Nelson Mandela's PA, Sewing, Porn
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2019
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zelda la Grange was Nelson Mandela’s PA. She was with him for nearly 20 years and became indispensable to him, so much so that some members of his family found it hard, and still do. As for her, she regarded him as a grandfather-type figure. It’s nearly 6 years since Nelson Mandela died and now there’s a new exhibition in London about him. Zelda’s come over from South Africa to choose some of the items on display. She comes into the Woman's Hour studio to talk about her bond with Mandela, how working with him changed her and what she’s doing now.
Sewing has been the work of women for centuries: in clothing and furnishings and also protest banners, tapestries that tell stories and even communicating messages in war time. In her new book, the artist Clare Hunter argues that world history can be seen through the craft. She joins Jane to discuss.
Guidelines on how to define "obscene" pornography have been changed in England and Wales. The Crown Prosecution Service had previously listed torture, bondage and sadomasochism as obscene and distributing it risked a prosecution. Now the CPS has replaced that list with a series of "tests" which are supposed to determine whether an image or video is classed as obscene. Some women have hailed change as a victory for queer, feminist and fetish porn but others have expressed concerns saying that it could damage and exploit women.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | Hi, this is Jane Garvey. Thank you for downloading the Women's Ad Podcast Monday. podcasts. up as the child of an alcoholic. |
| 0:53.0 | Nelson Mandela's right-hand woman for many years, |
| 0:55.6 | Zelda Lagrange talks to women's hour, |
| 0:58.0 | and threads of life, a history of the world |
| 1:00.5 | through the eye of a needle. The author of that book, Hunter is on Women's Out today. But we start |
| 1:07.0 | with a conversation about guidelines on what constitutes obscene pornography. |
| 1:11.6 | They have been relaxed in England and Wales. This is an |
| 1:15.2 | explicit conversation which does reference various sexual acts so if it's not |
| 1:19.7 | something you're interested in or you don't want to hear it, then you can move shuffle on a |
| 1:24.4 | bit further into the podcast, maybe give it 10 minutes, 11 minutes, something like |
| 1:27.8 | that and we'll be in the sort of territory you're more at ease with a little bit |
| 1:31.9 | later on in the pod. But to continue, |
| 1:34.2 | pornography which showed female ejaculation, consensual bondage and sadomasochism |
... |
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.