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

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Woman's Hour: Wife, Francesca Segal on premature babies, Love Island

05/06/2019

Wife, Francesca Segal on premature babies, Love Island

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Wife, Francesca Segal on premature babies, Love Island

A queer history of the word 'wife' and Francesca Segal on the birth of her premature twins

Author Francesca Segal tells Jenni about her time in neonatal intensive care with her premature twin daughters. And Love Island is back, but is it more inclusive this year?

After her identical twin girls were born prematurely at 30 weeks, writer and journalist Francesca Segal found herself sitting in what she called the “mother ship” of neonatal intensive care, all her expectations of parenthood shattered.  She speaks to Jenni about the diary she kept and about  the band of mothers who joined her in the Mother Ship – which is the title of her memoir of the 56 days spent with her daughters in hospital.   

Inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, new play Wife focuses on a married woman facing a sexual identity crisis in 1959 in order to explore what we have meant by the word ‘wife’ over 90 years. Set in 1959, 1988, 2019 and 2042 the play follows four queer stories within four generations of one family and it highlights the changes within the institution of marriage. Jenni talks to director Indhu Rubasingham and historian Dr Rebecca Jennings.

This year's Love Island producers have introduced changes to make the hit TV programme more inclusive, and Monday’s launch revealed the new line-up. Do the changes go far enough? Jenni is joined by journalist Habiba Katsha, and by make-up artist Frances Shillito. 

Today is the start of a judicial review into women’s pensions. A group called BACK TO 60 is behind the court action. They want women’s state pensions to start at 60, as it did until 2010. It’s been rising ever since and is set to go up to 67 by 2028. Jenni talks to Davina Lloyd.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Laura Northedge
Interviewed Guest: Francesca Segal
Interviewed Guest: Indhu Rubasingham
Interviewed Guest: Rebecca Jennings
Interviewed Guest: Habiba Katsha
Interviewed Guest: Frances Shillito
Interviewed Guest: Davina Lloyd

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