Episodes
Thursday Mar 17, 2011
Trans Media Watch Memorandum of Understanding
Thursday Mar 17, 2011
Thursday Mar 17, 2011
On the evening of Monday 14th March 2011 the organisation Trans Media Watch collaborated with Channel 4 TV to launch a new Memorandum of Understanding to an audience of media people, politicians and trans people. The goal of the memorandum is to help eliminate discrimination relating to trans people in all media by setting out goals that all the parties can aspire towards. Channel 4 were the first organisation to subscribe to the principles. The MOU doesn't call for censorship but aims instead to give media organisations the tools they need to address endemic problems. Trans Media Watch say they are guided by the basic principle that they wish to see transgender people and issues treated with accuracy, dignity and respect. Just Plain Sense was there to capture the atmosphere of the event, including speeches by Minister for Equalities, Lynne Featherstone MP, Stuart Cosgrove from Channel 4 and reactions from the audience. Listen to the show online with the player below or click one of the options on the right to download into your favourite music player or feed reader. You can also read more background on the Just Plain Sense Blog
Wednesday Dec 15, 2010
The Just Plain Sense Christmas Special
Wednesday Dec 15, 2010
Wednesday Dec 15, 2010
It feels incredible to reflect that we are coming up to the third Christmas for the Just Plain Sense Podcast. The show has covered so much in the last 80 episodes and I hope to continue for a long time to come. Usually, as the producer and presenter of these shows, it is my job to ask the questions. With the occasional exception, I try not to be self-indulgent. The festive season provides an excuse for us all to let our hair down and forget the conventions though. That's why I thought it would be nice to turn the tables and present this recent on-air show where, instead, the questions were coming my way. Andrew Edwards presents the Saturday Forum on Gaydio -- the Manchester based LGBT FM station that I featured in a recent show. The last half hour of every show features 'the Mix Tape' where a guest selects and talks about four music tracks that mean something special. This was my turn in the hot seat...
Monday Oct 18, 2010
The Cuts Show - Part Two
Monday Oct 18, 2010
Monday Oct 18, 2010
Side two of the 1977 satirical political revue, "The Cuts Show" by CounterAct. On this side: education and housing cuts; the climate of 'divide and conquer' (my cut's worse than yours); finding scapegoats among immigrant communities; the role of the press; and the capricious nature of investors. This week Chancellor George Osborne unveils what are expecting to be massive spending cuts. Yet we've been here before...
Saturday Oct 16, 2010
The Cuts Show - Part One
Saturday Oct 16, 2010
Saturday Oct 16, 2010
This coming week, on the 20th of October, Chancellor George Osborne will be unveiling the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review, and what’s expected to be the most savage cuts ever to public services in England. In politics, however, things are seldom new. You just need a long enough memory to recall previous booms, cuts and recessions. And, as they say, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. For that reason this episode features a protest album that was recorded in 1977. The Cuts Show, by “CounterAct” was a touring review made to educate people .. especially students .. about the public sector cuts being made at that time by James Callaghan’s Labour Government. The show was accompanied by a protest album .. omitting the show’s narrative, but including all the songs. Listen carefully to the lyrics, because it’s all there .. the need to satisfy financiers, threats to welfare and health spending, education, scapegoating.. and more. The show was produced 33 years ago, yet it could have been today. It even features a nod to David Cameron's 'Big Society' The performance was recorded at Riverside Recordings and featured Rich Armitage, Will Ashton, John Gill, Ruth Law, Chris Reason, Dave Simmonds, Steve Skinner and Caroline Stephens.
Saturday Sep 25, 2010
Half an hour with Nadia
Saturday Sep 25, 2010
Saturday Sep 25, 2010
When Nadia Almada first teetered into Channel Four's Big Brother house on impossibly high heels, in the summer of 2004, TV viewers in Britain had probably never seen more than a few minutes of any real transsexual person on their screens before. Activists and lawyers at the time were nursing Britain's Gender Recognition Bill through Parliament, and there was momentary concern about what kind of person this unknown quantity was. They needn't have worried. Within days the young Portuguese woman soon had people's attention, as her immense personality, piercing laugh and manifest vulnerability took viewers on a roller coaster ride of emotions, in which her transsexual background was sometimes the focus but often pushed to the background by other dramas. Nadia won that fifth series of Big Brother in a landslide victory that carried millions on a wave of emotion, sharing her dramatic realisation of public acceptance. In 2010 Nadia returned to Big Brother for a celebration show with other popular or controversial housemates. The return was not such a happy event. Three weeks after that event she agreed to give an in-depth interview and talks here about her childhood, changing gender, those television experiences and much more too.
