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The Ballet Dancer

Joanna Biggs' portrait of Britain at work continues with the ballet dancer.

In 1974, the US broadcaster Studs Terkel talked to Americans "About what they do all day, and how they feel about what they do". His book telling their stories, Working, became a seminal tract in social history, and left an indelible print of how Americans worked and felt in the seventies.

Biggs has revisited Terkel's model in her tour of contemporary Britain - her interviewees including a lawyer, care worker, fishmonger, giggle doctor (yes, there really is such a thing), ballet dancer, quiz writer and potter, among many others. The book is a beautifully-observed portrait of the United Kingdom at work in the twenty-first century.

Episode 3: The Ballet Dancer

Joanna Biggs is an assistant editor at the London Review of Books. She was born in Willesden, North-West London, in 1982.

Readers: Ben Crowe, Teresa Gallagher, David Holt, Colleen Prendergast, Michelle Terry and Thom Tuck

Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4.

15 minutes

Last on

Thu 9 Jul 2015 00:30

Credits

Role Contributor
Reader Ben Crowe
Reader Teresa Gallagher
Reader David Holt
Reader Colleen Prendergast
Reader Michelle Terry
Reader Thom Tuck
Author Joanna Biggs
Abridger Pete Nichols
Producer Karen Rose

Broadcasts

  • Wed 8 Jul 2015 09:45
  • Thu 9 Jul 2015 00:30

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