Boffin Media

05/04/2024

Delighted that Boffin Media’s one hour documentary Inside an Autistic Mind, for BBC World Service Radio, is nominated for a prestigious ARIA award.

Huge thanks to producer Anne McNaught and sound engineer Nigel Appleton for turning what goes on in presenter Sue Nelson’s head into compelling radio that - from direct feedback across the globe - has helped so many people better understand autism.

08/09/2023

A personal offering this weekend with a one hour doc on BBC World Service radio tomorrow lunchtime called Inside an Autistic Mind. Sue Nelson presents; her long time collaborator and friend Anne McNaught produces.

Some great people take place - most of them autistic or experts on autism - and you can listen to the programme as a podcast here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5r81 or on BBC Sounds once it's gone out at noon Saturday Sep 9th.

23/07/2023

This weekend’s OS Conversations doc via World Service & Boffin Media is on surviving a heatwave. Convos with doctors, firefighters and - my favourite - farmers from Nigeria, South Africa and the U.K. A real insight into the negative effects of hot weather on food production.

We bring together people to discuss the impact of extreme heat on their lives

17/05/2023

Our latest radio doc - part of our weekly co-production with the BBC OS team - involves ordinary Russians talking about Ukraine.

As Russia commemorates World War Two, Russians discuss today’s Ukraine conflict

15/07/2022

We’re thrilled too!

The story of the Lyons Electronic Office, an important part of UK computing history, as told by the people who worked on it.

15/06/2022

Delighted that our short documentary on LEO - the work’s first business computer - has been shortlisted for an ABSW Award! This film was made for the Centre of Computing History Museum in Cambridge by Richard Hollingham and Jamie Partridge and showcases a wonderful slice of British history. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzu68nRVwtE

The story of the Lyons Electronic Office, an important part of UK computing history, as told by the people who worked on it.

07/04/2022

Great to see publicity for a podcast we're involved in with Headline News. It's the amazing BBC correspondent Clive Myrie, fresh from reporting in Ukraine, talking about the importance of good mental health for journalists to Hannah Storm and John Crowley. You can hear the podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7GjCNwFmdrsenCFx661BZ0

‘We’re not trying to be heroes. We’re just doing our job,’ BBC presenter says

17/02/2022

We've produced the first episode of the new Behind the Headlines with Headlines Network podcast…

In a lively, fascinating and surprisingly humorous discussion, the BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet and Channel 4’s international editor Lindsey Hilsum talk about the challenges they have both faced reporting from conflict zones, the risks that are worth - and not worth - taking, plus the mental health challenges for journalists. They also pay tribute to their friend, the war correspondent Marie Colvin, who died ten years ago.

This is Behind the Headlines with Headlines Network. Each episode, journalists Hannah Storm and John Crowley will be joined by colleagues from across the news industry who will share their experiences, the challenges they have faced and how they have managed their mental health. We'll hear stories t...

18/01/2022

Boffin Media has just co-produced its 95th weekly programme for BBC World Service on the impact of the coronavirus. This edition contains two conversations that I'm sure many of us have opinions on or have discussed at some stage recently. One centres on professional athletes who are resistant to vaccines and includes US professional WBNA player Elizabeth Williams (pictured below) who has worked hard to reassure fellow athletes that vaccines are safe. The other is with three teachers across the globe on the pros and cons of online versus face to face education. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct2d6x

How global sports stars are approaching Covid vaccines

01/12/2021

Want to learn about LEO - the world’s first business computer - from those who made it possible? Enjoy the lovely short film Boffin Media made for the UK’s Centre for Computing History and discover cakes, tapes and delay tubes for the 70th anniversary of the Lyons Electronic Office. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzu68nRVwtE

24/11/2021

Hot on the heels of winning a prestigious AIB (Association of International Broadcasters) award, our Remembering Those Lost to Covid-19 doc is also on a radio programme shortlist at tonight’s Audio Production Awards. We’re delighted this emotional and moving co-production with BBC Workd Service was so well received and thank everyone involved - especially the people who shared the warm and loving memories of those they’d lost during the first six months of the pandemic. We are humbled to have done those memories proud.

The stories behind the numbers in the coronavirus pandemic

04/11/2021

Delighted that our World Service Radio programme - a co-production with BBC OS - has also been nominated for an Audio Production Award! (It’s shortlisted for an Association of International Broadcasters Award too.)

A heart breaking and heart warming tribute to some of those around the world who died six months after the official start of the pandemic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct0wjz

14/09/2021

Thrilled that our BBC OS and Boffin Media coproduction ‘Remembering those lost to Covid-19’ has been shortlisted for an AIB Media Award. Teamwork made this possible and it was a deeply moving & important tribute to make - broadcast on BBC World Service six months into the pandemic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct0wj

The stories behind the numbers in the coronavirus pandemic

30/08/2021

Weekly programme number 75 since the pandemic started is not on the global impact of coronavirus but - as occasionally happens - a single issue story that also reverberates around the world. This is now our third doc on the run about Afghanistan and it is equally heartbreaking and emotional.

This one focuses on some of those who have been left behind in the country and who fear for their future - two students whose universities are currently closed - and the sportswomen, including the Afghanistan national women's football team, who - after breaking boundaries - are receiving death threats.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct2d64

We hear from people who left the country and those who stayed

27/08/2021

Dr Margaret Liu is known as “The Mother of DNA Vaccines". President Emeritus of the International Society for Vaccines, she's the scientific lead for the World Health Organisation drafting group, writing guidelines on mRNA vaccines.

In this episode of Create the Future, Margaret explains how mRNA vaccines came to play a role in the largest immunisation programme in recent times. Plus there's a great chocolate analogy of how they work....
https://qeprize.org/podcasts/mrna-vaccines

26/07/2021

This is our 70th weekly programme for BBC OS since it began in March 2020. Most of them have been about the impact of coronavirus on people's lives and, while this is an Olympics special, the pandemic is never far from the discussions. Guests include two Olympic athletes - a teenager who is running for Liberia and Australian Mary Hanna, the Games' oldest competitor at 66; plus Tokyo residents and volunteers on their hopes and concerns about holding the Olympics in a city which is currently under a state of emergency. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct2d5z

The Tokyo Olympics are underway, a year late than planned

25/06/2021

Each year we provide BBC World Service with the Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast - a show for those who are spending the winter on the British Antarctic Survey base. Not a huge audience then but, thanks to presenter Cerys Matthews, producer Martin Redfern and contributions (this year) from David Attenborough, Bill Bailey and Lauren Laverne, it has built up rather a cult following. So it's lovely to hear the programme's praises sung by the Telegraph: "Bringing together midsummer and midwinter into one beautiful celebration across the world: how magical is radio?" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/radio-4s-muddled-joni-mitchell-tribute-left-feeling-little-blue/

The singer's wrenching album turned 50 this week. One thing's for sure – you wouldn't want it stuck on repeat during Antarctic midwinter

19/06/2021

In the run up to the Iranian presidential election, we produced two fascinating programmes with BBC OS giving an insight into what it’s like living and working in Iran with insight from host Rana Rahimpour and her BBC Persian colleagues. This was the first. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct2d5s

We bring together Iranians to discuss their lives and future prospects