Crossing Continents: Greece: No Place to Die Radio 4
Burlesque Legends Radio 4
Perhaps it's a place for a hot holiday, but it’s certainly no place to die.
Crossing Continents was a chilling documentary about a country where the price of a permanent grave in a city cemetery is about the same as a small flat.
So that, most graves are rented for three years and after that, the body is exhumed and the bones are washed and placed in an ossory.
The exhumation was harsh listening. Reporter Chloe Hadjimatheou took us with her to a graveyard where a family waited and wept as the remains of their father were exhumed.
She did not spare us the details – the rotted coffin, the skull pulled from the grave and the man’s black suit jacket in which he had been lovingly buried, shaken by the gravedigger to allow the bones and the dust to drop out.
It was gruesome and deeply troubling ... but at least, at the end, there is a small box at the cemetery and the possibility of a visit.
And in the financial straits now facing Greece, there are cases where families just don’t turn up to collect the bodies of their loved ones – they cannot afford the cost of the cemetery.
Greece is one of the few EU countries without a crematorium – the Greek Orthodox Church is against cremation.
And then again, the state makes millions from the graveyards. So that, if you want a cremation, you head for Bulgaria. This was sober but fascinating listening.
Picture women in their 60s, 70s and 80s, dancing striptease... relax, it’s radio, you don’t have to.
These incredible women with their walkers, canes and shaky little footsteps going on to the stage and stripping – it’s exciting said one woman.
These are sassy, brassy women who once stripped and have come out of retirement.
Mat Fraser is a disabled performer – so he knows about prejudice and he knew about ageism, sexism and racism and feminism.
“You’re probably listening to this thinking... it’s old women, taking their clothes off,” said Mat ... and I was.
But these are stars and they still are... even when one arrives on a mobility scooter.
