A 5 minute selection of highlights from my MA year studying Broadcast Journalism at City University London.

KirstyMcQuireShowreel2011

For my final radio item of the autumn term at City, I chose to cover the relocation of Dalston's Arcola Theatre. Nine weeks on from The Colour Works open day at its future site, the final production in the original building has just opened. The Cradle Will Rock is a provocative piece of Brechtian agitprop theatre that Artistic Director Mehmet Ergan feels ‘pays tribute to the factory workers who once occupied the building.’ Listen here for a snapshot of where the theatre is at- as it marks its ten year anniversary- and more importantly, where it’s headed.

Choose Arcola

Here's my third audio featurette for City, which won this week's tutor's choice award!
It features the unmistakable Rag, Tag & Bobtail theme from Watch with Mother. Bedtime Stories is a luxury story-telling soiree held in Stepney Green. It’s one of many live literary events springing up around the capital, appealing to bohemians and book worms alike. The venue doubles as London’s smallest boutique hotel, 40 Winks, and hosts an intimate gathering of 50 guests. Unlike other low-fi, no frills ventures, it’s a bespoke evening which aims to raise the bar of taste and elegance whilst telling tales. Gin in tea cups is served to those adhering to the strict pyjama party dress code.

Storybook chic at Bedtime Stories

The week one radio assignment for City's would-be broadcast journos is a tabloid-style baptism of fire, otherwise known as Hunt the Celebrity. With less than 24 hours to procure said celeb for a coherent audio interview, many tailed the paparazzi or doggedly lay in wait outside The Ivy. Thankfully the East 15 Acting School contacts book came good and I was able to bribe Blake Harrison of Inbetweeners fame with baked goods in a coffee establishment in Soho.

Inbetween coffees with Blake Harrison

One woman's philanthropic mission comes full circle... 

This production is part of the Global Story Project, with support from the Open Society Foundations. Presented by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. It was produced by Kirsty McQuire and mixed by Dom Boucher of The Sound Company, London. 

Public radio stations can get 'The Kindness of Strangers' for broadcast here: http://www.prx.org/pieces/90121-the-kindness-of-strangers

Full piece description:

During the leap year of 2012, Bernadette Russell embarked on a mission to complete 366 Days of Kindness. Her efforts were prompted by the riots that spread through her adopted home town of London and across English towns and cities, between 6th and 10th August 2011. 

Bernadette has left sweets in phone boxes, books on trains, £5 notes on buses. She has given away balloons, cakes, flowers and lottery tickets, written letters to a soldier returned from Afghanistan and offered her socks to the homeless. She practiced ‘targeted’ rather than ‘random’ acts of kindness but she says she ‘expected nothing in return.’



The Kindness of Strangers

Kirsty McQuire is a radio researcher and producer. Credits include BBC Radio 4's Media Show, Saturday Live and a variety of documentaries for Radios 1 & 4, via the independent production companies Whistledown, Wise Buddah and Sparklab. She has an MA in Broadcast Journalism from City University, London and a BA in English from Cambridge University.