Lady Justice Hallett; Extreme commutes; Honour killings

Lady Justice Hallett was eighth on the Woman's Hour Power List. She is one of the country’s leading appeal court judges and she was the first woman to chair the Bar Council in 1998. She acted as the Coroner at the inquest into the July 7th London bombings in 2005, a role which won her great praise for the dignity and humanity she brought to the proceedings. She joins Jenni to discuss her career and her place on the Power List.

If your journey to work takes you longer than 90 minutes in one direction you are officially an ‘extreme commuter’, a group that is ever-increasing in numbers. “Extreme Commute” is the subject of a programme which is due to be broadcast on Radio Four on Friday, December 27th at 11am. It features various people who spend at least five hours a day commuting. So why do they do it and are they right to choose to do it? Jenni Murray speaks to extreme commuter Elaine Davison, and Tom Hodgkinson, editor of the Idler magazine and the author of “The Idle Parent.

On the whole we know Christmas carols by heart, whether it’s Away in a Manger or O Come all Ye Faithful. Many carols have their roots in local folklore and songs, and some of them were collected together by Ella Mary Leather and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Mrs Leather travelled around Herefordshire making friends with singers, many of whom were gypsies and itinerant hop pickers, and recorded their songs on wax cylinders. She died in 1927, and was said to have never fully recovered from the death of her son in the First World War. The musicologist, Roy Palmer, has edited a collection of the songs, ‘Twelve Traditional Carols from Herefordshire’ which were out of print for over a century.

In 2004, Scotland Yard reported that 12 women per year are victims of honour

killings in the UK. The figure hasn’t been revised since then – though 200 Honour

Based Violence cases were brought before the CPS last year in the UK. Whilst the

authorities are getting better at recognising and successfully prosecuting

perpetrators of honour based violence, it is feared that the real numbers of women

who are killed each year in the name of honour could be much higher. This week,

Kali Theatre, a company which works exclusively with South Asian women

playwrights, are debuting their new production Twelve, which aims to give a voice

to all women who have been victims of honour killings. The play is a series of 12

monologues, written from the perspective of fictional characters involved in honour

killings, and also includes some real testimony from survivors. Jenni speaks to

Janet Steel, the creative director of Kali Theatre, and Yasmeen Khan, one of the

writers and performers of Twelve. 

Rebecca and Jeremy Front with their advent calendar treat.