TAPSCRIPT

PART 1
Presenter: Yvonne, how did you become interested in yoga?
Yvonne: Soon after I’d given birth to my first child, I started getting back pain and tried everything to treat
it, but with no success. Then a friend suggested yoga. I was in so much pain that I didn’t need much
persuading, and after a few weeks my back felt better. I’d never been a great one for exercise so I was
amazed how much I enjoyed it.
Presenter: When did you decide you were going to teach professionally?
Yvonne: About three years ago. I was a school teacher at the time but I decided to go on a part-time contract
with my school and run yoga sessions in my spare time at a local sports centre. Then I was offered the chance
to rent a room in a leisure centre so I gave up the teaching job to do yoga full time.
Presenter: What’s the most rewarding part of your work?
Yvonne: Well, I always enjoyed being a teacher and I get the same satisfaction from being a yoga instructor.
I like helping people to discover what interests them. I love seeing people transform from people in physical
or emotional pain into positive, healthy individuals. Some become passionate about yoga. I find that
particularly satisfying.
Presenter: Now what changes would I notice in my physical and mental health if I took up yoga?
Yvonne: It’s an excellent means of improving your strength and flexibility and it can help relieve aches and
pains. I’ve also lowered my blood pressure since doing it. It can help people suffering from stress, and lots of
clients say their memory and concentration have improved since they’ve started.
Presenter: Presumably, people notice the benefits of yoga in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle and diet.
Yvonne: Yes. Yoga is about achieving balance and this applies to your life generally. We should take steps
to become positive, to avoid people who make us feel bad about ourselves, to see the best in others and be
kind.
Presenter: What about diet?
Yvonne: Personally, I eat seasonally and locally. Fresh, locally produced food is likely to be healthier and
less expensive. And when we’re eating, we should enjoy our food. Don’t rush your meals so you can watch
TV. And although the odd bar of chocolate or biscuit won’t kill you, eat things like that in moderation.
Presenter: What advice would you give to anyone thinking of taking up yoga?
Yvonne: I’d say speak to people who have done it and ask them how they’ve benefited. Sometimes that’s
more persuasive than asking an instructor. Find a local school and see if they have introductory sessions. But
the most important thing is to give it a chance. Do it for at least three months. Then you’ll know for sure
whether it’s your thing or not.

PART 2
Hilary: This course is proving to be much more interesting than I imagined it would be,
Gareth.
Gareth: Yes, it really makes you sit up and think, because there’s so much more to it than
just architecture.
Hilary: From the first day I was engrossed in it. Do you remember at the beginning we were
asked to model a city that would accommodate one million people? We were told to work
out what infrastructure, housing and shopping facilities we'd include and then keep that
original model on our laptop. That was fun, but changing it as we’re going through the
course and making improvements has been even more enjoyable. We’ve saved every
version so we can see how it’s changed as we’ve learned something new.
Gareth: Yes, you can easily see what you under or overestimated would be needed.
And it’s amazing to think that the main idea of our city is to build up as high as possible.
I didn’t really consider so many skyscrapers, but it’s obviously the way of the future with
so many people moving to cities now.
Hilary: It never entered my head that skyscrapers could be connected by sky-bridges
and corridors, served by elevated transport systems. And what about high-rise parks
and gardens. Fantastic ideas!
Gareth: And let's not forget going underground. I was surprised to learn that we’ll have
to make more use of the space beneath our feet. Showing us the example of
Singapore where there are already shopping centres with floors that go down several
 storeys below street level, was a real eye-opener.
Hilary: All the modules on this course have captured everyone’s attention. I did history
of architecture and design at school and this course encompasses these, and more.
Gareth: Yes, and other topics such as architects having to take into account economy
of scale and how they achieve it, for example, by using low-energy innovations.
Hilary: Those ideas particularly drew my attention. I love the notion of using ‘ice-
batteries’. Whoever thought up the idea of using cheap electricity at night to freeze
water in the basement and then let it melt during the day to cool the air in the building
was extremely imaginative.
Gareth: That building... what was it called ... oh, yes. The Bank of America Tower ...
apart from the ‘ice-batteries’, was built mainly from recycled material. It also stores
rainwater to recycle and conserves water using other means. I’m looking forward to
going to New York to see it, though I suppose by the time we get there it will have been
superseded by another building that’s taller and even more innovative.
Hilary: Mm... True. And don’t you think money must play a huge part? You can’t just
spend a fortune designing a building to suit your own ideals. After all, the owner will
want to sell or rent the flats, retail space or whatever and make a profit. Therefore there
must be a budget which would impose some limitations.
Gareth: Absolutely. So have you decided what your project will be about? I bet it’s
going to be along the lines of how people will move around, as well as live and relax in
their ivory towers in the sky.
Hilary: How did you guess? Joking aside, I’m considering focusing on how to improve escape routes
in the event of some sort of disaster coupled with designing something that can house thousands
of people but is constructed so that no one feels overcrowded or cramped.
Gareth: Sounds good. I’m going to concentrate on solar power. Not just from the point of
optimising solar energy for heating; more from the penetration of the sun into the building so that
everyone gets enough light in their home. Also, so the sun is not blocked out in the gardens,
walkways or parks that you mentioned earlier. Taller buildings also shouldn’t block out the sun on
other shorter buildings.
Hilary: Good luck with it.

