BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Original version

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Radio

World Service Radio

Migrated podcast image for: Outlook

Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Outlook Mixtape: A Disney legend, a drag icon and a stork

Magazines & Reviews

Cassette tape

31/05/2024 GMT

Outlook Mixtape: A Disney legend, a drag icon and a stork

BBC World Service - Outlook, Outlook Mixtape: A Disney legend, a drag icon and a stork

Composing for Mary Poppins, coming out in Paraguay, and the beauty of ugly birds

Composing for Mary Poppins, out and proud in Paraguay, surviving Hiroshima, and the beauty of ugly birds.

A tribute to Richard M. Sherman, who died recently. Alongside his brother Robert, they created some of the most beloved songs in cinema history. Writing the songs for many Walt Disney movies including the Oscar-winning soundtrack to Mary Poppins. Outlook’s Maryam Maruf met Richard in 2016. He belted out some of his classic tunes on his piano, and told her the stories behind their creation.

Omar Mareco grew up in Paraguay under a military dictatorship. He was sent to the military aged seventeen and became the most macho guy he could be, the best military student, leading parades and carrying the national flag but inside he was miserable. He tells reporter Grace Livingstone that it was only when he found himself on stage as glittery drag artist, Envidia, that he truly found his voice. He's since become an icon for gay rights in Paraguay, a country where homosexuality was illegal until 1990. 

Setsuko Thurlow was a 13-year-old schoolgirl when an atomic bomb was dropped on her home city of Hiroshima, Japan. Most of the places she knew were destroyed in an instant. Narrowly escaping death herself, Setsuko became a witness to the brutal aftermath of atomic warfare, and the things she saw that day would compel her to spend her life fighting for nuclear disarmament.  

It was Purnima Devi Barman's grandmother who first connected her to nature. She was homesick and lonely and found solace among the trees and birds. But it was one bird in particular, an ugly one with a bald, pink head and a dangling pouch on its chest that she really fell in love with: the greater adjutant stork. It's known locally as the hargila or bone swallower, it's a scavenger and seen as a bad omen. When the birds were nearing extinction in the early 2000s Purnima set to work creating the 'Hargila Army', an all-women conservation movement that transformed the bird's fate. 

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Julian Siddle

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo: Cassette tape. Credit: Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Outlook

Outlook Mixtape: A Disney legend, a drag icon and a stork

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service

About BBC World Service