BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

The Art of Australia

The Art of Australia: Episode 1

Documentaries

Factual

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Reader Meet Author

Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - The Art of Australia, Episode 1

First episode of a major three-part series exploring the contemporary culture of Australia

Academic Corin Throsby returns to her homeland of Australia, to explode the myth that it is an artistic backwater, revealing instead a vibrant and diverse cultural landscape.

In a major new three part series, academic Corin Throsby returns to her native Australia to explore the rich cultural life of this vast nation we think we know so well, but which in fact belies many of our misconceptions. She describes how the dominant stereotypes of the country formed by soaps like Neighbours and Home and Away, as well as movies like Crocodile Dundee, bear little resemblance to the real life of Australia and the culture being created there. This is a country that's highly multi-cultural and increasingly keen to dwell on its own stories rather than forever hark back to its colonial parent, and home to a great swathe of major figures in the international arts scene; it is also, though, a place wrestling with issues around race and sexuality, where ingrained prejudice against immigrants and indigenous communities still acts both as a brake and an inspiration for many of its most powerful cultural voices, and where the mainstream domestic media continues to present a very white, mono-cultural face. 
In the first episode, Corin hears from the likes of Baz Luhrmann, Geoffrey Rush, Courtney Barnett, Christos Tsiolkas and Richard Flanagan, as well as Maya Newell, the director of the documentary'Gayby Baby' that was banned in schools for supposedly promoting same-sex families. 
PRODUCER: Geoff Bird.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Academic Corin Throsby explores the rich cultural life of her native Australia.

Academic Corin Throsby returns to her native Australia to explore the rich cultural life of this vast nation.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Art of Australia

Episode 1

Genres

Formats

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4