Wife, Francesca Segal on premature babies, Love Island
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2019
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After her identical twin girls were born prematurely at 30 weeks, writer and journalist Francesca Segal found herself sitting in what she called the “mother ship” of neonatal intensive care, all her expectations of parenthood shattered. She speaks to Jenni about the diary she kept and about the band of mothers who joined her in the Mother Ship – which is the title of her memoir of the 56 days spent with her daughters in hospital.
Inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, new play Wife focuses on a married woman facing a sexual identity crisis in 1959 in order to explore what we have meant by the word ‘wife’ over 90 years. Set in 1959, 1988, 2019 and 2042 the play follows four queer stories within four generations of one family and it highlights the changes within the institution of marriage. Jenni talks to director Indhu Rubasingham and historian Dr Rebecca Jennings.
This year's Love Island producers have introduced changes to make the hit TV programme more inclusive, and Monday’s launch revealed the new line-up. Do the changes go far enough? Jenni is joined by journalist Habiba Katsha, and by make-up artist Frances Shillito.
Today is the start of a judicial review into women’s pensions. A group called BACK TO 60 is behind the court action. They want women’s state pensions to start at 60, as it did until 2010. It’s been rising ever since and is set to go up to 67 by 2028. Jenni talks to Davina Lloyd.
Presenter: Jenni Murray Producer: Laura Northedge Interviewed Guest: Francesca Segal Interviewed Guest: Indhu Rubasingham Interviewed Guest: Rebecca Jennings Interviewed Guest: Habiba Katsha Interviewed Guest: Frances Shillito Interviewed Guest: Davina Lloyd
Transcript
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| 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 | Hello Jenny Murray welcoming you to the podcast for Women's Hour for Wednesday the 5th of June. |
| 0:47.0 | Love Island is back on the tele for the summer. |
| 0:51.0 | How well will the contestants be cared for and might there be a |
| 0:54.8 | range of body types including some that are less than perfect and perhaps a mix of |
| 1:01.8 | races a new play called and perhaps a mix of races. |
| 1:03.0 | A new play called Wife at the Kilm Theatre inspired by Henric Ibsen's A Dolls House. |
| 1:10.0 | What does the word Wife come to mean from the late 19th to the 21st century and beyond? |
| 1:18.0 | And a memoir of The Mothership, Francesca Siegel's story of the staff and other women in the hospitals have very premature twin daughters struggled to survive. |
| 1:28.0 | Now today sees the start of a judicial review into women's pensions. It's Waspy, women against state pension |
| 1:37.0 | inequality who are perhaps best known for their battle for compensation for women who born in the early 50s suffered the worst shock of the |
| 1:46.0 | equalization of the pension age. It used to be 60 for women and 65 for men. It's now 65 for both. But it's another group that's |
| 1:56.4 | prompted the review. Back to 60 is arguing for women's state pension age to |
| 2:02.1 | return to a start at 60. |
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