Bride of Art.Front Row BBC R4, Newswatch BBC1,Art of Persia BBC4, BroadcastingPressGuild Audio Presenter of the Yr 2020. Spiritual Berliner,ex-Los Angelena
FAB News: I've discovered earliest, almost complete recording of Beatles performing live in UK. At Stowe School April 4th '63. A revelatory listen. Been back with the student who made the tape. Exclusive listen on
@bbcfrontrow
tonight
My dad came to Britain before there were laws against racial and sexual discrimination. He and my mum’s generation of Commonwealth immigrants taught me the value of hard work, fair play and never to be afraid. Thankyou.
Been reflecting today on my time as a reporter covering Princess Diana’s public appearances after her divorce and the way she was treated. My depressing conclusion is that in the nearly 30 years since then no one learned anything.
@scottygb
She was multi-tasking just fine and had resolved the whole thing. Did he really cut off the interview at the point when the biscuit negotiation had already been concluded?
Very important. I’d like to thank the judge and panel members of my employment tribunal for their time and consideration and their judgement. Thankyou.
Curry calls to curry everywhere. When you come home from equal pay employment tribunal and your best friend has sent flowers in suffragette colours and mum has delivered a food parcel.
Appropriately for a documentary about Mary Whitehouse I have already received my first email from a member of the public complaining that they hate my programme. That hasn't yet been broadcast.
A male construction worker stopped me on my way into broadcasting house today and called out “Samira Ahmed equal pay!” And I felt totally like Dolly Parton in Straight Talk. Thankyou you gentlemen.
Trying to imagine if any other country’s Prime Minister and news media could be as obsessed with the idea that being able to go to a bar in the middle of a pandemic is the most important policy priority right now.
Cannot speak highly enough of what Nichelle Nichols achieved on earth and in actual NASA space recruitment. And for all the thousands of little girls who grew up wanting to be strong and brave just like her. Goodbye Lieutenant.
I have 2 awards for journalism, 28 years in the broadcast news biz, including 11 at C4 News, currently presenting
@newswatchbbc
&
@BBCFrontRow
& an honorary fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. I'm v well qualified to present
@bbcquestiontime
& I'd like to be seriously considered.
Bit overwhelmed. Thankyou for all the kind words. Cd not have brought this case without support of my union
@NUJofficial
my brilliant lawyers
@claire_darwin
and Caroline Underhill and all those who showed they understand equal pay is about fairness & men and women as allies.
What a woman. Brilliant, committed, passionate about calling out hypocrisy around greenwashing. Still at school. Surrounded by friends. Produced a book full of truth& strategy that every home needs &, as we saw last night, witty, funny with the most beautiful laugh.
@GretaThunberg
Twice the BBC1 audience for 14% of the pay. Why I’ve been forced to take the BBC to employment tribunal for Equal Pay for
@newswatchBbc
with Jeremy Vine on Points of View. My colleagues
#Bbcwomen
are supporting me.
One day we’ll write social history books about how during one of the most dramatic periods of social & political tension, despite all the untold stories & a richly diverse range of young talent, tv execs kept remaking the SAME period dramas.
Just want to say: Thankyou to everyone who supported me and understands Equal Pay is about men and women as allies. To my amazing union
@NUJofficial
who backed me. And to the Ford Dagenham and Grunwick women who blazed the trail & to whom I'll always be grateful.
On Friday I thanked the Ford Dagenham and Grunwick Factory Strike women for their trailblazing battles for equal pay. Sadly most news coverage ignored that. Please take the time to look into their work. (photos thanks to
@lizmcateer
)
My lovely uncle Shankar, retired colonel, book lover & cricket fan died today at 93. He bought me Daphne’s Du Maurier’s Rebecca at just the right age, We watched cricket on tv with tea and Shrewsbury biscuits from the Parsi bakery in Pune together. He was always my champion…
Hey
@Wikipedia
you blocked my daughter after her v first rather adorable edit. I’m stating she IS officially my favourite child. Here’s your citation. So she was correct and I’d like you to unblock her straight away.
On Friday I thanked the Ford Dagenham and Grunwick Factory Strike women for their trailblazing battles for equal pay. Sadly most news coverage ignored that. Please take the time to look into their work. (photos thanks to
@lizmcateer
)
This police assault of journalists broadcasting live outside the White House was captured from two different angles. This is the POV of the Australian TV news crew themselves.
