Also available as a podcast from BBC Radio 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bfykqm/episodes/downloads

Tara and George

⁂ Charles Parker Prize 2015 — Silver Award ⁂

Two men come to terms with loss —  in an open, honest confrontation of memory and grief.

A programme about death as a part of living, about pain in remembering but also in forgetting. We are but passing clouds — in the vastness of the experiences we call life. 

From The Mourning Diary by Roland Barthes: 

“There is a time when death is an event, an adventure, and as such mobilizes, interests, activates, tetanizes. And then one day it is no longer an event, it is another duration, compressed, insignificant, not narrated, grim, without recourse: true mourning not susceptible to any narrative dialectic.” 

“How strange: her voice which I knew so well, and which is said to be the very texture of memory ('the dear inflection...'). I no longer hear. Like a localized deafness..”  

WITH
Stephen H.
Andrew Parr (Hypnotherapist)

ADDITIONAL MUSIC
audiography005 by sonicbrat 
audiography012 by sonicbrat 
E R 	by Sylvain Chauveau

The Trace of a Cloud in a Chest / Produced by Weidong Lin

An obscured target, a lost letter, a missed connection? This is a little audio poem for pleasure. Or something.

An Aquarian Request

This was a finely crafted piece of imaginative radio, with a gentle, Zen-like contemplative quality.  Two men discuss death, and specifically the recent deaths of their mothers, in a piece that mixed amusing and sharply observed anecdotes with more mystical thought. “Very moving, slightly hypnotic, innovative and imaginative”, said one judge, while another observed that the maker “brings an oriental sensitivity and originality to the production, transforming the dialogue by subtle use of gongs and bells, drones JORDYand audio overlays.” The judges also praised “a great piece of straight interviewing given how much the man opened up.  A minor critique from the judges was that the title was rather too puzzling for its own good!

The Trace Of A Cloud In A Chest By Weidong Lin SILVER 2015

The sleeper train is a magic thing.
Here a bunk, there a bunk,
everywhere a folding table...

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Sounds from a trip to Ukraine...

/// TRACKLIST \\\

Phil Smith - Overnight Train, Odessa to Lviv (2017-06-26)
Zac Gvi - The Aftermath (reprise)
Phil Smith - Distant Train Station, Morning, Lviv (2017-06-24)
Mare Nostrum - Monteverdi: Si Dolce È Il Tormento (live bootleg)
Phil Smith - Thunder, Morning, Ivano Frankivsky (2017-06-23)
Phil Smith - Overnight Train, Snoring, Lviv to Odessa (2017-06-25)
Christina Pluhar / Philippe Jaroussky - Monteverdi: Si Dolce È Il Tormento
Phil Smith - Train, Lviv to Ivano Frankivsk (2017-06-21)
Troyka - Rest
Phil Smith - Train, Lviv to Ivano Frankivsk (2017-06-21)
José James - Bird of Space
Phil Smith - Rain on the Windscreen, Ivano Frankivsk To Lviv (2017-06-23)
Phil Smith - Brücke
Phil Smith - Train Station, Odessa (2017-06-26)
Naftule's Dream - Sitting in Some Train Watching the Tuscan Landscape Go Speeding Backward
Phil Smith - Overnight Train, Odessa to Lviv (2017-06-26)

NTS: Phil's Jazz Dis-junction [2017]

Jazz Dis-junction - Sleeper Train [NTS Radio, 2017-07-16]

This is a proof-of-concept pilot episode that was procedurally generated for county 1515459035. Sheldon County is a generative podcast about life a simulated American county that inhabits your listening device. It is a project of SHELDON, a computer program written by James Ryan (www.jamesryan.world). Music by Lee Rosevere. Coming 2019.

Seed #1515459035

Episode 1: A Nothing Place

A young teacher's daily struggles provide the backdrop for this harrowing reflection on the Grenfell Tower tragedy. In a move from journalism to drama, George departs with the documentary-style narration of previous episodes to deliver a heart-wrenching story of resilience and neglect in London's inner city. Enlisting the help of rising star Jade Alleyne, poet Sophia Thakur as well as his own brothers, Freddie, Michael and Kenny Mpanga, George introduces a small universe of characters whose witty exchanges offer insight into their respective environments. 

Featured songs:
Chika Dole - Touch
Abi Ocia - Running

Written by George the Poet
Produced by Benbrick and George The Poet
Original score by Benbrick

#HaveYouHeardGeorgesPodcast Episode 3 A Grenfell Story

Hope Chest returns with a new essay written at SPACE on Ryder Farm's Family Residency in July 2018. A week-long artist's residency for parents and their children, SPACE on Ryder Farm affords families that ever-elusive commodity that's so difficult for many artists to find, post-parenting: time. While there, Stacia writes to Story about how the culmination of her academic and professional decisions to date have led her to face some harsh realities of late.

Ep. 6 The Art of Knowing When to Retreat

Life on the streets is hard and precarious but every soul who sleeps on a pavement has a story. Tara and George is a six-part series exploring the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London's Spitalfields. It asks the simple questions - what led them there and why do they remain?

Journalist Audrey Gillan has come to know them as neighbours in this diverse and fashionable area of the capital, and has been recording her conversations with Tara and George for nearly two years.

In this first episode, More Issues than Vogue, named after the wording on one of Tara's T-shirts, the pair introduce us to their world and reveal how they are each other's anchor in a sea of chaos.

First broadcast 14th August 2018, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Audrey Gillan
Produced by Audrey Gillan and Johnny Miller
Original music by Francis MacDonald
Series Producer: Alan Hall

Image courtesy of Gilbert and George / White Cube

Tara and George: More Issues Than Vogue 1/6

Life on the streets is hard and precarious but every soul who sleeps on a pavement has a story. Tara and George is a six-part series exploring the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London's Spitalfields. It asks the simple questions - what led them there and why do they remain?

