Lives Less Ordinary
BBC
Have you ever locked eyes with a stranger and wondered, "What’s their story?" Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Extraordinary stories from around the world.
Location:
London, United Kingdom
Networks:
BBC
Description:
Have you ever locked eyes with a stranger and wondered, "What’s their story?" Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Extraordinary stories from around the world.
Twitter:
@bbcoutlook
Language:
English
Contact:
BBC World Service Bush House Strand London WC2B 4PH
Email:
outlook@bbc.com
Episodes
Behind the locked door
3/17/2024
The Austrian house where a doctor experimented on children.
Evy Mages grew up in and out of foster care in 1970s and 80s Austria. But even when she started a new life in the US, she was haunted by traumatic memories of a strange yellow house high up in the Alps, where she had been placed as an eight-year-old. It took an idle internet search in her 50s to reveal that this was actually an institution called a 'Kinderbeobachtungsstation', or 'child-observation station', where vulnerable children were experimented on by a psychologist using shocking methods. She decided to step back into her past to uncover the full, disturbing truth of what happened there.
Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Edgar Maddicott Editor: Rebecca Vincent
Duration:00:48:50
I cycled across Africa for a place at my dream university
3/10/2024
A handwritten map is all Mamadou Barry had to guide him from Guinea to Egypt.
At the age of 24 he had reached a crossroads in his life. Having failed his final year secondary school exams five times in a row, he set his sights on a different type of education. Mamadou had heard about the prestigious Al Azhar University in Egypt, but could not afford a plane ticket. So he decided to set off on an epic adventure, travelling by bike, and leaving his home in Guinea with only $55, a small bag of clothes and tools, and a map he had drawn himself.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Rob Wilson Translator and interpreter: Olivier Weber Voiceover artist: Gaïus Kowene
Archive was from the official YouTube channel for Will Smith
Duration:00:42:08
Going cold turkey in a Bangkok prison
3/3/2024
A life shaped by addiction.
Australian Holly Deane-Johns had a complicated childhood. Her parents ran an escort agency from their home, and heroin addiction later took over the whole family. She was first given heroin by her mother, aged just 15. Holly ended up dealing to feed her habit, and in her early 30s was sentenced to 31 years in a notorious Thai prison, convicted of drug smuggling.
Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Mary Goodhart Editor: Rebecca Vincent
Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
Duration:00:41:46
The Pacific odyssey of a runaway rebel
2/25/2024
Ruth Shaw spent years on ships and islands, trying to outrun her past.
She left her home in New Zealand as a young woman, driven away by a traumatic attack that would shape her life for years to come. Ruth tried to find escape on sailing ships, in Tahitian gambling dens and in the bars and kitchens of Papua New Guinea. But ultimately she had to head home, to face up to deep adolescent scars, and to find the child she’d been forced to give up years before.
Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: May Cameron Editor: Munazza Khan
Photo: ‘The Bookseller at the End of the World’
Duration:00:40:52
Fugees Family: the football team who became my life
2/18/2024
The extraordinary coach who started a football team but built something much bigger.
One day when Luma Mufleh was driving home to Atlanta, Georgia, she came across a group of barefoot boys playing football in the street, using a raggedy old ball and rocks for goalposts. They reminded her of how she played at home in Jordan and she asked to join their game. The Fugees Family football team was born. Luma Mufleh has written a book about her extraordinary story, Believe in Them: One Woman's Fight for Justice for Refugee Children.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Helen Fitzhenry
Get in tough: lieveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or Whatsapp: 0044 330 678 2784
Duration:00:43:13
My dad was Britain's 'most wanted'
2/11/2024
Without realising it, Nick Reynolds had been living his childhood on the run.
Early one morning in 1968 he answered his front door, completely oblivious to the whirlwind about to be unleashed on his family. Most of Nick's early years had been spent carefree and happy on the shores of Mexico with his British parents. But all the while he had been growing up in the shadow of one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century.
Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Eric Mugaju and Anna Lacey
Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
(Photo: Nick & Bruce Reynolds. Credit: Ronnie Biggs)
Duration:00:38:22
Trapped in an icy hell: my 72 day mountain escape
2/4/2024
After crashing high in the Andes, Nando Parrado had to go to the extreme to get out.