Part 3
Interviewer: My guests today are Neil Strellson and Vivienne Barnes, who work as set designers
in the theatre. Neil, you’ve worked on a number of well-known plays, especially
comedies and musicals. Was it always your ambition to be a set designer?
Neil: I don’t know about always! Unlike actors, who often become smitten with the idea of
going on stage as children after being taken to their first show, I really stumbled into
designing quite late on. Although my parents did take me to see some shows,
theatre wasn’t a career on the horizon. I mean, I always liked to build things but my
creative efforts were directed towards stuff like treehouses. I did English at
university, so did get to read and understand quite a few plays, but it was pure
chance that a friend asked me to design a set for a student musical he was
directing. It was a thrilling experience, and was what led me to enter drama school
on the postgraduate programme, honing my artistic skills and learning the ropes.
Interviewer: And after that, you came to London. How did you get started working in the field?
Neil: I knew some names of designers to call up to get some work as an assistant. You
can actually make a better living as an assistant set designer than as a designer
because it’s a salaried position. But more significantly, I needed a hefty
apprenticeship period because I’d sort of lost my way a bit as a designer. On the
post-grad course, I got wrapped up trying to assimilate all the various skills. I was
young and very impressionable. This happens to actors too. They come out of
drama school terribly academic, worrying about their voice lessons and
movements. What you need to do is to put all the training in the background and
get some hands-on experience – an apprenticeship’s great for doing that, and I
spent three years doing one.
Interviewer: Now Vivienne, you've designed a lot of successful shows, tell us a bit about how
you work on a production. How does the process begin?
Vivienne: Well, what happens is, the director calls to ask if you're interested and you read the
play to decide whether to take it on. Having an affinity with a play is pretty vital. If
you don't care about it, there's no point in doing it because you'll never come up
with good ideas. After that, you and the director start to have conversations about
things like how to make the scenes flow into one another or how to make the
transition from one visual environment to another effortlessly. I also do a lot of
sketches to try out various schemes until something starts to make sense. These
also show the director where I’m heading. The script generally gives you the lead –
whether you need, say, moving scenery, or whether how the stage is lit is enough
to establish a different sense of place.
Interviewer: Now, you often work on several projects at once. How does that work?
Vivienne: I do about ten plays a year, and used to do more when money was an issue for me
at the start. I don't find it that hard. It's distracting only if one production’s having serious problems.
Otherwise, I’m totally committed to each one. Actually, it helps
me to keep coming up with new ideas if I’m constantly changing my focus from one
show to another – there’s a kind of cross-fertilisation goes on – I wouldn’t want to
lose that. And you can also be just a little less nervous on the opening night than
the actors and director, because you do have other irons in the fire.
Interviewer: Now, you’ve both worked on sets that get mentioned in reviews, sometimes getting
a better review than the show.
Neil: Sometimes, yeah. A good set’s not easy to design, but it's not nearly as tricky as
writing a new play. Unlike a lot of actors who claim not to pay attention to reviews, I
keep up with what critics say about all productions, not just my own. That helps you
keep any criticisms in perspective. Maybe a critic’s been harsh on other productions
or has fixed views about set design.
Vivienne: Well, I’ve never actually come across that. But, in any case, there’s no glory in
hearing it was a great set for a dud play, and if there’s a negative review of the
whole production, then the set’s still part of that whole – so you can’t dodge it.
Interviewer: Is movie work something that interests either of you? Neil?
Neil: I’ve done a bit of film work, but I’ve never worked on a really good movie. I guess it
employs the same basic set of skills but there are differences. For the set designer,
any production’s a set of unique problems to solve and that's the most exciting part,
figuring out what’ll make this particular production work. Mostly, that problem
solving’s not as interesting on a film set. In a movie, you design everything as it
ought to be. On stage, you have a limited amount of space and time and making it
fit in those parameters requires the type of thinking I love best, the kind of puzzles I
like to solve. I don’t get that buzz working on a movie, I’m afraid.
Vivienne: Well I don’t know that I’d go along with that entirely because ...