Journalist Audrey Gillan has come to know them as neighbours in this diverse and fashionable area of the capital, and has been recording her conversations with Tara and George for nearly two years.

In this second episode, Tara goes walkabout and George, sitting in his favourite spot on the doorstep of the house lived in by the collaborative art duo Gilbert and George, shares alarming news about his health.

First broadcast 21st August 2018, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Audrey Gillan
Produced by Audrey Gillan and Johnny Miller
Original music by Francis Macdonald
Series Producer: Alan Hall

Image courtesy of Gilbert and George / White Cube

Tara and George: Looking For Tara 2/6

Life on the streets is hard and precarious but every soul who sleeps on a pavement has a story. Tara and George is a six-part series exploring the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London's Spitalfields. It asks the simple questions - what led them there and why do they remain?

Journalist Audrey Gillan has come to know them as neighbours in this diverse and fashionable area of the capital, and has been recording her conversations with Tara and George for nearly two years.

In this episode, Audrey travels north. Before running away to London on a National Express coach "at the age of 12", as he tells it to Audrey, George grew up in the former pit village of Nettlesworth, County Durham. Still living in a house across from George's family home, Audrey finds his aunt Lillian. In an attempt to capture a sense of what George left behind - and ran away from - Audrey goes in search of other members of his family.

First broadcast on 28th August 2018, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Audrey Gillan
Produced by Audrey Gillan and Johnny Miller
Original music by Francis Macdonald
Series Producer: Alan Hall

Image courtesy of Gilbert and George / White Cube

Tara and George: County Durham 3/6

Life on the streets is hard and precarious, but every soul who sleeps on a pavement has a story. Tara and George is a six-part series exploring the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London's Spitalfields. It asks simply, what led them there and why do they remain?

Journalist Audrey Gillan has come to know them as neighbours in this diverse and fashionable area of the capital, and has been recording her conversations with Tara and George for nearly two years.

In this episode, Tara opens up, little by little, about her childhood in London, missing her mum and what led to her three children being taken away from her.

First broadcast 4th September 2018, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Audrey Gillan
Produced by Audrey Gillan and Johnny Miller
Original music by Francis Macdonald
Series Producer: Alan Hall

Image courtesy of Gilbert and George / White Cube

Tara and George: The Life of Tara 4/6

Life on the streets is hard and precarious but every soul who sleeps on a pavement has a story. Tara and George is a six-part series exploring the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London's Spitalfields. It asks the simple questions - what led them there and why do they remain?

Journalist Audrey Gillan has come to know them as neighbours in this diverse and fashionable area of the capital, and has been recording her conversations with Tara and George for nearly two years.

In this fifth episode, Tara and George endure the hottest summer the country has experienced for years, Tara carries signs of having suffered an assault and George, his health visibly deteriorating, returns increasingly often to his hostel.

First broadcast 11th September 2018, BBC Radio 4
Written and presented by Audrey Gillan
Produced by Audrey Gillan and Johnny Miller
Original music by Francis MacDonald
Series Producer: Alan Hall

Image courtesy of Gilbert and George / White Cube

Tara and George: The Long, Hot Summer 5/6

In the six months since Radio 4 shared the stories of Tara and George, a pair of rough sleepers on the streets of east London, the Government has published statistics that reveal the true toll of being homeless - last year there were nearly six hundred deaths on the streets of the UK and the average life expectancy has fallen again.

Tara and George, as well as being familiar figures in their neighbourhood, are also on the radar of local agencies and charities. George has a regular hostel place, Tara's situation is more complex. But, as they revealed to Audrey Gillan in an intimate series of documentaries last summer, sleeping rough is typically a symptom of myriad other issues.

In this follow-up documentary recorded during the new year's first Severe Weather Emergency Protocol, Audrey catches up with Tara and George to see how they're coping with the cold and she pursues a simple question, prompted by attendance at a memorial service at St Martin-in-the-Fields for those who've died on the streets in the last year - what would it take to prevent the unnecessary deaths of homeless people?

Image courtesy of Marianna Kennedy

First broadcast 11th February 2019, BBC Radio 4
Produced by Alan Hall and Audrey Gillan

Beyond Tara And George

Prix Italia, Jury Special Mention. Eliot Weinberger's long and continuing prose poem draws on reports, newspapers, official utterances and eye-witness accounts to paint a terrifying picture of the war in Iraq. Sound design / mix: Jon Nicholls.

What I Heard About Iraq

It's the first time I've gone into this much depth exploring who I am in front of a mic and I hope you find a bit of yourself in my little (re)discoveries.

FULL EPISODE: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007wvz?fbclid=IwAR2HuSUbv7eEI3GPFo6vHG687gRFW7NBggFcKRHzLAYrulDRF4Bp_B28i44

Full Episode

Short Cuts: How to Remember by Axel Kacoutié

We make documentaries and audio art for radio, podcasts and public spaces.

At the heart of what we do is a belief in the imaginative possibilities of radio. Sounds that can reconfigure the world around you, move you through inner landscapes, sink into your dreams.

We are an intentionally small company that considers carefully the creative, social and political aspects of the work we put out into the world.

Falling Tree has two full-time Directors – Eleanor McDowall and Alan Hall – and we work with freelancers across our projects, including the core Short Cuts production team of Alia Cassam, Axel Kacoutié and Andrea Rangecroft.

We are one of the founding signatories of the Equality in Audio pact. 

You can listen to hundreds of our documentaries in the free, online Falling Tree archive.

Beyond Tara And George

Falling Tree Productions

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