In 1972, when the plane carrying 22 year old Uruguayan Nando Parrado and his rugby team came down deep in the Andes mountain range in South America, they were left for dead. Rescue teams called off their search after 10 days. Nando and the other survivors would spend an incredible 72 days trapped, frozen and forsaken in this icy wilderness. And in order to come out alive, they would have to do the unthinkable.
Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Edgar Maddicott Editor: Laura Thomas
Duration:00:41:37
A Libyan kidnapping and the words that brought us together
1/28/2024
Lucy Sexton was making a TV series about hostages when her father Joe was abducted
Lucy and her father Joe Sexton are American journalists. In 2021 Lucy was working on the TV series ‘Hostages’ when her personal and professional life collided. Joe had been abducted while on a reporting trip in Libya. What followed was a surreal week of parallels as they both tried to make sense of what was happening – Joe from a cell in Libya and Lucy from a production set in Washington. Later, they turned their experience into a joint writing project that brought them closer than ever before.
Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: May Cameron Editor: Harry Graham Sound design: Joel Cox
Duration:00:43:07
Discovering my mother was a Vietnamese rock'n'roll star
1/21/2024
A chance email led Hannah Ha to uncover her mother Tam’s forgotten musical legacy.
Hannah knew her mother could sing. When she took the stage at karaoke, she always stole the show. But when a chance email revealed she had once been a recording artist called Phuong Tam in 1960s Saigon, she was stunned. Hannah embarked on a two-year hunt to track down her mother’s long-lost recordings – and her rock 'n' roll legacy.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Zoe Gelber
Duration:00:39:56
Searching for the last man in the forest
1/14/2024
Jair Candor tracks down remote Amazonian tribes in order to protect them from outsiders.
One tribe, the Piripkura has just one member left who’s living nomadically, deep in the rainforest. It’s Jair’s mission to find him, to establish he’s alive, and to protect his land rights from those who want the forest for themselves. Jair has monitored numerous indigenous groups in Brazil over the years, and he’s faced frequent malaria, armed logging groups, and the occasional arrow fired in his direction.
Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Harry Graham and Graciela Damiano Editor: Munazza Khan Voice actor: Thomas Pappon Sound design: Joe Munday
Duration:00:35:27
Hunting for icons in the underworld, part 2
1/7/2024
Tasoula Hadjitofi tricked a notorious art smuggler to recover Cyprus' holiest relics
When war split Tasoula's home country of Cyprus in two in 1974 she had to leave home, never to return. Years later, while living in the Netherlands she was approached by a shady art dealer with news that shook her to the core: artefacts sacred to her Greek Orthodox faith had been stolen, hammered out from church walls and were now being sold on the black market. Tasoula then poured everything into righting this wrong and vowed to bring them back. She would have to plumb the depths of the criminal underworld and hatch an elaborate sting operation to catch the mastermind behind it all.
Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Edgar Maddicott Sound Design: Joe Munday Editor: Harry Graham
Duration:00:29:58
Hunting for icons in the underworld, part 1
12/31/2023
Tasoula Hadjitofi uncovered a shady network looting her country's most sacred relics
In 1974 Tasoula's country, Cyprus, was torn in two by war. Distraught and unable to return home she ended up in the Netherlands where some years later a shadowy art dealer approached her with some astonishing news. Religious artefacts sacred to her faith that had adorned the churches she prayed in as a girl had been chiselled away, and were now being sold on the black market. And so began Tasoula's decade-long search for the stolen relics. But she would first have to learn from the criminals in order to catch them.
Presenter: Emily Webb Producer: Edgar Maddicott Sound Design: Joe Munday Editor: Harry Graham
Duration:00:38:08
Love in the time of revolution, part 2
12/24/2023
Pepe and Lucía: the bonfire of young love, a long separation, and rise to presidency.
The guerrilla lovers finally meet and fall for each other, but their joy is shortlived, they’re soon arrested again – and this time there won’t be any escape. Uruguay’s military coup means that the couple are separated by 13 years of brutal detention. When they’re granted amnesty, they find their way back to each other, and enter the political fray, all the way up to the presidency.
Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Louise Morris Dubbing by Fede di Lorenzo and Elizabeth Rhodes
Clips courtesy of Euro News, RDTV, France 24 and SBS.
