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 Friday听听听16:00-16:30
Sunday听20:30-21:00听(rpt)
Radio 4's weekly obituaries programme |
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This week |
Friday听13th April 2007
(Rpt) Sunday听15th April |
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Kurt Vonnegut
The American novelist and playwright who has died听aged 84.听
The inescapable event of his life, (though not a 鈥渄efining鈥 one, he always insisted) was the firebombing of Dresden in World War II, which he experienced not as a perpetrator but a victim --- he was a prisoner of war at the time, and the follies of war always preoccupied him, through famous books like 鈥淪laughterhouse Five鈥 and 鈥淐at鈥檚 Cradle鈥. He was thought of as a science-fiction writer, though really less interested in science than in other forms of society --- which is why he was also typecast as the 鈥渧oice of the counterculture鈥. Vonnegut had few true contemporaries left: among major writers who had served in uniform between 1941 and 鈥45, only he and Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal were left.
Russell Davies talks to Gore Vidal.
Kurt Vonnegut听 was born November 11th 1922.听 He died April 11th 2007. |
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Colin Graham
Opera director who has died aged 75.
Colin Graham was an opera director who premiered several of the works of Benjamin Britten, and later exported the British taste to the American city of St Louis. About a fifth of the 250 productions staged by Graham were world premieres, and they included Britten鈥 s children鈥檚 opera, 鈥淣oye鈥檚 Fludde鈥 and 鈥淒eath in Venice鈥, which he later revived at Covent Garden. He also directed new operas by Richard Rodney Bennett, and a bewildering number of works for the Sadler鈥檚 Wells company which became the English National Opera.
Russell Davies talks to the musical director at St Louis, Stephen Lord and soprano Christine Brewer.
Colin Graham was born September 22nd 1931. He died April 6th 2007
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Jagjit Singh Chauhan
Founder of Khalistan movement which fought for a separate Sikh state has died aged 80.
The history of Sikh nationalism has been quite a violent one, and one must doubt that the major figure in it, Jagjit Singh Chauhan, always had the peaceful intentions he claimed. He was the founder of the Khalistan movement which sought to establish a Sikh state: in fact, in the sense that he issued a few passports and some currency, he did establish one. Chauhan was originally a doctor, who moved into conventional politics, rising eventually to the post of Finance Minister of the Punjab. The region had been administratively split into two, and one part was Sikh-dominated, so Chauhan needed no more encouragement to develop his ideas of nationhood --- which acquired a new fervour after the invasion of the Sikhs鈥 holy site, The Golden Temple of Amritsar, by the Indian Army.
Russell Davies talks to Dr Indarjit Singh, the best-known voice of our own Sikh community.
Jagjit Singh Chauhan听 was born in 1927. He died April 4th 2007.
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Terry Hall听
Ventriloquist听 who has died aged 80.
Terry Hall and his shaggy-maned partner Lenny the Lion were a fixture on children鈥檚 television nearly 50 years ago. Hall was performing in Blackpool when he visited the Tower Zoo and got the idea of a lion puppet --- a refreshing change from the standard dummies of the day, who were mostly boys or men. At first, Lenny was too fiercely-voiced, and it was a fellow-artiste, the singer Anne Shelton, who suggested to Hall that Lenny should be more the blushing type, and even slightly camp. In the event, Lenny was able to gesture extravagantly with one arm --- and the voice that emerged, through Hall鈥檚 much-admired technique, was somehow not unlike what we heard from a contemporary entertainer, Liberace. He later went into the production of educational reading-books for small children.
Archive of Terry Hall and Lenny the Lion.
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Terry Hall was born November 20th听1926. He died April 4th听2007. |
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Paul Lauterbur
Father of MRI who has died aged 77.
Many families afflicted with illness have cause to be grateful for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI, which permits doctors to identify unwelcome tissue in the body without X-ray radiation. Paul Lauterbur shared the Nobel Prize for developing this technique along with Sir听Peter Mansfield in 2003.
Russell Davies talks to Paul Lauterbur鈥檚 colleagues Professor Robert Kerber and Professor Robert Schneider from Stony Brook University in New York.
Paul Lauterbur was born May 6th 1929. He died March 27th 2007.
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