Death Diminishes Me

Radio New Zealand's contribution to the annual Global Perspectives series is Death Diminishes Me, by Gareth Watkins.

The theme this year is islands – including Alert Bay from CBC's Outfront – and the islands in this superb documentary are the islands of isolation amidst other people. Gay men with HIV or AIDS in New Zealand.

This is how a documentary on HIV should be made – personal, painful, gut-wrenching, and with that engaging. Not fearfully presenting stories that drive people away. To be effective radio, a half-hour must keep people listening before it can move them. Death Diminishes Me does both of these, expertly.

The stories are "familiar" for a few reasons – they resonate with people in other parts of the world, and they speak to us like family or friends.

The production is gorgeous, with sounds emphasising settings, moods, and aspiration.

I lived in New Zealand for 10 months, but I hope and think that shouldn't make this doc speak any the closer to my ear than it inherently does.

Only at the end did I hear that the producer was Gareth Watkins – he engineered one of the three short docs I made there (and it's the best I've ever made, in no small part thanks to his skill), and he is a magician. I didn't realise he had become a full producer, but my it's a good thing.

Following on just a few weeks after the repeats of Thembi's Story to mark her living and her death, HIV and AIDS have been brought into the world's awareness again, in the personal way that only outstanding audio documentaries can.

Here's hoping – no let's make that assuming – Death Diminishes Me will win awards.

Stone Soup

So someone tweets about… you know which radio show, and you follow it round to her blog which suggests you lay off the blogging. For the reasons I have been struggling to blog.

Before Twitter bit me, I would post short entries here about a nice show I'd just heard. These days though, those go on Twitter, Facebook, or the lovely AudioDocumentary.org.

So, a compromise: a collection of links and impressions.

Shappi Talk on BBC Radio 4. Two episodes in and this stand-up and interview comedy with an audience about being a foreigner really hits the spot.

Outfront has finished on the CBC.

RTÉ have a new micro-site based round the Documentary on One. It looks fab. Though I admit I haven't faced into a DocOnOne for months now.

The BBC's Save Our Sounds project continues apace, with micro site, an audible world wide web, and two on-air docs. Definitely worth checking out.

RFI staff have suspended their strike, and it's great to hear the podcasts back in French – okay so I understand next to nothing but I have to try to keep it up! The English daily broadcasts didn't seem to be interrupted much.

Interesting podcast called Listen to Africa.

Apparently there was once a famous Irish broadcaster called Liam Nolan. I'll be honest I had never heard of this Today programme presenter.

Finally, by next month, I'll be in a permanent job – my first in six years in radio – at another of the stars of international broadcasting, WRN. I can't wait!

Radio Lab and the BBC

Sometimes, it's easy to see how Radio Lab has positively influenced BBC Radio 4. Take for example, the two part series presented by Dr Ben Goldacre, on the placebo effect, and Radio Lab's own.

Sometimes though, it would be really nice to see even a hint of Radio Lab's influence. Take this Analysis on Thought Experiments, which shares some content with Radio Lab's Morality show.

You know, the Analysis may have as much, or even more information. But how much of it sticks? Only the baking topic, which was mentioned three times throughout the programme.

Now, have a peep at the comments on Radio Lab episodes, and you'll see why Radio 4 feels it can't engage more than on part of the brain at once. I can't be arsed looking up any of the examples of people complaining at how the non-speech sounds distracted them and made them angry – there are some there. Now imagine how much more of that crap BBC Radio 4 gets. Too many older listeners, it is my opinion (and attitude), don't want radio to challenge them, they want it to reinforce they choices they've made in life so far. So, they chose to go through education and to save for their offspring to go to university and to look down on those who didn't and so… they like to learn new things. But only on their terms. Engagement, the fearful old people believe, should only happen though the writing. They don't feel free to let themselves go, to let the sound hit them in linguistic spots, musical spots, intellectual and instinctive spots.

And they are the people who own Radio 4. So that is that.

A few years back I had a discussion with creative producer (and Beeb employee) Martin Williams about how Radio 4 seems to lose the run of itself and carry lovely shows from Alan Hall's Falling Tree Productions that go sound and language hand-in-hand, often with sound taking the lead. Martin reckoned (as I remember it) that the Radio 4 commissioners and editors deep down wanted sound-rich pieces, yet didn't quite know it, and Alan Hall created that a space, showed it to them, and they agreed to let him fill it. My view was more that they knew him well, trusted him, and liked the awards that came with it, so left him to fill in day-time half hours.

And, um, now I've run out of steam. Let me give it some more thought.