Thursday Aug 26, 2010
Gaydio 88.4 FM - Manchester's LGBT Radio Station
Thursday Aug 26, 2010
Thursday Aug 26, 2010
A few weeks ago, on 18th June 2010, a brand new radio station took to the air. Gaydio, based in Manchester, is an FM station aimed at and run by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans People. It's not the world's first such station. There are established FM stations in Australia and Toronto, for instance plus a host of internet stations Unlike many, Gaydio is not simply a music station though; it's aimed at a wider than usual audience, and has a community development dimension too. To find out more I spoke to one of the founding directors, Toby Whitehouse, at the studios in central Manchester. You can listen to the station online at http://www.gaydio.co.uk
Thursday Nov 19, 2009
Half an Hour with Tom Doughty
Thursday Nov 19, 2009
Thursday Nov 19, 2009
A lot of people fall into the trap of assuming that disabled people are defined and limited by their impairments. The social model of disability teaches us to think differently ... about the way that we limit such people by the obstacles we create. So, for instance, someone who uses a wheelchair isn't primarily prevented from getting to a meeting by the condition of their legs, so much as by the steps we built in front of the entrance, or the inadequacies of public transport provision. With one in five of the population having some kind of disability, it's therefore important to get our thinking straight and realise all the ways people can work quite successfully, if only we don't perpetuate barriers and assumptions. Tom Doughty has always been a musician. He only acquired his disability as a young man and, at first, he assumed that was the end of his guitar playing. But then he got determined to make sure his impairments shouldn't get in the way. The result is an incredible talent and a great sound. In this interview I talk to Tom about his life, his music, and those barriers he's demolished. If you're smitten like me with his music then you can visit his web site http://www.tomdoughty.com. From there you can buy his CDs and also reach his MySpace and YouTube pages.
Thursday Nov 19, 2009
Meet Tom Doughty
Thursday Nov 19, 2009
Thursday Nov 19, 2009
Tom Doughty has a very evocative and soulful style of lap slide guitar playing. I'll be interviewing him next on Just Plain Sense. In the meantime, here's a taster and you can visit Tom's web site at http://www.tomdoughty.com
Monday Aug 31, 2009
Manchester Pride takes a cue from Lily Allen
Monday Aug 31, 2009
Monday Aug 31, 2009
The final weekend in August saw Manchester, one of Britain's most LGBT-friendly cities, hosting its annual three day Pride celebration. In this reply to a similar French video, the revellers deliver a one-fingered salute to homophobia based on Lily Allen's "F**k You!". Shame the homophobes never seem to have so much fun in their lives.
Saturday Jan 24, 2009
Fascinating Adele - Part Two
Saturday Jan 24, 2009
Saturday Jan 24, 2009
Adele Anderson is one of the mainstays of the comedy/satire trio Fascinating Aida. In the previous episode I talked to her about FA's uniqueness as three women writing and singing comic political satire for over 25 years. It's also quite widely known that Adele is a transsexual woman. Maybe that's not such a big deal nowadays, when people have seen many representations of trans women (real and fictional) in film and TV. In this interview I talk to her about the way it was received 25 years ago, and the TV dramas and films she's been involved with in the years since then. The songs you hear in this programme can all be heard in full on Adele's Myspace Page.
Saturday Jan 17, 2009
Fascinating Adele - Part One
Saturday Jan 17, 2009
Saturday Jan 17, 2009
They are described as Britain’s sassiest, funniest, craziest musical comediennes. Imagine “Sex and the City” with harmonies. The Mail on Sunday said, “See them before you die or your life will have been meaningless”... Fascinating Aida have been collecting ecstatic hyperbole from reviewers for a quarter of a century and have an immensely loyal fan base. Yet, in Britain at least, musical comedy and satire is still not an area that all that many women have conquered. So what’s the secret of showbiz success and longevity for three women with a wicked sense of humour? Adele Anderson, who joined the Act a year after it was created in 1984, was very generous with her time for this interview in her hotel room, a couple of hours before going on stage at the Lowry in Salford. In fact we spent so much time that there's enough for two episodes. This first episode departs from the normal "Just Plain Sense" format to focus on the group itself, their music and Adele's career. In next week's episode Adele talks about press interest in her personal background and some of the TV and film projects she has appeared in. The songs you hear in this episode come from the albums "A Load of Old Sequins" and "It, Wit, Don't Give a S**t Girls", which can be purchased from FA's website or online from iTunes. Fans of FA may also be interested in this interview with Adele's colleagues, Dillie Keane and Liza Pullman