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LAST WORD
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 Friday16:00-16:30
Sunday20:30-21:00(rpt)
Radio 4's weekly obituaries programme |
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Contact us |
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This week |
Friday22nd June 2007
(Rpt) Sunday24th June |
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Bernard Manning
Comedianwho has died aged 76.
Bernard Manning was an unrepentant comedian of the old school whose targets included black people, gays and women. Some have praised him as a performer with impeccable timing who indiscriminately picked on any subject that would get him a laugh. Others have accused him of pandering to and confirming offensive and divisive stereotypes. Aware that his obituaries were unlikely to be unanimously supportive, Manning – who had suffered from ill health for a number of years --took the precaution of writing one of his own and leaving it in the hands of the Daily Mail.
Matthew Bannister talks to Mickey Martin who was Manning’s agent and lifelong friend and Alkarim Jivani, TV critic of Time Out magazine.
Bernard Manning was born August 13th 1930.He died June 18th 2007.
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Piara Khabra,
MP for Ealing Southallwho has diedaged 82.
Piara Khabra was the oldest MP in the House of Commons andwas much praised as a conscientious and hard working representative of his constituents in the London seat of Ealing Southall. Piara Khabra was born into a Sikh family in the Punjab and educated in India. After serving in the Indian army under British officers during the second world war he emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1959. Piara was politically active from his arrival in the UK, joining the Indian Workers’ Association and the Communist Party before ending up as a Labour Party member. His selection as an MP in 1991 was controversial when he faced allegations that his supporters had paid for local Asians to join the party in exchange for votes. Piara Khabra was cleared of any wrongdoing by a party inquiry.
Matthew Bannister talks to his friend and political rival in the Southall Labour Party, Councillor Virendra Sharma.
Piara Khabrawas born on November 20th 1924. He died on June 19th 2007.
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DEBORAH THORNTON JACKSON,
Martini girl who has died aged 57.
The life of Deborah Thornton Jackson reads like an airport novel. Her father was a soldier in the Blues and Royals – her mother a lingerie model. Deborah was born in Windsor in 1949, educated at St Anne’s College for Young Ladies and trained as an air stewardess by British European Airways. When claustrophobia put an end to her flying ambitions, she took up modelling and enrolled on a course in London which she financed by working as a bunny girl at the Playboy Club. But it was her role as the swimsuit clad girl in a seductive Martini ad which made her part of the new aristocracy of the swinging sixties. Her friendships with Tom Jones and George Best made the gossip columns and she shared a flat with Joanna Lumley. The party lifestyle came to an abrupt end when Deborah answered a call for help from a friend and found herself enslaved in a Beirut brothel. Many a hair raising adventure and a couple of marriages followed until she ended up back in the UK with her third husband, Professor Neil Jackson.
Matthew Bannister talks to Deborah’s daughter Anthea Ayacheand Neil Jackson.
Deborah Thornton Jackson was bornJuly 4th 1949. She died May 18th 2007. |
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Ousmane Sembene
Film director and writer who has diedaged 84.
Ousmane Sembene is known as the father of African cinema who inspired a generation of younger film directors. He was born in Senegal – which was then part of French West Africa – in 1923. During the second world war he served in the Free French army – and after demobilisation he moved to Marseilles and took at job in the docks. It was this work that inspired his first novel “Le Docker Noir”, which was published in 1959. By the early sixties, Sembene had moved back to Senegal and published a number of acclaimed books.However, he was frustrated that his message was not getting through to most of his countrymen –as many of them could not read. So he resolved to pursue a childhood enthusiasm for cinema.
Matthew Bannister talks tofilm critic and programmer Gaylene Gould and Sembene’s biographer and friend Samba Gadjigo.
Ousmane Sembene was born January 1st1923. He died June 9th2007.
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