Look Mum, I'm on the Telly, Radio and Internet
I’m doing the rounds, I’m one documentary away from being Ann Robinson or perhaps Clarissa Dickson Wright is more apt.
Broadcasting (or what my Mum calls ‘being famous’) was never part of my plan. In the early days of rolling around floors of nightclubs I shied away from television companies wanting to throw me in front of an ITV2 audience ...and I’m glad I did.
Back in 2012 when promoting a show at Roundhouse I was offered a slot on BBC Radio 4 to talk about my relationship to camp, showing off and queerness. After the show I ate my bodyweight in a BBC finger buffet with my radio girl gang - Debbie, Sukey and Suzy of Loose Ends fame. Soon after I was offered to come back ...as the interviewer. I’ve been mouthing off on the radio ever since!
I love radio and audio and the geeks that exist within and around it! As a result I now use a lot of audio in my performance work, largely because of the encouragement and support of the aforementioned Debbie (Kilbride) who has collaborated on Camp (on the Estate) and Putting Words in Your Mouth.
Over the past few weeks I’ve done some exciting things for BBC and Tate and I wanted to share them with you...
The first is me, on telly, speaking about complexities of misogynies and street harassment, in 3 minutes. Only to be told by the cis-bloke-white-het-posh-Tory that my thoughts were absolute rubbish. What followed was a three day campaign of trolling, violence and threats from men, painfully demonstrating the stuff I was on BBC This Week talking about. Click the image above!
I’m featured in this brilliant documentary about autobiographical art. Over the 43 mins your hear me revisit the estate I grew up on, develop Bravado and hear clips from the show. It co-stars my bessie, Bryony Kimmings! It’s made by the lovely people at JustRadio and produced by the even lovelier Josephine Wheeler. Click the image above!
As I mentioned earlier, I used to knock about nightclubs for a living. Most of these tended to be in Soho before the mass migration to East London! So, when Tate approached me to make a documentary about Soho, Francis Bacon and Molly Parkin I of course bit off their hand. This one is made by Reduced Listening and the very brilliant Hana Walker-Brown. Click the image above!
This weekend I am back on the wireless - you can catch me on Saturday night on Radio 4 with Clive Anderson on Loose Ends at 6.15pm
See you on the airwaves. x
