Weekend Woman's Hour: Annie Lennox, Motorway anxiety, New play Punch

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Journalist Mary McCarthy has been avoiding motorways for years, even planning her life around how to dodge them. She's discovered it’s a far more common problem than you might think, especially among women in mid-life.

The multi award-winning singer, songwriter and Global Feminist Activist Annie Lennox OBE has been part of the musical landscape for almost 50 years, from her days in The Tourists, to the Eurythmics and then going solo. Now at the age of 70, Annie has brought out a book of photographs called Annie Lennox: Retrospective, and tells us about her life and career.

Punch is a play that looks at the ripple effects of a single punch, thrown by a teenager on a night out in Nottingham with fatal consequences. It is on stage in London and the mother of the young man killed, Joan Scourfield, is played by Julie Hesmondhalgh. Both Julie and Joan join Anita to discuss this remarkable story of restorative justice.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Simon Richardson

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts.
0:07.3	Right, you feeling ready? I'm feeling ready.
0:10.8	I'm Amal Rajin. Join me on my new podcast for in-depth conversations with pioneers and
0:16.0	innovators, talking about the trends and ideas that could help shape and change our future.
0:21.5	We are going to be digital citizens of this AI world, whether we like it or not.
0:26.2	From declining birth rates to disinformation online, can they solve the world's biggest challenges?
0:32.0	What I would love to do is go to the transfer and say radically cut the taxes of those with children.
0:37.3	Radical with me, Amal Rajin.
0:39.3	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:41.1	Hello and welcome to the programme.
0:43.2	Coming up, some of the highlights from this week on Wormons Hour.
0:46.9	Annie Lennox has just published a visual memoir looking back on her 40-year career.
0:51.7	She reflects on what got her to where she is today,
0:55.0	including that famous androgynous look.
0:58.0	It actually had nothing to do with my sexuality.
1:00.7	It was more about taking the male power for myself
1:05.5	and reinterpreting it and saying,
1:07.4	I am equal to my partner here.
1:10.8	That was new.
1:12.0	Plus, a story of loss and forgiveness. In 2011, James Hodgkinson was killed by a single
1:18.6	punch. His parents chose to meet the young man responsible, a decision that changed all their
1:24.7	lives. Their story is now on stage in new play, Punch.
	...

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