Women and their relationships with light
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Easter Monday in the Christian calendar means Christ is risen and symbolises a shift from darkness and death to life, hope and light. We’re also in the middle of Passover which signifies spiritual illumination, freedom, and the transition from darkness to light. So in this special edition of Woman's Hour, Nikki Bedi focuses on women and light. How does light inspire and motivate us, and how can we harness it and use it to our advantage?
Nikki speaks to GP Dr Radha Modgil about the impact of light on our health and wellbeing.
We hear from Paule Constable, an award-winning lighting designer with Olivier and Tony awards for best lighting design for her work spanning theatre, opera, dance and pop music. She is joined in the conversation with Nikki by Ruth Kelly Waskett, a lighting director at engineering consultancy Hoare Lea where she advises architects and engineers on lighting choices in public buildings.
In May last year we dedicated a whole programme to women and farming. When thinking about the impact of light on our lives, who better to ask than early rising farmers? We catch up with Sinead Fenton, an edible flower and herb farmer in East Sussex, and dairy farmer Lorna Burdge.
We discuss light's influence on how our ancestors behaved and what they believed with Carolyne Larrington, Emerita Professor of medieval European literature, University of Oxford and Dr Jennifer Wexler, curator of history for English Heritage.
How can you recreate light in other art forms? Cecilia McDowall, who is one of the UK’s leading composers of sacred and secular choral music, tells Nikki about writing music inspired by light and the changes in the seasons.
Presenter: Nikki Bedi Producer: Corinna Jones
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | Their company's success helped build a nation. |
| 0:10.9 | The company is such a big part of Korea's economy. |
| 0:13.5 | But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants? |
| 0:17.2 | They often say, look, we built the nation. |
| 0:19.2 | And without us, South Korea as it exists today, |
| 0:22.6 | would simply not be here. Inheritance, Samsung, explores the real-life dramas of the Lee family |
| 0:28.3 | and their company. They are the equivalent of royalty. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.1 | Hello, I'm Nikki Bady and welcome to Women's Air from BBC Radio 4, just to say that for rights reasons, the music in the original radio broadcast has been removed for this podcast. |
| 0:46.5 | Hello and welcome to this Easter Monday, Woman's Hour. Yes, spring has sprung. The clocks have gone forward, so more daylight during our waking hours. |
| 0:56.6 | The blossom is blooming, the birds are singing, the snowdrops and daffodils are out. And if you live in the countryside, you'll probably be seeing lambs in the fields. |
| 1:06.3 | Easter Monday in the Christian calendar means Christ is risen and symbolises a shift from darkness and death |
| 1:13.3 | to life, hope and light. And we're in the middle of Passover, which signifies spiritual |
| 1:19.2 | illumination, freedom and the transition from darkness to light. So we thought we'd focus on |
| 1:26.4 | women and light on this edition of Women's Hour. How does |
| 1:30.1 | light inspire and motivate us? And how can we harness it and use it to our advantage? We're not |
| 1:36.7 | live today, so don't text in or email. All our guests, though, work in light through various |
| 1:42.9 | prisms, from lighting designers to historians, a doctor, a composer, Cecilia McDowell, whose music you've just had a taste of. |
| 1:51.6 | We also have farmers and we'll be hearing about their relationships with light. |
| 1:58.1 | GP Dr Rada Modgill is here with us in the studio to talk about why we feel |
| 2:03.7 | so differently when there's more light. There's a sense of relief that the mornings and |
| 2:09.2 | evenings are a little bit lighter. Maybe we have a spring in our step as well as it being in the |
... |
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