Singer-Songwriter Emmy the Great is looking for stories to help her write a new song. Who better to inspire her than the best bards around, school children? Taking an audio tour of playgrounds around the country, Emma encounters very strange tales of the ghostly individuals who frequent the UK's primary schools.

Characters like the Green Lady and Bloody Mary haunt the quiet, abandoned spaces of schools from Sheffield to London, spooking generations of pupils. Some appear in bathroom mirrors, others are never seen, only heard - their eerie footsteps reverberating through empty corridors.

Real or not, it’s beside the point. They play a very real role in the imaginations and friendships of the playground.

Emma asks why these stories emerge from the shady corners and abandoned spaces of schools. What can they tell us about the shady corners of the mind? She reflects on the role of these stories in helping young people make sense of the more difficult aspects of life, and learns more about the importance of ritual in the playground, with help from researchers and experts Kate Cowan, Julia Bishop and John Potter.

Emma taps into a rich vein of stories and feelings that inform her song-writing process. She experiments with acoustics and creative processes to write a song that brings some of that identity-bending, thrill-seeking, friend-forming magic of playground lore into her creative practice.

Presented by Emma Lee Moss
Produced by Claire Crofton
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4

The Green Lady in the Toilets

My mum is a great story teller, and this is a great one. And true too. 

My mum tells a ghost story

Weaving archive footage and oral histories with contemporary interviews, this feature documents the ebb and flow of the capital’s dynamic canal community. Following the tale of one boater in particular, the programme explores how life on the water keeps morale afloat in difficult times. 

Keeping Afloat

A short package about the UK's first ever same-sex ballroom dancing group

The Pink Jukebox

MV Lyubov Orlova (built as Lyubovy Orlova)was a 1976 Yugoslavia-built ice-strengthened Maria Yermolova-class cruise ship, which was primarily used for Antarctic cruises. After being taken out of service in 2010, she sat in St. John's, Newfoundland for two years. Decommissioning was fraught with problems and the ship eventually became a floating derelict in the North Atlantic Ocean in 2013. She is believed to have sunk. This is an audio sketch inspired by the tale of ghost ships. It features music my the ship's namesake. 

Ghost Ship

Recordings from Uganda (Kampala, Laguzi and Banda)

UGANDA

It is often said that there are more neurons in each brain than stars in the Milky Way. Here lies our personality, all our memories and experiences. This award-winning documentary asks how a physical impact to this complex organ can change our minds and invites you to contemplate your own sense of self and the fragility of your identity.

Changing My Mind - Kathrin's Story - RTE Doc on One Best True Story Winner

It is often said that there are more neurones in each brain than stars in the Milky Way. Here lies our personality, all our memories and experiences. This award-winning documentary asks how a physical impact to this complex organ can change our minds and invites you to contemplate your own sense of self and the fragility of your identity.

Changing My Mind - Winner of Hearsay RTE 'Best True Story' 2015

When Adele Morse began to explore the world of taxidermy, she couldn't have imagined where this path would lead her.

In 2012, while studying at the Royal Academy in London, she tried her hand at stuffing a fox. The results were... well let's just say the fox is crowned the king of bad taxidermy.

When she decided to sell the fox on eBay the posting caused quite a stir.

The 'Stoned Fox', as he would become affectionately known, was gathering a fan base with unprecedented momentum.

Thanks to the internet, seventy four thousand roubles, a DJ, surreal political persecution and a trip across the world—Adele is now the teller of one of the most bizarre stories you will ever hear.

The Adventures of a Dead Fox - For ABC's Radiotonic

This is the story of seeking people who don't want to be found, and hiding people

Short Cuts

Seek and Hide - BBC Radio 4 Short Cuts - Vanishing Point -  feat Frank M Ahearn

you can read Don's fascinating book with plenty more details and stories:

Scamming the Scammers
 Don Mullan April 1, 2014
Legend Press Ltd

Scamming The Scammers - with Don Mullan - BBC Radio 4 Short Cuts - BBC Radio's Pick of the Week

Stephen K Amos investigates the incredible true story of Ras Prince Monolulu, the first black man ever to appear on British TV screens.

