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Woman's Hour

Weekend Woman's Hour: Dawn French, Shirley Ballas, Violinist Esther Abrami, Pelvic Pain

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.13K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dawn French has been making people laugh as a writer, comedian and actor, for more than 30 years. Her celebrated shows include French and Saunders, The Vicar of Dibley, and Jam and Jerusalem. She joins Emma Barnett to discuss her new book about the hilarious gaffes that she has made in life, as part of her one-woman mission to celebrate what it means to be gloriously, messily human, rather than striving for Instagram-style-perfection.

It’s one of the things we’re most embarrassed to talk about – pain when having sex. This is something that Professor Katy Vincent, academic gynaecologist, and Dr Lydia Coxon, researcher in Pain in Women, are hoping to change. They join Emma alongside BBC presenter Sophie Law to talk about an open panel they held to try and get women to talk about their pelvic pain, and address the taboo around talking about periods, sex and women’s pelvic health.

'My Boyfriend Lives with with My Husband,' was the intriguing headline of an article in the Guardian newspaper recently. While Caroline and the children she shares with her husband Niel live in Cheltenham, Neil is living with Caroline's boyfriend in Scotland. Both Caroline and Niel describe their unconventional family living arrangements to Emma, they explain how it came about and why it works for them.

The new BBC drama series The Reckoning has started on BBC One. It tells the story of Jimmy Savile, who for decades was one of the UK’s most influential celebrities forging friendships with politicians and royalty and raising millions for charity. But after his death in 2011, it transpired he was also one of the country’s most prolific sexual predators, abusing hundreds of people, many of them children. The series, which stars Steve Coogan as Jimmy Savile, explores how he was able to hide in plain sight and use his celebrity status, powerful connections and fundraising activity to gain uncontrolled access to vulnerable young people. Sam Brown was abused by Savile from the age of 11. Her story is depicted in episode 3 of the series, and she speaks to Emma.

Violinist Esther Abrami was handpicked by Julian Lloyd Webber as one of 30 under 30 to watch, and she is the first classical musician to win the ‘Social Media Superstar’ category at the Global Awards. With more than 400,000 followers on TikTok, Esther joins Emma to discuss her new album, Cinema.

Shirley Ballas is best known for being one of the judges on BBC Strictly Come Dancing and her stellar career in Latin dance that earnt her the title, ‘Queen of Latin’. She joins Krupa Padhy to talk about Strictly, the menopause and her new book, Murder on the Dancefloor.

Presenter: Krupa Padhy Producer: Hanna Ward Studio Manager: Tim Heffer

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.

0:03.7

My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts.

0:08.4

I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced

0:12.2

pundits and the biggest sport stars.

0:14.3

Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'

0:18.5

mouths.

0:19.5

But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world.

0:25.0

What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to

0:28.8

dedicated sports fans across the UK.

0:31.0

So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.

0:35.2

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:40.0

Hello, this is Krupa Party and you're listening to the Woman's Hour podcast.

0:44.8

A very good afternoon and welcome to Weekend Woman's Hour, I'm Krupa Party.

0:49.8

This is the programme each Saturday where we gather the best interviews from the week and

0:54.2

pop them all in one place for you to listen to.

0:57.2

Coming up this afternoon, head judge from Strictly Come Dancing, Shirley Ballas on what

1:01.7

it's like to be part of the show.

1:03.7

Well, Strictly Come Dancing is a phenomenon, isn't it?

1:06.4

I mean, it's for all the family.

1:07.9

I get little tweets and videos every week of the two-year-olds and the little ones of

1:12.1

Grand Park.

1:13.1

Everybody gives their opinion and I just love it.

...

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