Weekend Woman’s Hour: Maureen Lipman, Women in security, Female birdsong
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dame Maureen Lipman joins Chloe Tilley to talk about Allegra, the joyful new musical play that begins a nationwide tour just two days after her 80th birthday. She tells us about playing a woman who finds happiness in a world that can't quite handle it, and the physical demands of singing and dancing eight times a week.
The use of illegal, unregistered children's homes in England has surged by more than 370% in five years, according to a new report, Hidden Children: An investigation into Unregistered Children’s Homes, published by Commonweal Housing and written by Public First. Nuala is joined by Fraser McLean, Policy and Communications Manager for the charity Commonweal Housing and Rebekah Pierre, Deputy Director of the charity Article 39.
Simone Pennant, the founder and CEO of The TV Collective, has just been presented with the 2026 BAFTA Television Craft Special Award at this year’s ceremony. It was in recognition for her outstanding contribution in championing diversity within the screen industries.
Is it time to retire the term 'bouncer'? We hear from Satia Rai, CEO of the International Professional Security Association, who told the largest gathering of the security profession in Europe this week that we should ditch it in favour of 'guardian' to help women feel safer, and to attract more women into the job. We also get the view of Tee, a female door supervisor at a Birmingham bar.
And as the spring dawn chorus reaches its peak, a new book is challenging long held assumptions about birdsong, and revealing the overlooked role of female birds. Researcher Lucy McRobert, collaborator for the new book, The Sound of Birding: Second Edition, joins Anita to tune our ears to a richer, more complex soundscape.
Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Kirsty McQuire
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | If you need help on money matters, you're not alone. |
| 0:10.4 | In the Martin Lewis podcast, I'll give you tips to keep more cash in your pocket |
| 0:13.9 | and answer your important questions. |
| 0:16.7 | Now that we're starting from scratch, what is the best way for us to move forward? |
| 0:21.2 | To help your everyday finances just add up. |
| 0:24.8 | Let's see what we can do. |
| 0:26.2 | The Martin Lewis podcast, listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.1 | Hello and welcome to the programme. |
| 0:32.1 | Coming up, a BAFTA winning TV producer and changemaker |
| 0:35.7 | on why she still has to silence her inner saboteur voice. |
| 0:40.3 | Why some of the most vulnerable children in society are being temporarily housed in caravans and |
| 0:44.7 | Airbnbs and could renaming the nightclub bouncer help make the role more female friendly. |
| 0:51.3 | Plus, we'll hear the unsung heroines of the dawn chorus female birds. But first, |
| 0:57.6 | in just a fortnight, Dame Maury Lippmann turns 80. And how does a Dame celebrate such a milestone |
| 1:03.2 | birthday? By kicking off a nationwide tour of a joyful new musical play called Allegra, in which |
| 1:09.7 | she'll be acting, singing and dancing |
| 1:12.2 | eight times a week. When she came into the Woman's Hour studio earlier this week, she told |
| 1:17.4 | Chloe why the title role appealed to her. Well, I suppose you'd call her neurodiversant now. |
| 1:24.2 | She is just relentlessly happy in a world of, as you know, vitriol cancellation, hatred, abuse. |
| 1:33.9 | And she's just chirpy and she doesn't really look after herself. She lives on her own, but she's |
| 1:42.0 | part of the play, is the brother. And it sort of examines sibling relationships and the brother trying to get a carer to come and live. |
... |
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