Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent (begins at 23 mins)

Joe Bond gets into the swim of things in the Czech town of Kolin. Once it was home to a thriving Jewish population, which was largely uprooted and dispersed after the Nazi occupation deported most of its members to labour and extermination camps during the Holocaust. One doughty survivor of that era, Hana Greenfield, made it her later life's mission to tell others about it - and she's now commemorated in the town with a race down the river where she would swim as a child.

Lady Bird review: a coming-of-age comedy to fall for

Lady Bird is set in 2003, less than two decades ago, but it might as well be a story from a different age. 2003 was the year the Iraq war started and, crucially, the year before Facebook launched. Therefore, unlike so many ‘coming-of-age’ stories created since, it has no room for social media and other preoccupations of our digital world. Coming-of-age films tend to feature everyday, relatable experiences, about characters who irk us in ways we have been irked, and comfort us in ways...

Molly’s Game review: a poker film worth gambling on

Molly’s Game is a fast-talking poker film based on the memoirs of Molly Bloom, a skier who hoped to make the Olympics, but instead ended up running high-stakes gambling all-nighters with actors and gangsters in Hollywood and New York. In reality, Ben Affleck and Tobey MacGuire were among the players – but the film doesn’t mention them or anyone else specifically, ignoring potentially juicy gossip to focus its attention on Molly, whose quest is to emerge from this underground world unsullied...

Exploring the Isaan region in northern Thailand

Holidays to Thailand tend to be all about lazing on the beach for most people. But there’s stacks more to this fascinating country than sun, sea and sand. Joe Bond heads to the Isaan region, home of spicy Som Tam salad, mountains, ancient ruins and traditional culture. The region known as ‘Isaan’ is the largest, poorest, and least travelled in Thailand. Bigger than England and Wales combined, it has undergone considerable change...

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