Standing tall in his billowing robes, lions paws swing from his neck andostrich feathers adorn his hair. He shouts his catch phrase to an eager crowd, "I gotta 'Orse, I gotta 'Orse to beat the favourite." His smile is wide, his eyes full of spark and secrets, and the crowd is captivated.

Monolulu made his fame on the race courses of England in the 1920s but soon became a national treasure enchanting the nation until his death in the 1960s. But today his story has fallen through the cracks of history. There's no blue plaque and no museum. So who was this man? Where did he come from? What drove him to fame and how did he charm the nation for over forty years?

Comedian Stephen K Amos sets out to discover the incredible truth behind this mystical character, meeting people who remember the Prince and the vigilant detectives striving to get to the bottom of his story. The tale takes us from Ethiopia to Honolulu, from Germany to Soho.

Lifting the gossamer webs of Monolulu's carefully woven stories, Stephen reveals the truth of this man and finds than it's even stranger than fiction. It's a story of invented exotic identities and the struggle for survival.

The Producer is Claire Crofton

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Who is Monolulu? BBC Radio 4

Ron Stallworth was the perfect white supremacist. So good in fact, that he was asked to head up the Colorado branch of the Klu Klux Klan in the 70s. But there was one problem for the KKK, Ron was Black. And he was an undercover cop.

Undercover - BBC SHORT CUTS - PICK OF THE WEEK

Eva Kor tells the story of how she found freedom in forgiveness

Forgiveness - BBC SHORT CUTS - PICK OF THE WEEK

PROJECT ALPHA - BBC Radio 4 Short Cuts - The Test

Kindness Of Strangers - RADIO 4's PICK OF THE WEEK

This is a showreel of the National Trust Podcast which I produced as part of the team at PIXIU

National Trust Showreel

Singer-songwriter Emma Lee Moss (aka Emmy the Great) returns to the playground to re-explore one of her earliest musical influences, the clapping game.

Emma finds the playground very much alive with song, new and old . So how is this seemingly old-fashioned pastime surviving in an age of YouTube and smart phones?

Emma speaks to children and researchers, as well as exploring the archive of amateur folklorist Iona Opie, to understand the secrets of the clapping game’s success since the 1950s.

How are songs created? How do they spread? How do they last generations? What makes them catchy? These are the fundamental questions at the heart of any songwriter’s profession and Emma thinks the answers lie with the overlooked songwriting prodigies of our time – children.

Listening to games from her own primary school in Hong Kong, to the playground songs of England and Iceland, Emma traces the global passage of clapping games and tries to unpick their craft. Could she learn from the creative process behind the clapping game? As children borrow lyrics and melody from adult culture to work into their games, Emma borrows from the playground – composing riffs and rhythms as she goes.

With contributions from Dr Kate Cowan, Dr John Potter, Professor Andrew Burn, Dan Jones (aka the Rhyme Collector), Una Margret Jonsdottir and Dr Julia Bishop.

Produced by Claire Crofton
A Boom Shakalaka Production for BBC Radio 4.

Seriously...

A Sailor Went to Sea Sea Sea

Showreel Aug 18

Folk singer Sam Lee, along with William Parsons of the British Pilgrimage Trust, lead eleven pilgrims on a journey across Sussex tracing the origins of the iconic folk song The Turtle Dove.

Over a hundred years ago, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams travelled through Rusper, Sussex, collecting the stories and songs of the locals he encountered. He stopped at the Plough Inn, where he set up his Edwardian recording equipment to capture the songs of the pub’s landlord, whose crackled voice and haunting melodies can still be heard today. Vaughan Williams transformed one of the humble folk songs, The Turtle Dove, into a choral hit – extracting the song from Sussex and exporting it to the concert halls of London.

