Shamima Begum podcast to launch on BBC Sounds

The series seeks to separate fact from fiction as it explores who is Shamima Begum? How did she get to Syria? And what did she do when she got there?

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


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BBC Sounds

Episode 1 of The Shamima Begum Story - the highly anticipated BBC Radio 5 Live podcast - will be available on BBC Sounds on Wednesday 11 January and will also broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 from that date. The accompanying This World TV documentary will air on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer at the start of February 2023.

For more than a year, investigative journalist Josh Baker has been talking to Shamima Begum, who has given him what she says is her full account of what really happened after she disappeared as a teenager from London and emerged four years later in Syria with the Islamic State group.

Throughout the 10-part series, listeners will hear Josh search for the truth as he tests her account and retraces Shamima’s route, traveling from a London bus stop to a theme park in the former ISIS heartland. He encounters smugglers, spies, hairdressers and terrorists, revealing a dangerous story capable of embarrassing powerful people. It’s about far more than a missing teenage girl.

The story is series two of 'I’m Not A Monster', the first was the BBC’s most-awarded podcast series to date.

In the first episode, Josh meets Shamima in a Syrian detention camp to discover how it all began. Almost eight years earlier, he was filming in Shamima’s local mosque when news broke that she and her friends had gone missing. He was there when their families came asking for help, but it was all too late; they'd already made it into the hands of the Islamic State group.

The series seeks to separate fact from fiction as it explores who is Shamima Begum? How did she get to Syria and what did she do when she got there? This is a comprehensive investigation in which the team retrace Shamima Begum’s journey from London to Turkey to Syria and reveal what actually happened in Raqqa.

Josh Baker says: "There are different ways to tell the Shamima Begum story. There’s the one about a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was groomed and lured to a war zone by ISIS and now needs saving from a Syrian detention camp. And there’s the one about a traitor, who fled Britain to join ISIS and became known the world over as a terrorist and must be stopped from coming back to Britain. As Shamima challenges the removal of her British citizenship by the UK government, I’ve examined her accounts to give listeners a definitive narrative on this complex, nuanced and shocking story."

Heidi Dawson, Controller of BBC Radio 5 Live says: "'I’m Not a Monster': The Shamima Begum Story is the culmination of years of investigative journalism and builds on the award-winning international success of series 1. This new series in January will deliver brilliant content across a range of platforms – BBC Sounds, Radio 4, Radio 5 Live and BBC Two to reach more audiences in more places."

Episode 1 of 'I’m Not A Monster’: The Shamima Begum Story will be available to listen to from Wednesday 11th January 2023 on BBC Sounds. New episodes will be available and will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 11am from the same date. BBC Radio 5 Live will also host on air discussions relating to key episodes across the schedule, including Josh speaking with Naga Munchetty immediately after the Radio 4 broadcast.

The podcast series is produced by Joe Kent, Sara Obeidat and Josh Baker, with series editor Jonathan Aspinwall for BBC Long Form Audio. It was commissioned by Dylan Haskins for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds. The film is directed by Josh Baker, produced by Sara Obeidat and Sasha Joelle Achilli and the executive producer is Sarah Waldron.

The first series of ‘I'm Not A Monster’ told the story of Sam Sally, an American mother who left behind a comfortable life and travelled to the heart of what the Islamic State group called its caliphate with her family. Her husband became an IS sniper and her 10-year-old son was forced to appear in an infamous propaganda video threatening President Trump. It’s the BBC’s most-awarded podcast series to date, having received 16 nominations, winning 11 awards in 10 different international programme competitions, including the Rose d'Or for Best Audio Series, three Golds and the Grand Jury Prize at the New York Festivals Radio Awards and Best Documentary Series at the Webbys and the inaugural Podcast Academy Awards (the Ambies) in 2021.

Source BBC Sounds

December 19, 2022 4:00am ET by Pressparty  

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