Duration:00:36:03
Love in the time of revolution, part 1
12/17/2023
Pepe and Lucía: the guerrilla lovers who became the leaders of Uruguay
When they were younger, José Pepe Mujica and Lucía Topolansky separately joined a left-wing insurgency set on overthrowing the country's government. They wouldn't meet for years but they were on the same mission. Each went underground, cutting ties to friends and family while their group, the Tupamaros, carried out bank heists to fund the uprising. The law soon caught up with them both, but neither were prepared to stay behind bars for long. Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Louise Morris
Dubbers were Elizabeth Rhodes and Fede di Lorenzo
Duration:00:36:35
An author, his cellmate, and a new beginning
12/10/2023
When award-winning author Alex Wheatle was sentenced to nine months in prison at the age of 18, he thought his life was over.
Alex had been born in London to Jamaican parents, but grew up in care in the notorious Shirley Oaks children’s home. As a teenager, he was convicted of assaulting a police officer during the Brixton Riots. He felt totally alone and without hope. But as the door slammed on Alex’s prison cell, he met a book-loving man called Simeon who opened his eyes to the importance of his own history – and encouraged him to use his past to write a new and hopeful future.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Hetal Bapodra and Anna Lacey
Duration:00:41:37
Scams and poetry in Moscow’s underbelly
12/3/2023
Eric Ngalle is now a poet and academic in the Welsh capital of Cardiff, but it's his experiences as a people-trafficked teenager that inspire much of his work. When he was 17, he found himself broke and alone in Moscow, freezing cold and unable to speak a word of Russian. To survive, he relied on charity, girlfriends, and a brief stripping career. None of this was enough to buy him a ticket home to Cameroon, so he got involved in a high-risk scam, which targeted some very dangerous people.
If you’ve been affected by anything you heard in this interview, support is available through the BBC Action Line website or via Befrienders Worldwide.
Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Harry Graham
Get in touch: WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
Duration:00:37:30
Introducing Amazing Sport Stories
11/30/2023
Sport but not as you know it. A brand new sports storytelling podcast.
Imagine being stranded in the “death zone” on one of the world’s highest mountains. How about running 200 miles in a dark tunnel? We’ve been searching the world for the most amazing sport stories. Other podcasts bring you the scores and team news. This one tells the stories you’ll wish you’d known about and now probably won’t forget. You don’t need to be obsessed with sport to find yourself immersed in our mini-seasons and short stories. Search for Amazing Sport Stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Or find it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvs1/episodes/downloads
Duration:00:03:23
Unmasking my best friend
11/26/2023
Reality TV producer Johnathan Walton found himself in a plot he couldn't have dreamt up.
It all started when a woman helped him when he was locked out of his building's swimming pool. She was magnetic and full of fun and soon they became inseparable. But things weren't quite as rosy as they seemed. Four years into their friendship Johnathan started pulling at the edges of her story, it all began to unravel and he'd have to start playing detective in a bid to bring her down.
Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Edgar Maddicott Editor: Munazza Khan
Duration:00:37:22
Becoming Gamal, part 2: Behind the badge
11/19/2023
Gamal Turawa has lived many lives - but never fitted in.
First as a black British boy adopted into a white family, then hoodwinked by his father and eventually begging on the streets of Lagos - he was always on the margins. As an adult he joined London's Metropolitan Police, but instead of finding a home there, his differences were used to tear him down and humilate him. When Gamal finally hit rock bottom he decided to stop hiding and stand out.
Details of organisations offering information and support on a wide range of issues are available at www.bbc.co.uk/actionline
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: Charlie Towler and Harry Graham Editor: Laura Thomas
Duration:00:27:46
Becoming Gamal, part 1: Magic and misadventure
11/12/2023
Gamal Turawa has lived many lives - but never fitted in
As the first openly gay black officer in London's Metropolitan Police, he struggled to find his way while reckoning with his past. Adopted into a white family as a baby, Gamal was hoodwinked by his father as a boy and ended up living as a teenage beggar on the streets of Lagos, until a chance encounter saw him find work as a magician's assistant, hyping up crowds across West Africa.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producers: Charlie Towler and Harry Graham Editor: Laura Thomas
Duration:00:30:47