsApp messages. That number is 037001444. We're going to be speaking to |
| 1:58.2 | two guests, writers, about how and why they are trying to reflect girls voices on stage. |
| 2:07.1 | But first, to a woman who has been on the screen since she was a girl that is Bell Powley. |
... |
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