THANKYOU to all the kind men and women of all ages & backgrounds stopping me on the bus & the train & the walk to wish me good luck in my employment tribunal seeking Equal Pay at the BBC. (Continues today & Wed 945am)
Murray Melvin: actor, director, Theatre Workshop alumnus, archivist and beautiful man, died yesterday. He was 90. I was so lucky to call him my friend. I saw him the day before he died and he was always full of amazing stories from his life. I will miss him so much.
The same dilemma for every woman: Don't name him at the time because it'll be held against you. Name him later to protect others when there's a strong public interest, &you're blamed for not naming him at the time. I'm glad&proud Daisy spoke up. Solidarity
Can I remind
@BBCNews
radio bulletins and anyone else covering my joyous Front Row Beatles Stowe tape story, to credit the journalist who got the scoop. Me.
In other news.. having been a researcher then a reporter there over the years, am really thrilled to say I’m going to be presenting on
@BBCr4today
for the first time - got a couple of shifts on October 25 and 26th. And John Humphrys has been really supportive.
In the light of the Dominic Cummings scandal have been thinking about the pregnant NHS doctor who protested outside No10 as colleagues were dying. Well she's launching a legal challenge over government guidance on PPE which they believe exposes them to coronavirus.
My lovely mum Lalita Chatterjee (formerly Ahmed) is 83 today and yesterday she & her senior citizens’ ladies club played football at Fulham’s training ground and got tips from the coaches. Here she is in 1966 with my brother. Love to all the amazing women keeping going out there
I think you should all know: I approached University Challenge myself months ago. I’ve had an amazing time rehearsing & being a standby presenter for it this year. I’ve loved working with the fab team who seem to love me & just narrated a UC documentary that’s going out on BBC2.
Benjamin Zephaniah. Poet, activist, charmer. Decliner of empire medals. Maker of my fave tv show ever -Dread Poets Society. I loved this man so much. An inspiration. His memoir is the finest thing. Was lucky to have met him for this..
One of the loveliest Persian gestures I've adopted since travelling in Iran worth sharing now: putting your hand over your heart and bowing your head as a greeting, as a farewell, as a thankyou. So elegant. And so helpful as an alternative to shaking hands.
We chose
@SamiraAhmedUK
as MC of
#thetestaments
launch at National Theatre, webstreamed to 1500 cinemas worldwide, for her expertise and high professionalism. She was flawless. She is a star!
@BBC
Ok I can't hide my delight: Michael Palin!! just emailed me to say he loved
#ArtOfPersia
. Please do spread the word and give it a watch..
@BBCFOUR
@bbcarts
My amazing pioneering Mum who came to Britain in 1960 won a special
@asianmediaaward
last night for her lifetime of work in the Asian Programmes unit, demonstrating Indian cookery on Pebble Mill at One &her films eg Bhaji on the Beach. So proud. (That’s her in floral sari on r)
New Year’s Day lunch with dad &his friends who came to Britain 60yrs ago. Every single one came up to me to wish me well for my pending EqualPayTribunal result. They all know why I had to bring it. Am so grateful to my incredible parents’ Commonwealth generation &their resilience
Interesting how often PM wants to emphasise that some things media is reporting about Cummings are wrong, but won't say what those things are.
#liaisoncommittee
The love marriage of Kamala Harris's parents. An Indian woman and a black Jamaican dad. The brave love stories of my parents' generation never fail to delight me.. And generate the same photos of sari clad aunties & those 70s tweedy coats..
Me: I've got some great news. I've been made an honorary fellow at Oxford University
Mum: That's as good as being pregnant.
Also my Mum: Does this mean I can say you're a doctor?
Me: NO
Thrilled to say my
@bbcarts
documentary series
#ArtOfPersia
starts on BBC4 two weeks today at 9pm. Watch out for the trails on TV. Three years in the making. Or 6000, depending on your time scale. Amazing work by a talented team of people in the UK and Iran. Hope you'll enjoy it!
Sargent and Fashion at
@tate
. What feminist delight. So many of these stylish women were pioneers and lived lives of public service. This sitter who wrote a book on garment worker exploitation.
And while I'm journalistically triggered.. It is not Ok to call the departure of the Sussexes "Megxit". If a guest uses the dehumanising term, the presenter should intervene to stop it.