This Pilgrimage seeks to return the song to the land from which it was taken.

Moving through woods, churchyards and village halls, the pilgrims sing as they progress toward the Knepp rewilding estate, where they hope to sing The Turtle Dove to the last remaining colony of turtle doves in Sussex. Along the way, the pilgrims muse on the meaning of pilgrimage in a secular age and the contemporary relevance of this ancient song.

Presenter: Sam Lee
Producer: Claire Crofton
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4

Turtle Dove Pilgrimage - Pick of the week

One year since the Christchurch Mosque attacks, New Zealand’s creatives discuss how their work in poetry, music and art can provide relief and healing to a nation in the wake of one of their darkest days.

New Zealand’s 2017 Poet Laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh, reflects on her poem Christchurch Mosque Shootings.

Janneth Gil, a Christchurch-based photographer and fine artist, discusses her project Darkness into Light.

Viv Kepes, a Christchurch-based painter, discusses her painted series - working title Bouquet - as part of the umbrella project Darkness into Light.

Mohamed Hassan, slam poet champion and award-winning journalist, discusses the sketches of a poem written in the months since the attack.

Dr Charles Te Ahukaramū Royal, a New Zealand Māori musician, academic and Māori-music revivalist, discusses his composition, Ra Te Rongo Kino, for kapa haka and orchestra which was composed in response to the Christchurch Mosque shootings. The piece was performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra with Taniwha Ventures on the 29th June 2019 at the Auckland Town Hall.

Producer: Claire Crofton
Executive Producer: Anishka Sharma

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Image Credit: Janneth Gil - Widow in prayer - A martyr's absence gives way to his eternal presence. Al Noor Mosque, Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Art of Now Christchurch

For fifty years, nuclear weapons were tested in the Pacific. It started with American tests in 1946, Britain joined in the 50s, and France didn’t finish until 1996. Some of the tests were one thousand times more powerful than the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For decades, the details were classified. But for generations, Pacific Islanders have been trying to push this story to global attention.

In this programme, James Nokise, a comedian and stage performer from New Zealand explores the role of Pacific wordsmiths, from song writers to poets, who have used their craft to protest against nuclear testing.

Featuring the poems:

No Ordinary Sun - written by Hone Tuwhare. Archival sound recordings from Tuwhare reading his poem in 1975 and 1986 courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, RNZ and Hone Tuwhare Trust.

Wave Song - written by Déwé Gorodé and translated by Raylene Ramsay and Deborah Walker.

Waka 83 - written and read by Robert Sullivan

Bad Coconuts - written and performed by Teresia Teaiwa (featuring H Doug Matsuoka and Richard Hamasaki)

Fishbone Hair, Monster, Anointed - written and performed by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner

Produced by Claire Crofton
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4

The Day of Two Suns

Co produced for Earshot on ABC by Claire Crofton and Olivia Humphreys

Since the Covid-19 crisis began, people around the world have reported that their dreams are more vivid and bizarre than usual: from nightmares about overcrowded trains or Donald Trump sneezing on them, to wistful dreams about their favourite restaurant. What can we learn from this strange new phenomenon?

Guests

Dr Kelly Bulkeley, psychologist of religion specializing in dream research, and the director of the Sleep and Dream Database

Dr Deirdre Barrett, author of The Committee of Sleep as well as a Harvard dream researcher. Her new book is Pandemic Dreams

Zara Haghpanah-Shirwan is one of the founders of Lockdown Dreams

Dr Julia Lockheart, artist and Professor Mark Blagrove, sleep scientist set up and run Dreams ID. Through the lockdown they’ve run online dream groups. inviting frontline and key workers to discuss a recent or important dream, while Julia creates an artwork that captures the dream.

Thank you to; Dr Sharon Sliwinski, Mireille Juchau, Jake Roberts and all those who generously contributed their dreams.

Image - Dierdre Barret

ClaireCrofton

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