"Nonnatus House, Midwife Speaking": co-curating a new oral history of Call the Midwife with BBC audiences

该项目是与英国广播公司合作开发的，旨在与观众共同制作一个百年特别播客节目，阐明《助产士》的文化影响，这是英国广播公司收视率最高、最著名的电视剧之一，探索英国的医疗和社会历史。在15集的播客中，将有30个观众故事，由节目对战后社区生活的重述和从摇篮到坟墓的人类经历的挖掘而引发。每一集将有两名观众对话，他们反思和分享该剧中特定故事情节的个人经历，如堕胎合法化、同性恋合法化或沙利度胺丑闻。这可能是两个童年时代的朋友，他们亲眼目睹了避孕药的引入，可能是儿时的朋友，也可能是亲眼目睹避孕药问世的助产士；可能是被该剧的戏剧化收养所感动的父女；可能是讨论自己过去和现在在英国国民健康保险制度中的角色的祖母和孙子；或者是回忆起他们的姑婆作为温德鲁什一代人来到英国的兄弟姐妹。这档播客节目将通过问观众“叫助产士对你意味着什么？”来产生新的、多样化的故事讲述，并引发不为人知的当地故事和由观看这部电视剧启发的跨代对话。然而，该节目的主题并不局限于过去，这意味着该播客将围绕医疗保健、福利国家和国民健康保险制度展开当代辩论。与观众交谈还将揭示该节目在人们生活中的“地位”--数百万家庭聚集在一起观看圣诞特别节目--从而利用BBC对英国广播的贡献和对媒体参与的影响。在《助产士》的码头，观众将从三个港口城市招募观众：利物浦、纽卡斯尔和布里斯托尔。这个项目提供了一个令人兴奋的机会，为这部备受喜爱的节目制作音频简编，并用声音捕捉这部戏剧如何以及为什么会在观众中产生如此强烈的共鸣。这个项目的灵感来自于Call the助产士和它的观众之间的特殊联系，这一点被连续剧作家海蒂·托马斯(2018)巧妙地捕捉到了：“人们不厌其烦地发送电子邮件或写下他们的经历，这让我不断地感动和谦卑，这确实让我非常认真地思考我们所做的可能具有挑战性的故事情节，特别是关于残疾或移民的故事情节，因为我认为这个国家的新来者并不总是像他们可能得到的那样受到欢迎，残疾人并不总是得到他们可能得到的或他们应得的支持。所以我认为，当人们写信给我说，‘是的，你上周的故事或插曲照亮了我的经历’时，我真的感到非常谦虚，我真的很高兴我们以我们讲故事的方式冒出了我们的脖子。该播客试图挖掘观众的兴趣，阐明20世纪50年代和60年代的生活与当今生活之间的联系和脱节，并放大那些记得并经历过故事情节的观众的声音。因此，该播客将创造一段观众故事和经历的口述历史，以庆祝该节目在英国广播公司百年诞辰之际的经久不衰。该项目将对文化地理学的“创造性转向”做出有价值的贡献，即揭示新的研究对象和创新的研究方法。这种向创造性实践的转变见证了地理学家变成了创造者和合作者，他们越来越专注于做文化地理，而不仅仅是分析文化地理。尽管人们对声学的兴趣与日俱增，但视觉和文字媒体和方法继续盖过了听觉。通过联合制作播客，这个项目将在最新的“创造性转向”中突出音频和收听方法。

This project, developed in partnership with the BBC, aims to co-produce with audiences a special podcast for the centenary that illuminates the cultural impact of Call the Midwife, one of the BBC's most watched and celebrated dramas which explores Britain's medical and social history. Over fifteen episodes, the podcast will feature thirty audience stories sparked by the show's re-telling of post-war community life and excavation of human experience from the cradle to the grave. Each episode will feature two viewers in conversation who reflect on and share personal experiences of a particular storyline from the show, such as the legalisation of abortion, decriminalisation of homosexuality, or Thalidomide scandal. This might be two childhood friends who lived through and reminisce about a particular 'moment' in history, midwives who witnessed firsthand the introduction of the contraceptive pill, a father and daughter moved by the show's dramatisation of adoption, a grandmother and grandson who discuss their past and present roles in the NHS, or a brother and sister who recall their great aunt's arrival in Britain as part of the Windrush generation. By asking audiences 'what does Call the Midwife mean to you?', the podcast will produce new and diverse storytelling, and elicit untold local stories and intergenerational conversations inspired by watching the drama. The show's subject matter is not, however, confined to the past meaning the podcast will engage in contemporary debates around healthcare, the welfare state, and the NHS. Speaking with audiences will also reveal the show's 'place' in people's lives - a focal point for the millions of families who gather to watch the Christmas special - thereby tapping into the BBC's contribution to British broadcasting and impact on media engagement. Mirroring Call the Midwife's dockland setting, viewers will be recruited from three port cities: Liverpool, Newcastle, and Bristol. This project offers an exciting opportunity to create an audio compendium to the much-loved show and capture in sound how and why the drama resonates so strongly with audiences. The inspiration for this project lies in the special connection between Call the Midwife and its audiences, which is captured neatly by series writer, Heidi Thomas (2018): "I am constantly touched and humbled by people bothering to email or write about their experiences, and it does make me think with great care about storylines that we do that might be challenging, particularly storylines around disability or immigration, because I think newcomers to this country aren't always made as welcome as they might be and disabled people don't always get the support that they might receive or that they deserve. And so I think when people write to me saying, 'Yes, your stories or your episode of last week has shone a light on my experience', I just feel really humbled by it and I'm really pleased that we stick our necks out the way we do with our storytelling". The podcast seeks to tap into this audience interest, illuminate the connections and disjunctures between life in the 1950s and 60s, and the present day, and amplify the voices of viewers who remember and have lived through its storylines. The podcast will therefore create an oral history of viewers' stories and experiences in celebration of the show's enduring popularity for the BBC's centenary. The project will make a valuable contribution to the 'creative turn' in cultural geography, which is revealing new objects of study and innovative ways of researching them. This shift towards creative practices is witnessing geographers turn creators and collaborators, increasingly immersed in doing, rather than simply analysing, cultural geographies. Despite growing interest in sonic geographies, visual and textual media and methods continue to overshadow the aural. By co-producing a podcast, this project will foreground audio and methods of listening within the latest 'creative turn'.