Jeremy Bowen, journalist

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jeremy Bowen is the BBC’s award-winning international editor. He has been reporting from the world’s conflict zones, including Iraq, Bosnia, the Middle East and Ukraine, for more than 30 years. Jeremy was born in Cardiff in 1960. His father was a journalist for BBC Wales, who covered the Aberfan disaster in 1966, and his mother was a press photographer. In 1984, after university, Jeremy joined the BBC as a news trainee and in 1989 he starting reporting from Afghanistan and El Salvador. From 1995 to 2000 he was based in Jerusalem as the BBC’s Middle East correspondent. During that time he reported on the assassination of the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. His coverage of the event won him the Royal Television Society’s Award for Best Breaking News report. In 2022 Jeremy started reporting on the ground in Ukraine and earlier this year he returned to Iraq to discover how the country was coping, 20 years after the US-led invasion in March 2003. Jeremy lives in London with his partner Julia. DISC ONE: Let’s Stay Together - Al Green DISC TWO: Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 63: II. Larghetto. Composed by Edward Elgar and performed by Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli DISC THREE: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op 18. Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff and performed by Vladimir Ashkenazi (piano) with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn DISC FOUR: America - Simon & Garfunkel DISC FIVE: La bohème: O soave fanciulla. Composed by Giacomo Puccini and performed by Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Georg Solti DISC SIX: Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras. Composed by Johannes Brahms and performed by Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Herbert von Karajan DISC SEVEN: In My Life – The Beatles DISC EIGHT: Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Novels of George Orwell LUXURY ITEM: A manual typewriter CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 63: II. Larghetto. Composed by Edward Elgar and performed by Hallé Orchestra and Wiener Singverein, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.5	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.1	Music Radio Music
0:45.6	My cast away this week is the journalist Jeremy Bowen.
0:49.0	He's the BBC's international editor and has been reporting stories from the world's conflict zones
0:54.4	for over 30 years. He's covered wars in Iraq, Bosnia, Chechnya and most recently, Ukraine.
1:00.1	But he's most closely associated with the Middle East, where he was a correspondent for many years.
1:05.2	With his trademark mustache often teamed with the Bulletproof Vest, he distilled the complexities
1:10.1	of the region for audiences back home, making himself a household name in the process.
1:15.2	His work has won him a shelf full of prizes, including a Royal Television Society Award
1:19.8	for interview of the year for his encounter with President Assad of Syria.
1:24.0	It's a world away from his early life in Cardiff, where he developed his nose for a story.
1:28.8	His mother was a press photographer and his father a reporter.
1:32.2	He cites his father's coverage of the Abba van der Zastar in 1966,
1:36.6	as proof that empathy is just as important as bravery when breaking a story.
1:42.0	He says, doing a job in a war zone, handling it well and coming out alive,
1:46.1	can give a person the confidence to face anything for a while,
1:50.0	due to much of it and it will destroy you, if not physically, then mentally.
	...

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