IWM podcast: The making of The Struggles for Poland

March 16, 2010 — Polska! Year

Imperial War Museum podcast: The making of The Struggles for Poland

Russian propaganda poster regarding Polish prosperity in the 1950s

Partially broadcast as part of a ‘clear spot’ 13/01/10 on Resonance 104.4 FM.

In the first Imperial War Museum podcast, Alex Fitch talks to the creators of the Channel Four TV series ‘The Struggles for Poland’, originally broadcast on Channel Four in 1987. The series comprises 9 hour long episodes, each roughly covering a two decades of life in Poland during the 20th Century, with a couple focusing on religion in Poland over a longer period, and three focusing on the Second World War.
Alex talks to Executive Producer Martin Smith, Writer Neal Ascherson, researcher Wanda Koscia and Raye Farr, the producer of episode 3, now the director of the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, about their experiences of working on the series and the political and cultural landscape of the time.

Longer versions of Alex’s interviews with Martin, Neal, Wanda and Raye are available from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive. Please contact them via iwm [at] reference-service.info
To hear the companion podcast in which Alex talks to Struggles for Poland narrator and Oscar nominated actress Susannah York about her career, please click here.

For more info about this podcast please visit the home of this episode at podcasts.iwm.org.uk

Links: Film at Imperial War Museum London
Information about Polska! Year
IMDb pages on The Struggles for Poland, Martin Smith, Raye Farr and Neal Ascherson
Martin’s website – www.aboutmartinsmith.co.uk
More info about Neal Ascherson on wikipedia.org
Article by Wanda Koscia on The Warsaw Uprising at bbc.co.uk/history
Info about United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive

Listen to Alex’s interviews with Polish artists Andrzej Klimowski and Danusia Schejbal about their work and with Polish teacher Kinga about her experiences fleeing communist Poland as a child

Other podcasts of interest:

The Pod Delusion

The Pod Delusion is a podcast about interesting things. From scepticism to lefty liberal things, it’s commentary from a secular, rationalist, ‘Guardianista’, sort of perspective. A bit like From Our Own Correspondent but with more jokes.

Latest episode: #25 on The British Humanist Association, Dangerous Dogs, DRM and Ubisoft, the UK Webcomix Thing and more by various contributors

Little Atoms

Little Atoms is a live talk show based around ideas of the Enlightenment. We make no claims to balance, and actively promote science, freedom of expression, scepticism and secular humanism. This means we often end up talking about superstition, religious fundamentalism, censorship and conspiracy theory.

Our guests bring ideas that are challenging, sometimes controversial, often polemical, but always interesting.

Latest episode: 05/03/10: Tom Standage – an edible history of humanity. Tom Standage is the business editor of The Economist, previously the Science and Technology Editor at the Guardian. Tom talks about his latest book: An Edible History of Humanity, an account of the key role food has played in our history.