webbed feet, web log

webbed feet, web log

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

blog Cambodia; blog the planet.

Aug 12, 2004

Taste of Life

EastEnders vs. HIV THE BBC's latest medical drama, Taste of Life, may prove to be one of the most important programmes in the corporation's history. Set in a busy hospital with a young cast of sexually active doctors and nurses, it doesn't exactly sound ground-breaking, but former EastEnders producer Matthew Robinson reckons his new soap has the potential to change lives. Taste of Life, you see, isn't set in a fictional town in the South-West or an inner London teaching hospital, the drama unfolds in Phnom Penh and isn't meant just to entertain, it is designed to save viewers' lives. It's an example of 'edutainment' - the new buzzword in overseas aid - and is one of a raft of soaps currently being produced with western cash and talent in the developing world. Taste of Life 's opening storyline features a pregnant 16-year-old who is rushed to hospital when her back-street abortion goes wrong. So far, so soap; but Robinson promises that this is revolutionary stuff. 'Cambodians have never seen anything like it,' he says on the phone from Phnom Penh. It's difficult to convey to a British audience what an effect a show like Taste of Life , which begins this month, can have. For Matthew Robinson though, the enormous benefits outweigh the ideological concerns: 'These soaps are monitored and researched and don't get the next year's funding if there's not a demonstrable shift in people's behaviour. The medium works,' he says. He is confident that Taste of Life will be a success: 'There is no history of writing TV scripts here, there isn't even a history of writing novels. This is a country where half the population is under 18 and where anyone who could have taught the younger generation about the creative industries was murdered by Pol Pot.' Full story at: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/screen/story/0,6903,1278469,00.html

- jinja Link

Comments: Post a Comment

Anonymous comments are deleted. Emails related to this blog may be reprinted.

Popular Posts:

Couches and Controversy

Street Kids Shoot Back

Phnomenon Interview

Links:

(link does not necessarily constitute endorsement of politics, religion, lifestyle, institution or fashion sensibility.)

Arts

What's On - Cambodia Arts News

Cambodian Comics

Sporadic Cartoon

Komik Cambodia Exchange

Arijan Jansonius

Nou Hach Literary Journal

Art House, Siem Reap

Nonprofits

Libellus Association

Khmer Operating System

Profits

KhmerProducts.com

Digital divide Data

Schooling

Center For Khmer Studies

SE Asia Archaeology Blog

Youth Infotech Workshops

Center for Advanced Study

Online Khmer Dictionary

Other Cambodia Blogs

Analog Cambodia

Details Are Sketchy

Earth's Molten Core

Kampuchea Crossings

Parish without Borders

Down the Road: Cambodia

Phnom Penh Tagebuch

Reporter at Large

Illuminating Cambodia

Mistaken for Khmer

Cameras 4 Cambodia

Listings

Expat-Advisory.com

'Planet Cambodia' blogs

Technorati's 'Cambodia' blogs

Global Voices Wiki Archived

Blogger's 'Cambodia' list

Topix.net: Cambodia blogs

travel

Hidden Cambodia

Canby Publications

AsiaLifeCambodia

Gratuitous Linkage

lorraine crescent

Eternal Wanderer

Gombe Chimpanzee

« Asia Expats Ring » ?

Creative Commons License

(c) John Weeks

. . .