Four new podcasts are released on BBC Sounds today, Tuesday 25 February from BBC Sounds Audio Lab – the BBC’s accelerator programme for new audio talent.
Criminally Queer: The Bolton 7
Seven men from Bolton have their lives changed forever. Hugh Sheehan looks back at one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in recent British LGBTQ+ history, and examines how this scarcely-known legal case played a significant role in the fight for gay rights.
In 1997, seven ordinary men from a former mill town in Northern England had consensual group sex and would come to be criminalised for it.
Homosexuality was supposedly decriminalised 30 years prior, but in this series, Hugh examines little-known antiquated laws that were still on the statute books and only applied to men who had sex with men.
The Bolton 7 could have quietly accepted the charges levelled against them; but they chose to fight them. For years.
Each episode revisits the shocking events that took place throughout the case, which become a springboard for a wider discussion around the historic criminalisation of queerness and the ramifications that extend into the present day. How far have we really come?
In Criminally Queer Hugh Sheehan interviews a range of noteworthy and revered contributors from the LGBTQ+ community, the world of politics and law, and those connected to the case.
Interviewees include: former Home Secretary Jack Straw, Booker Prize-winning author Douglas Stuart, activist Peter Tatchell, author Shon Faye, queer historian Justin Bengry, and lawyers that represented the Bolton 7.
It was a battle fought bitterly; one rooted in archaic laws with complex histories. The Bolton 7’s ordeal had tragic and abhorrent consequences.
This five-part series chronicles the case itself, the aftermath, and examines the legacy of such legal cases. The series also acts as a vehicle to more broadly understand queer community in England.
Melting Pot
The Maillard Reaction, osmosis, emulsion… Cooking is chemistry done every day. Jay Behrouzi and Big Manny lift the lid on the science behind some of her favourite dishes.
Across this six-part series, the kitchens of British-Filipino chef Rex De Guzman’s and actress Bangs Garcia are visited.
Conversations feature Iranian chef Kazem Ashourzadeh to American ice hockey player Bo Hanson. And the series rubs shoulders with private chef Nelson Reposo as well as the Mancunian Baker behind Mr Manakeesh.
Welcome to the culinary delights of a migrant’s Melting Pot in the UK.
Instrumental: Black British Trailblazers
Think you know the history of British music? Think again.
This series looks at classical, punk, dance, folk and pop music to celebrate the black artists who have played a pivotal role in the development of British music.
You’ll hear about the trailblazers who revolutionised classical music, the DJs who propelled rave culture, the punk icons who challenged norms, and the folk musician who restored the body of black British folk song.
Writer and creative producer Mia Thornton pieces together a fuller story of British music. Packed with music that you know and love and stories of instrumental people who’ve shaped UK music.
Without these figures, British music would not be the same, but for far too long, their legacies have been sidelined. It’s time to bring their stories to the forefront.
Heart & Stone
Who decides what stories are remembered? Can anyone make a stone circle? And when we talk about old folk rituals and songs, who are the folk we are choosing to remember?
In this four part series, Meg Elliot explores folk traditions in their many guises. Her quest takes her from a Ceiligh hall in central London in the search for lost folk songs, to a Glasgow housing estate to visit a new ‘ancient’ stone circle, and over hillsides across the UK talking to artists and singers and folk revivalists.
The programmes explore the ways in which our identities are formed in part by tales, places and music.
It looks at the potential heritage has, as an experience of the past in the present, to rewrite established narratives and re-empower communities at the heart of these stories.
