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Lullabies on BBC World Service (made with Loftus Media)
“Nina Perry has made a remarkable pair of 25-minute documentaries” The Daily Telegraph
Message in a bottle. BBC World Service. (feb 2010)
Open Mic Night – No Electrickery Required (BBC Radio 4, June 2010)
“This was a beautifully produced feature, all rich textures – voices, music, audience noise – composed into poetic layers” Elizabeth Mahoney, The Guardian
Open Mic Night (BBC Radio 4 June 2010)
When musician Matt Sage moved to Oxford, he found himself feeling a tad isolated. "Where are all the bedroom minstrels?" he wondered. It's the sort of question that would only occur to fully fledged bohemians. "I'm one of those", he added, "and I wanted to meet the others."
And so the Catweazle Club in Oxford, the focus of Open Mic Night , was born. This was a beautifully produced feature, all rich textures – voices, music, audience noise – composed into poetic layers. We heard people's comments about the club ("fuzzy, welcoming, improving, inclusive, a little bit kind of shabby glamorous") and that's what the programme was like to listen to, really.
The club's performers ranged from fantastically self-assured ("It's going to be a career because I've realised I can't do anything else") to novice newbies. One noted that he had to perform "in a venue. As opposed to a front room. With the cats watching." Another sounded bruised after another performer stole his act. "He does this striptease with Sufi poetry," he said, fabulously matter of factly.
Performers learned about themselves on stage. A one-time heroin addict began his recovery at the club, reciting poems that were, by his own admission, suicidally grim. "They got the most uproarious laughter," he recalled, and his journey back from the brink began. Elizabeth Mahoney, The Guardian 16.06.2010
Melting Point (BBC Radio 3 November 2009)
'Steering clear of icebergs that look like fairy-tale castles and listening to your feet while climbing snowy mountains are two of the life lessons dispensed in this lyrical evocation of the harsh landscapes of Iceland, Greenland and the Scottish Highlands. You'll also learn the different gradations of ice, hear a wonderful imagining of ancient faces in melting glaciers, and be left tearful by the recitation of the bleakest lullaby you'll ever hear. The soundscape of the haunting rumblings and the tinklings of shifting glaciers,with elegiac folk music adding to the ethereal effect, is like snowflakes dropping gently in your ears' David Crawford - Radio Times.
“a wild adventure into the sounds of nature.” Gillian Reynolds,The Daily Telegraph.
Message in a bottle BBC World Service February 2010
The documentaries corner on the World Service website is a reliable spot to uncover distinctive radio…it also includes Message in a Bottle, a charismatic, gently paced feature about communicating in one of the last truly long-winded ways available. Made by Nina Perry, this was a textbook radio feature: slight, subtle, shot through with atmosphere, texture and compelling voices.
We heard from people living in Orkney, where sending messages in bottles seems to be quite the done thing. "Everyone who's sent one has had a reply," a local man explained. He got a reply to one of his after 23 years.
There was history, too, with tales of bottles sent out from St Kilda after a shipwreck brought a sudden and unsustainable new populace to the remote island of just 71 people. Bringing things right up to date, we heard eight-year-old Melissa on Orkney reading a letter from a Norwegian six-year-old that had arrived by chance in a bottle bobbing on a wave.î – Elizabeth Mahoney, The Guardian.
Sounding Post BBC Radio 4 (April 2008)
“one of those programmes that makes radio 4 so delightful..” The Times
“You’ll never look at timber the same way again” Phil Daoust The Guardian.
Sounding Post was nominated for the Prix Europa, Berlin in October 2008.
Mirror Mirror. BBC Radio 4 (June 2007)
“Expect some tricks of the ear…an arresting combination of sound effects with factual subject matter and personal opinion.” The Radio Times
Good Timing. BBC Radio 4 (July 2006)
‘Good Timing’ a composed feature for BBC Radio 4 2006
‘A-one, two, three, four. Nina Perry explores the importance and the sheer satisfaction of the right timing in music, comedy, cooking – and along the way radio. For this is perfect Radio 4 and it’s why Radio 4 is perfect: her idea is intriguing and amusing and engrossing… it’s exquisitely and rhythmically pared to the bone…Funny incidents and stand-up groaners, surprises and the always fascinating sound of people in love with the work they do.’ William Gallagher. The Radio Times
By the coast of Coromandel – BBC Radio 4 2003
‘In Lavinia Murray’s By the Coast of Coromandel – In search of Edward Lear, the nonsense poet’s life was excavated by his creations….This most unconventional biography featured Derek Jacobi as Lear rather drowned out by his characters whose joyous clamour was enhanced by Nina Perry’s captivating music.” The Stage and Television today
Raven's Gate Audio
"Creepy music, whispering voices and a narrator (Paul Panting) who manages to get the right pitch of tone to appeal to adolescents. Horowitz’s gift for vivid visual detail has never been better deployed…perfect for stunning surly teenagers while driving to the countryside, it runs for just over seven hours and is totally gripping." Independent on Sunday