Nights for Wednesday 26 October 2011
7:10 Demographer Carl Haub
Carl Haub is the senior demographer at the Population Reference Bureau.
7:30 At the Movies
Films and movie business with Simon Morris.
8:00 News & Weather
8:15 Windows on the World
International public radio documentaries - visit the Windows on the World web page to find links to these documentaries.
8:40 Arts: Kiwi pop history
Music historian and author of Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music 1918-1964, Chris Bourke puts the needle on long-forgotten locally produced 45s and looks at cabaret singers that moved to Australia in the 1960s.
9:00 News & Weather
9:06 The Wednesday Drama: The Wreck of the Royal Charter, by Barry Williams
On the 25th October 1859 the ship Royal Charter, a 2,700 ton steam and sailing ship bound for Liverpool, was lost off Moelfre on the island of Anglesey The “Royal Charter” was returning to England from the Australian gold rush with about 500 people and half a million pounds of gold on board.
The ship was caught in one of the worst storms of the century and on 26 October, smashed to pieces at Moelfre on the rocky Welsh coast. Four-hundred and sixty people including all the women and children on board, died and Samuel Gapper, a New Zealand farmer going to England to buy farm equipment, was one of just 41 men who survived. But many others were buried in the small settlement of Anglesey where their bodies were washed ashore.
Barry Williams tells the story of the shipwreck in a solo play which he created from the perspective of the local minister - a man who wrote more than 1,000 letters to relatives of the victims.
10:00 News & Weather
10:17 Late Edition
A review of the leading news from Morning Report, Nine to Noon, Afternoons and Checkpoint. Also hear the latest news from around the Pacific on Radio New Zealand International's Dateline Pacific.
11:00 News & Weather
11:06 Jazz Live
A four-part series featuring live performances from a diverse range of European jazz artists and groups.