SOMETHING NEW. A documentary…
I went to meet a secretive new community, nestled in the English countryside, who some people claim are running… a school for conspiracists. But what’s really going on?
‘We Are Not a Conspiracy School’
Tuesday - 8pm - @bbcradio4 .
Then listen any time on @bbcsounds .
An @audioalways production
Producer: Louisa Adams
Exec producer: Ailsa Rochester
Sound design: Craig Edmonson
Trailer music: Theatre of Delays
A few months since my documentary - God Next Door - aired on BBC Radio 4, I have been reflecting on what a journey it was.
When my friend told me about a strange evening she had with a group in Manchester, lead by a man called James, who claimed to be God, I was hooked. I needed to find them.
I began my journey into their community. Is this a harmless example of modern spirituality… or is it a cult?
It was a long process of turning this story into a programme. It was going to be a podcast. And then a TV programme. And then a radio programme. And then a podcast again. We had endless meetings with commissioners and producers. Eventually, it landed in what was always its natural home: BBC Radio 4.
The process gave me more time with James and the group. I spent years building the relationship, challenging them, being challenged by them… and, maybe, got too close.
There is one thing I am proud of: we never relented to sensationalism. There were times it was the easiest path, the quickest way on to TV, or to a hit podcast.
Eventually, I got to tell the story I wanted. While always vigilant to possible abuses, we told a story about a community, growing in the cracks of a fracturing world. A story about the complexity of being human. We wouldn’t have been able to do that were it not for the space that BBC Radio 4 gave us.
The media economy is thirsty for clicks, likes and shares. It too often paints in binary colours and resorts to extremes to get attention. It demands heroes and villains. It is frustratingly incurious and unpleasantly judgemental.
This is a story full of messy complexity and contradictions. I say at the end - “I am not really sure how I feel, or how to end this…” That felt brave, yet it is true to life. Humans are messy. If our job is to reflect life, to tell stories as truthfully as we can, then why don’t more of them feel like that?
I am so thankful to the team who worked so hard with me on this. And I’m thankful that there are still spaces to do this kind of storytelling.
If I never make anything else again, at least I made this.
For the last few years, I’ve been spending time with a man who claims to be God, and the group he has built around him.
Who are they? What lead them to believe in this man? Is this just modern spirituality… or a cult?
God Next Door // BBC Radio 4 // 21st July // 19:15
The story I didn’t get time to tell you…
When I was making my documentary God Next Door, there was a story we didn’t get time to tell. It was Margaret’s story… and it stopped me in my tracks.
#documentary #godnextdoor #bbc #bbcradio4 #bbcdocumentary
“We are here for the count of a by-election that could very well shape the future of British politics.”
Darryl Morris has everything you need to know about the Gorton & Denton by-election as counting gets underway.
Listen live on Times Radio: thetimes.com/radio
“We can sometimes overstate the importance of by-elections, but I genuinely don’t think you can overstate the importance of this one.”
The Gorton and Denton by-election will “cast the narrative that we all live with in British politics over the next couple of years,” says Darryl Morris.
"We have got to a point as a civilised society where we live with an abundance of resources..."
"But there is enough of a problem that there is a black market for food."
#Shoplifting #Crime #Poverty #StormandAlexis
