Substantial Helen

Meg Daly uncovers her family’s hidden history of slavery in Jamaica. In this programme, we hear from local Jamaicans who helped Meg in her search for her ancestry and their family connections with slavery. Meg and her family also speak of the profound shame they now feel over the ...  Show more

Stories from an Irish entertainment family which travelled the roads of the country over several decades. Stories like the man who died on stage; the man who refused to die on stage and the lack of virgins in Glenties! (2025)Narrated by Kevin SullivanProduced by Ronan KellyAgnes’ ...  Show more

Ireland voted in two ground-breaking referendums in the last five years. The same sex marriage referendum and Irish abortion referendum have changed the lives of many women in the country forever. And the campaigns continue. The Irish people are expected to go the ballot again ...

Jamie-Lee O’Donnell is best known for playing the wise cracking Michelle in Channel 4’s Derry Girls, the comedy series about a group of teenagers growing up in 1990's Northern Ireland. Jamie-Lee has swapped the school uniform for a prison uniform for new drama Screw on Channel 4, ...  Show more

We have music and chat from singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone who has been named as runner up of the BBC Sound of 2021.Helen Lewis, staff writer at the Atlantic and Melissa Melewski lecturer in American politics at The University of Sussex discuss the role women played in this ...  Show more

The poet Carol Ann Duffy - who served as the first woman poet laureate between 2009-2019 and has won numerous awards for her poetry including the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes - joins Emma with a poem which feels particularly apt in the current circumstances, as we en ...  Show more