Director Adura Onashile, Grieving and Christmas Shopping, Maria Callas's Centenary
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2023
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Adura Onashile’s debut film, Girl, mother Grace and daughter Ama have recently arrived in Glasgow and have created a beautiful cocoon for themselves in a council block apartment. But Grace carries deep trauma from her past, and she finds it exceptionally difficult to watch her daughter go out into the world alone. Director Adura Onashile tells Anita why she emphasised the beauty of urban poverty, and how she drew on her relationship with her own mother.
Gwyneth Paltrow shared a photo on Instagram holdings hands with her ex-husband Chris Martin's current partner, Dakota Johnson.. But we ask, could you be friends with your ex's new partner? Alexandra Jones, a journalist who wrote a feature for Vogue about why she feels great about having a friendship with her ex’s now wife.
Tomorrow marks one hundred years since the birth of one Opera’s most renowned and influential singers of the 20th century: the iconic heroine, Maria Callas. But what is it about her talent that has transcended the decades? Two sopranos – Alison Langer and Nadine Benjamin – join Anita to describe Maria Callas’ enduring star quality.
Going shopping after a loved one has died can be a sharp reminder of your loss. Carmel Bones, who recently lost the main three men in her life now finds it hard to go into men’s department stores. Anita speaks to Carmel about her plan to tackle her grief and psychotherapist Julia Samuel gives her advice.
Next Sunday, December 3, the annual Radio 4 Christmas Appeal is taking place. Money raised by the Appeal will go to people experiencing homelessness, as well as to support frontline workers and to fund organisations working to end and prevent homelessness. West Mercia Women’s Aid are one of the charities who receive donations to assist some of the women that come to them for help. Anita speaks to Chief Executive, Sue Coleman to find out how important this funding is and why they are focussed on older women vulnerable to domestic abuse.
Presented by Anita Rani Producer: Louise Corley
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service. |
| 0:04.7 | Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests. |
| 0:08.8 | Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook. |
| 0:11.2 | Technology doesn't want to be good or bad. |
| 0:15.0 | It's in the hands of the creator. |
| 0:16.7 | It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room. |
| 0:20.7 | If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing. |
| 0:26.0 | Julie, at your service, listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, I'm Anita Rani and welcome to Womons Hour from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:41.0 | Good morning and welcome to Fridays Woman's Hour. |
| 0:43.9 | I'm going to start the program |
| 0:45.2 | with a tweet from one of our listeners. |
| 0:47.1 | Carmel Bones, she tweeted and said, |
| 0:49.9 | since I've lost my husband, dad, |
| 0:52.2 | and now father-in-law in quick succession, I find men's departments |
| 0:56.1 | in shops quite hard to walk through. I want to buy as usual, then feel sad that my main men are gone. So I'm going to buy and give three fellows who've |
| 1:05.6 | chosen to live in a tent instead. Well later I'll be discussing grief and |
| 1:09.7 | shopping with Carmel but I'd like to hear from you on this subject this morning if you've lost |
| 1:14.7 | someone. How do you cope with significant days, birthdays, anniversaries, mother's day, |
| 1:19.6 | father's day, when you wander into a shop and realize you have no one to buy a present |
| 1:23.7 | for how does it make you feel and do you have a ritual that you do instead like |
| 1:27.4 | Carmel who's going to be buying for three homeless men how do you fill that void |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

