Woman's Hour Folgen

Oti Mabuse and partner Bill Bailey have been crowned Strictly Come Dancing champions as they took the 2020 glitter ball trophy home on Saturday. Oti Mabuse is the first professional to win the competition two years in a row. Next year, she is going on tour with her new show ‘I AM HERE', which explores her journey from growing up in South Africa, to becoming a multi-award winning dancer.The increase in domestic abuse during the pandemic has been widely reported. The charity Family Rights Group works to keep children safe in their families and advise parents whose children are in need, at risk or in care, and support kinship carers raising children. Their chief executive, Cathy Ashley, confirms that rise and says that domestic abuse is now the most common reason given by callers to their free advice line as to why social workers have become involved with their family. She also explains why grandparents so frequently become kinship carers in these situations.Quarry Bank cotton mill stands on the outskirts of Manchester, it is now a National Trust property . It features in a play called The Whip by Juliet Gilkes Romero a new audio version of which is now available on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s YouTube channel. The play tells the story of the cover-up of the death of a child working at the mill. Louise Adamson went to Quarry Bank back in 2017 to see an exhibition about the lives of the women and children who worked there and the songs they sang as the worked.Samantha Evans is West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service’s first female whole time firefighter. When Samantha joined the service in 1990, there were no female shower facilities on station, and no other women in the team. Samantha is now retiring, after 30 years of service.Presented by Jessica Creighton Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Beverley Purcell

We heard earlier in the pandemic that in-person meetings for vulnerable children had become mostly impossible. But now child protection professionals feel that face-to-face conferences are unlikely to ever resume. So what does that mean for the children in question? And what is missed as a result? Journalist Marianne Eloise was recently diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, aged 27. She says it finally gives her an explanation of why she has found it difficult to simply exist; from experiencing extreme sensory overload in situations others find normal, to never being able to make small talk. Marianne joins Jane to talk about her personal breakthrough and why she believes it’s harder for women and girls to be diagnosed as autistic.The mezzo-soprano Patricia Hammond is celebrating the parlour song. Composed by women, these domestic songs of the Victorian era have largely been marginalised or forgotten. In her new book and CD, She Wrote the Songs, she tells us about the women behind the songs and their importance to musical history.Listener Prue wrote to us about a recent discovery that’s made her question her past. For her seventieth birthday, Prue, a family history buff, got a DNA kit from her nieces. There were no surprises with the results about her geographical origins. Then she realised could also find people with matched DNA, and she was shocked to find out her late dad was not her biological father. Since then Prue’s been trying to find out who her father was- with the help of people she’s met online. Jo Morris met with Prue at her home.

New BBC three-part drama Black Narcissus tells the story of a group of Anglo-Catholic nuns who travel to the Himalayas to set up a school in an abandoned clifftop palace, which was once known as the 'House of Women'. Adapted from Rumer Godden's 1939 novel, the writer Amanda Coe joins Jane to discuss.Coping strategies over the Christmas period with the psychologist Laverne Antrobus.Carolyn Cobbold is No. 10 on the Woman's Hour Power List 2020: Our Planet. She's worked tirelessly to quite literally change the shape of coastal defence, leading the Manhood Peninsula Partnership to secure funding for the largest coastal realignment project in Europe. The musician and DJ Cerys Matthews tells us about her latest album 'We Come From the Sun' which involved collaborating with the Hidden Orchestra and 10 poets. She's joined by the award winning poet Liz Berry who talks about her track Christmas Eve.Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Dianne McGregor