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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: The Fifth Floor

Documentaries

18/12/2015 GMT

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, The Fifth Floor

A Persian children's book; Soviet x-ray music; monks behaving badly; food from Africa

A classic Persian children's book; Soviet x-rays and contraband music; monks behaving badly; food from Africa; and Fifi's pick of the web

A Persian Children's Classic
Many of us will remember a book that made a big impact on us as a child.  For children who grew up in pre-revolutionary Iran, one of the most popular books was The Little Black Fish by Samad Behrangi.  The book has now been translated into English. Two fans from BBC Persian are Mehrdad Farahmand and Pooneh Ghoddoosi.  Once we were all sitting comfortably, Pooneh began with a reading from the story in Farsi…..

Bone Music
Back in the 50s in the Soviet Union, Western music was banned. So what do you do if you're desperate to hear the latest release from Bill Haley and the Comets? Music lovers found an ingenious solution - they made bootleg pressings of their favourite tracks on discarded X-rays. They make for eerie looking records - with shadows of bones underneath the grooves. And it wasn't just western music but also other more local musicians who were banned. Alexander Kan from BBC Russian tells us the story of the bone music.
For more on the X-ray audio project go to www.x-rayaudio.squarespace.com .

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