Shall I tell you a true story? Today marks the anniversary of the 1965 transmission of the first ever episode of Jackanory, created by my friend the wonderful producer Joy Whitby who's 91. Her pioneering vision for children's tv remains a gold standard.
Watching the whole Dominic Cummings giving evidence and trying to imagine a woman or a person of colour dressed with the equivalent casualness, the same body language.
Apropos of nothing, expect it's her favourite photo of all time I think, (look at that smile) here's that picture of my Mum Lalita with Sacha Distel when she used to do the Indian cookery on Pebble Mill at One.
Husband: *walks in as i'm about to go on air*
Me: I'm about to go on air.
Husband: You should put up a sign on the door
Me: There is a sign
Husband *opens door and reads sign*
Thankyou and good night
There is so much love in my heart for what Tim Brooke Taylor did on screen. In The Goodies the figure of authority; sometimes the aggrieved victim. And so kind in person. I'll miss you so much. Thankyou for all of it.
Judith Kerr’s family were refugees to Britain from Hitler’s fascist state. Always hoped she would live to see Europe shake off the far right rising again. Tonight I shall sit in the dark and think dark thoughts.
After 6 weeks filming the cultural riches of one of the most remarkable civilisations on earth, all over beautiful Iran last year, feeling rather sad on last day’s filming (in British Museum) for The Art of Being Persian. But can’t wait for you to see it. Coming soon on
@BBCFOUR
@scottygb
Can I take this moment to mention my favourite ever tweet. by
@flashboy
. I am genuinely waiting for this girl to grow up and change the world.
Huge Thankyou to
@_UoW
for giving me an honorary doctorate for my journalism. And what a setting. Winchester Cathedral no less. Congratulations to all the graduates. Humanities rock!
OMG no one told me there’d be STICKERS!!!!! Thanks to the amazing NHS staff and St John volunteers vaccinating at Epsom racecourse. And thanks to the nurse for giving me a sticker even though it was my mum getting vaccinated.
Catching up on
@ObsNewReview
and
@TimAdamsWrites
- as know I am a huge admirer of your writing. But I have to protest loudly, (sadly not for the first time to the
@guardian
@observer
editors) that a 13yo girl cannot be described as “a sex worker”. It’s rape.
I once got to spend a whole afternoon with generous, brilliant Barry Cryer in his kitchen, talking about writing for Kenny Everett and the business of comedy. A lovely lovely man. But you all knew that.
In need of a serious break from the funny business of British party politics I went to over to Barry Cryer’s this afternoon. We talked Kenny Everett for a future
@TVYears
magazine feature. He also has some excellent jokes about the state we’re in.
BBC radio bulletins reporting the NZ PM’s reasons for not using name of Christ Church mass murderer and then naming him in the same sentence is a curious editorial decision.
Dear
@JaegerOfficial
if you want adult women to buy yr clothes you might want to raise your assumptions about what they do a little higher. Seriously, who wrote this?
Loved this man. John Sessions used to give brilliant talks at my daughter’s primary school about Shakespeare and stuff. (He was a friend of the headmistress). He rightly assumed none of the children knew who he was till the day my daughter asked him about Stella Street.(Blame me)
Small joys where you can find them: I just interviewed Spike Lee for tomorrow's
@BBCFrontRow
about
#Da5Bloods
and he got me to say mother f***** in an English accent.
Concerned that Emma Caldwell is described in this news copy as the dehumanizing “the sex worker’s body” rather than as a woman. Especially as later the same article more appropriately states she was a woman “working as a prostitute”.
The importance of
@BBCNewsround
with John Craven and Lucy Mathen cannot be praised enough. I absorbed the principle that anything could be explained to children. That the truth needed to be confronted.
No hearing today. My equal pay tribunal case against the BBC gets going tomorrow Wednesday 10am at Central London Employment Tribunal. Due to run till next Tuesday Nov 5th.
Curry calls to curry everywhere. When you come home from equal pay employment tribunal and your best friend has sent flowers in suffragette colours and mum has delivered a food parcel.
“it falls to reporters to describe in plain language what we see, and promotion of fascism and racism is all too easy to observe in the United States of 2017” brave from
@BBCJamesCook
If you know students going to university for the first time, be aware unless they register for a proxy vote, there’s a risk they might miss voting in any October general election. And it seems to be a cumbersome process requiring the university to stamp the form.