Michelle Mone and Kim Cattrall to guest edit BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour
September 3, 2015 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Controversial entrepreneur Michelle Mone is to examine setting up businesses in deprived areas while actor Kim Cattrall will discuss her decision to remain childless as special guest editors of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
Mone, who was made a life peer by David Cameron in August after it was announced that she would lead a government review into small businesses in deprived areas, made her fortune founding the Ultimo lingerie brand.
A supporter of the Labour party until 2009, the 43-year-old Mone withdrew her backing amid complaints about a possible increase in income tax to 50%. A report in the Herald questioning her new role uncovered a tweet sent during the 2011 London riots in which she suggested the army should be called in, adding “People who riot, steal, cover face deserve zero human rights.”
She also attracted controversy during the Scottish independence campaign by saying she would “have no choice” but to move her business to England if Alex Salmond’s side won.
Mone, whose peerage was announced in the dissolution honours in August, will also discuss online dating for the over-40s.
Cattrall, the 59-year-old former star of Sex and the City, is to launch Woman’s Hour Takeover, a week of guest editors, on 14 September with a programme exploring ageing, loss, being single later in life and choosing to remain childless. She has previously spoken about her decision not to react to “pressure from outside sources” to have children.
The week is the second such takeover following the relative success of the week in 2014, which featured Harry Potter author JK Rowling and Doreen Lawrence. The 61-year-old daily magazine programme, presented by Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey, has won acclaim this summer with its new strand Late Night Woman’s Hour fronted by DJ and writer Lauren Laverne.
Since her turn as Samantha Jones in the hit HBO show came to an end in 2004, Cattrall, who is British-Canadian, has appeared in the Old Vic’s production of Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of Youth at London’s Royal Court.
Other guests in the week-long slot include FGM campaigner Nimco Ali, Bishop Rachel Treweek and children’s author, Dame Jacqueline Wilson.
Ali, who has campaigned against female genital mutilation, will look at fertility, asking what young women need to know, as well as the impact men have in female dominated spaces. Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn recently faced a backlash after floating the idea of introducing women-only train carriages in Britain as a measure to protect women from sexual harassment.
The Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, became the first female diocesan bishop in the Church of England in June and her guest slot will focus on themes of forgiveness and reconciliation, as well as supporting women offenders as they leave prison.
Acclaimed children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson ends the week with a discussion on bookshop owners and being glamorous over the age of 70. The programme will also feature interviews with disabled actor Nickie Miles-Wildin and poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.
