In Suburbia

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Documentaries

Factual

Ian Hislop asks why suburban estates have had such a pull on the creative mind.

Ian Hislop, a citizen of Middle England, asks why these apparently dreary estates have had such a pull on the creative mind.

BBC Radio 4 FM

In Suburbia: Light and Shade

Light and Shade

BBC Radio 4 - In Suburbia, Light and Shade

The second of three programmes in which Ian Hislop celebrates the culture in Suburbia.

Ian Hislop explores the sights and sounds of suburbia in the 20th century, and how they've been re-imagined in art, music and on both the large and small screen.

In spite of the fact that so many of us live, and choose to live, in Suburbia, it's still described as, at best a cultural backwater, and at worst a cultural desert. Indeed the cultural output of suburbia is often songs and novels and films that describe a striving to escape from this land between the city and the country, or in cultural terms between rural Idyll and Bohemia.  Ian Hislop has long been fascinated by this cultural snobbery, and in three programmes he talks to leading cultural figures who either come from or celebrate Suburbia and Suburban life.

Hanif Kureishi, author of 'The Buddha of Suburbia' is a not so proud son of Bromley, comedian Lee Mack is star and writer of the suburban comedy 'Not Going Out' which is now the longest running sitcom on British television and still uses the familiar tropes of suburban aspiration, gentle class conflict and stability to garner laughs, and JC Carroll of The Members is the composer whose punk anthem 'The Sound of the Suburbs' made the tedium of car washing and noisy neighbours a badge of honour.  All of them discuss their mixed feelings about suburbia, if and how it's changing, and why it remains a place where so many people aspire to live.  

In this second programme in the series Ian talks to Darren Evans, the suburban artist and JC Carroll tells him how The Sound of the Suburbs came to be written.

BBC Radio 4

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

Accessibility links

Programme Index

In Suburbia

Light and Shade

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4