BBC Radio
For over a decade, Fiona has worked with leading content producers to create and host arts documentaries and interviews featuring actors, directors, writers, and sports stars.
“Fiona has a passion and deep expertise that opens up the worlds of theatre and entertainment for wide audiences. I worked with Fiona to turn her ideas into documentaries for BBC Radio and learnt such a lot from observing her interviewing people. She brings a sensitive and gentle tenacity that wins the trust of her interviewees while drawing out wonderful and surprising insights.”
– Peggy Sutton, Managing Partner, Somethin’ Else Productions
Projects
In the Studio: Rufus Norris
Rufus Norris and the cast and crew of Small Island talk about recreating the Caribbean migrant experience portrayed in the well-known novel by Andrea Levy.
Arts broadcaster and journalist Fiona Lindsay speaks to former National Theatre Artistic Director Rufus Norris, as well as members of the cast and crew, to explore the technical and creative challenges of this epic production.
Produced by Nightjar for BBC World Service.
Critic’s Choice/Pick of the Day/Pick of the Week.
The Half: A Countdown to Performance
The Half - called over the tannoy backstage at the theatre - is the beginning of the countdown to facing an audience. We hear the half-hour count down over the loudspeaker system as arts broadcaster and journalist Fiona Lindsay takes us behind the scenes and explores how that crucial half hour before the curtain goes up plays out for performers of all kinds.
Produced by Somethin’ Else for BBC Radio 4.
Critic’s Choice/Pick of the Day/Pick of the Week.
Table Talk
Take one play, one director, one scholar, two actors, and a live audience and mix together. Unscripted and unrehearsed, Table Talk brought the rehearsal room into people’s homes.
Produced by Somethin’ Else for BBC Radio 4.
Breaking Bard
Fiona Lindsay listens in on the table talk of actors and directors as they work to bring dramatic productions from page to stage over two epsiodes. The first looks at Shakespeare’s Othello through the prism of the rehearsal room. The second explores the staging of the York Mystery Plays.
Produced by Somethin’ Else for BBC Radio 4.
Finding Kate
Fiona Lindsay talks to actors Simon Scardifield and Lisa Dillon about playing Kate in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
Produced by Somethin’ Else for BBC Radio 2.
Dexter and Dodd
The veteran Liverpudlian comedian Ken Dodd writes very long jokes and tells shaggy dog stories. The erudite Oxford writer Colin Dexter, crossword king and creator of 'Inspector Morse', is economic with words and concise in his chapters. Yet they are each other's greatest admirers. Fiona Lindsay, who knows them both, had the inspired idea to bring them together for the first time. In this programme they compare notes, exchange tips, and present a double act on stage before a packed hall at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
Produced by Culture Wise for BBC Radio 4.
Critic’s Choice/Pick of the Day/Pick of the Week.
Creative Forces
Comedian Dawn French and actress Juliet Stevenson discuss with Fiona Lindsay how their peripatetic military childhoods helped to shape their professional lives.
Produced by Culture Wise for BBC Radio 4.
Critic’s Choice/Pick of the Day/Pick of the Week.
Character Assassins
The death of fictional superstars by pen, pencil or type lies, quite literally, in the hands of their creators.
At the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival 2010, Fiona Lindsay conducts a forensic cross-examination of popular writers, put on trial to reveal their motives for killing off their leading characters.
Produced by Culture Wise for BBC Radio 4.
Critic’s Choice/Pick of the Day/Pick of the Week.
Talking About Character
Fiona Lindsay interviews Professor Carol Rutter about the character of Kate in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.
BBC Singers/Jeannin: Joby Talbot and Joanna Marsh
Contemplate the endurance and joy of a historic pilgrimage route and experience a brand-new collaboration between Joanna Marsh and electronics artist James Pountney with lyrics by Fiona Lindsay.