Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service series ‘Outlook’ turns fifty this year. To celebrate, the programme launched Outlook Inspirations – a search for fifty extraordinary stories from inspirational people all around world. Three will be honoured in a special live broadcast on Monday 4 July at 12pm. Presenter Matthew Bannister introduces some of the shortlisted nominations and talks about working on the programme.
In interviews, it’s the tiny details that really get you:
The man rescuing a young woman from the wreckage of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Dhaka who apologized to her before amputating her arm to save her life. The political prisoner in Somalia who shared his copy of the novel Anna Karenina with comrades in the next cell by tapping out the words on the wall in Morse code. The diver who searches for the corpses of migrants off the Italian coast, describing his reluctance to separate the dead couples he found locked in each other’s arms at the bottom of the sea. The father of conjoined twins from Pakistan’s Swat Valley who, after the risky operation to divide them, was only able to “touch each of them with my chest” by way of a hug – as the life support equipment prevented him from putting his arms around them.
I’m emotional again recalling these stories, all of which touched me deeply when I was told them on Outlook. And I’m not the only one. Our listeners tell us again and again that our guests have moved them, amazed them and above all inspired them. From Los Angeles to Lagos and from Canberra to Kathmandu it seems that there is a universal currency – a shared need to affirm our own place in the world by hearing how the human spirit can triumph over even the most devastating events.
Although we sometimes speak to pop stars and even princes on Outlook, the vast majority of our guests could be described as “ordinary” people if that wasn’t such a completely inappropriate word to use. They are people just like you or me who find themselves in the most extraordinary circumstances and not only survive but somehow rise above terrible experiences. During the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, the Chinese dancer was trapped under the rubble with her baby and her mother-in-law. When they both died, she gave up calling for help and fell silent, waiting for her own death. It was only the cries of her father who spent ten hours searching for her that gave her the strength to fight for survival. Her injuries cost her both her legs, but she is now dancing again on prosthetics.
Helping someone like Liao Zhi to tell her story is an immense privilege. Our guests trust us with their intimate insights and we try to repay them by avoiding sensationalism and allowing them the space and time to put their stories in context. We can do this because Outlook is not a news programme that has to cope with the pressures of covering fast moving world events to ever tighter deadlines. While our colleagues report first from the scene of a disaster, bringing listeners facts, figures and expert analysis, we often follow behind, weeks, maybe even years later, when personal experience and reflection can cast a different light on momentous happenings.
But I don’t want you to think there are only tears on Outlook – we often have laughter too. I landed myself a long distance part (“SUPERMANNISTER!”) in an action movie being made on a shoe-string by Isaac Nabwana, who has earned himself the nickname “” by setting up a movie studio among the chickens in his Kampala backyard which he hopes will rival Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood. You may smile, but his films are already attracting thousands of fans online. Just one of many stories of the entrepreneurial spirit which can emerge from the most unpromising places.
As Outlook reaches its fiftieth birthday, we’ve been trawling through the archives for our most inspiring interviews. We asked our listeners for their nominations too. You can find our top 50 on the . On July 4th, an invited audience will gather at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in London to hear which three people have been chosen to receive an Outlook Inspiration award. You’ll be able to listen live on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service. I’m glad they didn’t ask me to be a , because I’d find it impossible to choose between the hundreds of people I’ve talked to on the programme.
Often listening to the news can give us feelings of depression and helplessness; at its best, I believe Outlook offers a powerful antidote to those feelings, demonstrating day after day that there are unsung heroes and heroines in all corners of the globe determined to make the best of whatever comes their way and sacrificing self interest to further the cause of humanity. Now that’s what I call inspiring.
Matthew Bannister is presenter of Outlook.
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