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Woman's Hour

Bethany Shriever, Sian Ruddick, Katherine Gordon, Debbie Cook, Meg Mason, Ruth Evans, Tamanna Rahman

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.22.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bethany Shriever’s win at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 gave the British Olympic team its first ever gold medal in BMX racing even though she had to launch a crowdfunding appeal to stand a chance of qualifying for the games. What does this latest award mean for her and BMX racing? In the wake of the Sarah Everard murder, Boris Johnson said he’d stop at nothing to jail more rapists’ and promised to fix the system which means just 1.3% of cases result in a charge. Our reporter Melanie Abbott has been investigating new guidelines on evidence gathering issued by the Crown Prosecution Service and Emma Barnett talks to Sian Ruddick who is an independent sexual advisor who works with victims of sexual assault. In 1958, The Great Leap Forward was a campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party to reconstruct the country and its economy which resulted in mass starvation and famine. Thousands of people fled to the neighbouring state of Hong Kong, which was a British colony at the time and many children – often girls - living in overcrowded Hong Kong orphanages were adopted by British families in the sixties. We hear from two of those children Katherine Gordon and Debbie Cook and their remarkable start to life. After the DJ Tim Westwood faces multiple allegations of sexual misconduct - which he strenuously denies - we talk to Tamanna Rahman and BBC Producer Ruth Evans. Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is a funny novel about mental illness and families and love of all sorts. Martha Friel is loved and hilarious and clever but she sometimes cries for days. When she was 17 she had a breakdown which has shadowed her life since then. At 40 she finally gets a diagnosis which helps her to understand why she is as she is. So why did Meg Mason decide not to name Martha's illness in the book? She explains her decision to Emma. Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Managers: Tim Heffer & Michael Millham

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.4

Hello, I'm Emma Barnett and welcome to Women's Hour from BBC Radio 4.

0:10.6

Good morning and welcome to today's programme. As usual, it is a busy one. From the first

0:15.2

person to in this country and Olympic gold medal in BMX Racing to an author who has this

0:20.1

morning been shortlisted for the women's prize for fiction, it is all going on and we

0:24.8

have an exclusive report for you into how changes to the justice system design to mainly benefit

0:29.6

women may not be happening at all. And I'll be talking to the women who when listening

0:35.1

to this very programme found someone who had the same incredible life story as her. All

0:41.4

to come. But first, the DJ Tim Westwood who was on Radio 1 and Radio 1 Extra for nearly

0:47.1

20 years is facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. Seven women came forward

0:53.2

to take part in a BBC investigation and give interviews anonymously. It was joined with

0:58.1

the Guardian newspaper. They say he abused his position in the music industry to exploit

1:03.2

them. Meanwhile, four other women have accused the DJ of either touching their bottoms or

1:08.2

breasts as they pose for photographs with him at different events where he was performing.

1:13.6

The thing that all of the women having common is that they were young at the time and that

1:17.8

they are black. Tim Westwood, who's 64, is accused of predatory and unwanted sexual behaviour

1:24.0

and touching between the years of 1992 and 2017. He said he strenuously denies the allegations.

1:32.2

Well, Ruth Evans is the producer of the BBC 3 documentary into this which went out last

1:37.2

night. Ruth, good morning. The documentary has received a lot of coverage across the

1:42.2

whole of the press. Actually, newspapers and other networks, the BBC, any updates since

1:46.3

going out last night. We have had a huge amount of response online, lots of people talking

1:51.3

about this and actually we've had lots of people coming forwards to the BBC with stories.

...

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