Lives Less Ordinary

Latest Episodes:

'Brother. do. you. love. me.' The SMS that changed our lives Apr 23, 2023

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Brothers Manni and Reuben Coe, and the text that prompted a lockdown rescue mission.

Manni was living in Spain when he received this troubling text from his younger brother Reuben. Reuben has Down's syndrome, and had become isolated and non-verbal while living in a care home in the UK during the Covid pandemic. Manni decided to stage a rescue — a 'bro-nap' — and together they embarked on a loving journey of brotherhood and recovery. Manni and Reuben have written a book called Brother. Do. You. Love. Me.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: May Cameron

'Prison Break' and my escape from Manus Island Apr 16, 2023

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Tricks from a hit TV show held the key to Jaivet Ealom’s audacious dash for freedom.

As a student in his native Myanmar, Jaivet Ealom became obsessed with the hit US TV show Prison Break. He watched it on a loop, but never in his wildest dreams did he think he’d be in a similar position to its main character. When he found himself locked up in Australia's notorious Manus Regional Processing Centre with no end in sight, could he outdo fiction and find a way out?

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Edgar Maddicott

The spy who wanted to bring down apartheid: Part 2 Apr 09, 2023

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ANC spy Sue Dobson infiltrated the South African government. Then her cover was blown.

After training, Sue had got a job within the government's propaganda unit, and she was feeding back good intelligence to her ANC handlers. Then she got a phone call. The security services were after her, and she was a long way from safety.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Harry Graham Editor: Deiniol Buxton Sound design: Joel Cox

The spy who wanted to bring down apartheid, part 1 Apr 02, 2023

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Sue Dobson was a white South African who risked her life as an ANC secret agent

Sue was a student when she was first recruited as a spy for the African National Congress liberation movement in the 1980s, and she knew that if she was caught she'd face prison, torture or death. Sue's mission would require her to infiltrate the pro-apartheid media establishment, but first she needed to learn spycraft and weapons handling. Her training would take place in Soviet Russia.

Presenter: India Rakusen Producer: Harry Graham Editor: Deiniol Buxton Sound design: Joel Cox

Bringing the Muppets to Moscow Mar 26, 2023

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Natasha Lance Rogoff’s daunting task of making Sesame Street in post-Soviet Russia.

In the early 90s, American journalist Natasha Lance Rogoff was covering the collapse of the Soviet Union – until the Muppets came calling, and she was tasked with bringing Sesame Street to Moscow. After decades of communism a new Russia was emerging, but could it embrace a US TV show?

Creating Ulitsa Sezam was a daunting challenge for Natasha. She would have to overcome a huge culture clash and, along the way, face mobsters with shark tanks, bankruptcy, and the kidnapping of Elmo. Natasha has written a book called Muppets in Moscow: The unexpected crazy true story of making Sesame Street in Russia.

Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Maryam Maruf Editor: Munazza Khan

My life in seven swimming pools Mar 20, 2023

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Amjed Tantesh is determined to teach kids in Gaza to swim no matter how many pools he has to build.

Finding freedom in the water as a child, Amjed wanted to train the next generation of Gazans for Olympic swimming glory – not easy when he had to keep abandoning his pools. Yet through relentlessly rebuilding and restarting, over decades of war, Amjed’s swimming initiative found its true purpose.

This episode contains upsetting moments involving children.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Louise Morris Interpreter: Youssef Taha

The Ukrainian opera singer nearly silenced by a bullet Mar 13, 2023

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Sergiy Ivanchuk dreamed of stardom, before he was shot in the chest by Russian soldiers.

He was a volunteer helping refugees escape Eastern Ukraine during the early days of the 2022 invasion, when his car was attacked. He was hit in the legs, hand and back, and he was lucky to survive a punctured lung. When Sergiy woke up in hospital, he could barely talk, let alone sing, but he refused to give up his ambitions of being a world famous baritone.

Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Harry Graham Editor: Andrea Kennedy Sound design: Joel Cox

I didn’t know I was part of an experiment Mar 06, 2023

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When Greenlander Helene Thiesen was just seven, two Danish men came to take her away.

In 1951, Greenland native Helene Thiesen was just seven years old when two Danish men knocked at the family home. That moment would shape the rest of her life. These men, acting at the invitation of the Danish colonial government were rounding up the brightest Inuit children and sending them to live in Denmark to be re-educated as model Danish citizens or ‘little Danes’. Helene suffered terribly from being separated from her mother and siblings and it would take her many decades to discover the horrible truth behind it all: she was part of an experiment. Of the 22 children that were taken, Helene is now one of the few survivors.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Edgar Maddicott Translator: Alette Rye Scales Voice: Julia Holden

Eyes on the prize: Pakistan’s first trans film star Feb 27, 2023

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Rejected by family and society, trans actor Alina Khan was forced to spend time on the streets of her native Lahore as a child. Through dance, she found an escape and a living, but also encountered prejudice. Facing down loneliness, poverty and danger, she carved her own principled path to big screen fame. Now she’s won praise for her performance as Biba, a fiery and ambitious trans woman, in international award-winning new film Joyland.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Laura Thomas

Becoming Blair 'the Flair': a boxer on the run, part 2 Feb 20, 2023

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In the ring, Blair finds calm amidst the chaos of his life. Back in the US Blair Cobbs falls again on hard times; homeless in Philadelphia his boxing dream seems out of reach. But a string of lucky breaks may just tip the balance. Blair’s brazen alter-ego who’s kept him alive thus far now has a name – Blair ‘the Flair’ – and some recognition in the ring. But could ‘the Flair’ take him all the way to the top of the boxing world?

Presenter: Asya Fouks Producer: Louise Morris