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From Our Own Correspondent

From Our Home Correspondent 18/08/2019

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mishal Husain introduces pieces reflecting contemporary life across the United Kingdom. Alison Williams would regularly see a young middle-aged woman sitting outside the railway station she used. They returned smiles; Alison wondered about her back story. Then suddenly the woman was gone. What happened next is a parable of our times. Each summer in recent years, Dorset has welcomed children from areas of northern Ukraine and Belarus blighted by the radioactivity released by the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear site in April 1986. During their stay, the children receive health checks and enjoy the hospitality of local families. So how are they faring? Jane Labous has been to meet this year's visitors - and their hosts. Even the idea of Welsh wine to accompany haute cuisine used to bring a smile to many a face, not least in the country itself. But in fact wine-making there dates back to Roman times and is currently undergoing a revival. But can what was once a cottage industry - literally - become a money-spinner? Tim Hartley has been visiting vineyards in both North and South Wales to gauge the prospects. When, fifteen years ago, 23 Chinese cockle pickers tragically lost their lives on north-west England's "wet Sahara" - the vast area of sand and mudflats which is Morecambe Bay - it confirmed its reputation for treacherous tides that can readily catch out the unwary. A new guide to assist crossings to and from the Cumbrian and Lancastrian sides of the Bay has recently been appointed and Tom Edwards decided to take his daughters there to initiate them into its tidal flows. And John Forsyth has been unearthing the mystery of toppling headstones in Scottish cemeteries. He discovers the identity of the perpetrator - and why it is happening.

Producer: Simon Coates

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds.

0:02.0

Thank you for downloading from our home correspondent from BBC Radio 4.

0:06.0

I'm Michelle Hussein.

0:08.0

This time around, a break from Chernobyl

0:11.0

where were the group of children who live in the shadow of the nuclear reactor

0:14.8

as they enjoy a summer holiday in Dorset. Wales in Liss's kiwi help, but this isn't rugby or cricket, but cultivation skills.

0:25.0

Where in the north of England attempting to cross the wet Sahara.

0:29.4

And the curious case of the toppling headstones, why some Scottish cemeteries are resorting to extreme measures to keep

0:36.2

down costs.

0:38.9

First, the tale of a passer-by, someone appearing to be in need, and some small change.

0:45.0

In her part of Southeast London, Allison Williams would often see a young woman sitting outside a station.

0:51.0

They never spoke. She never knew anything about her and then one day she was no longer there

0:58.0

Forest Hill no longer a forest just a hill and for me three points of interest at the top the

1:07.8

family friendly horniman museum where I work as a storyteller then halfway down the British Red Cross shop.

1:15.0

There in the name of artistic research I try on sparkly garments a size too small.

1:21.0

And at the bottom, the north end of the railway underpass.

1:25.0

There for the past couple of years a youngish woman has been sitting at the foot of the stairs.

1:31.0

The stairs are steep. People struggle with their

1:35.2

trolleys and cases but I am in a rush. I manage to miss them, but I can't miss

1:40.9

her. We smile. Can't remember when it started, but that's what we do. Is she

1:48.6

homeless? I give her two pounds. Two pounds she never asked for, not enough for a cup of

1:54.6

coffee round here but enough to make me feel better. Her smile carries me to the

...

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