In 2000, I met Stephen Chilcott, then the editor of Radio 4’s In Business. Having once been a business reporter, I have been interested in the world of economics and finance. The thesis I wrote for my master’s degree concerned the role of Saudi Arabia in OPEC. Stephen gave me a chance to make one programme for him, and I went on to make 6 more over the years.
It has been very enjoyable, and I have met and interviewed a diverse and fascinating range of people.
You can hear clips from some of these programmes below.
In 2006, I made a radio documentary about Iran, and in 2008, wrote some reports for one of the best loved programmes on R4, From Our Own Correspondent.
Programmes
From Our Own Correspondent
FOOC 1 The story of how I reconnected with an old school friend after 30 years.
FOOC 2 The story of an Iranian national hero, a wrestler called Gholamreza Takhti.
Credits
2 x 5 minutes, 2008
Uncovering Iran, BBC Radio 4
Reporter: Amir Amirani
Editor: Tony Grant
From Tehran With Laughter
As part of Radio 4’s Uncovering Iran season, I made a programme that looked at 30 years of post revolutionary history of Iran through the prism of Iranian comics.
The programme features contributions from Shappi Khorsandi, Maz Jobrani and Omid Djalili.
Credits
30 minutes, 2006
Uncovering Iran, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Omid Djalili
Reviews
“Stand up comedian Omid Djalili presents this gag-packed documentary that does more in 28 minutes to break down ludicrous misconceptions about the Iranian people than a United Nations commission could hope to achieve in a decade. Iranian humour, like its British equivalent, combines awareness of its culture’s unique flaws along with biting political satire at its own, as well as other nations’ ruling parties’ expense. Djalili’s take on the London bombings might not be to everyone’s taste, but his version of the Iranian ambassador giving the US government a taste of its own demanding medicine is a joy to hear – never before have lorry loads of pistachio nuts made such a great punch line. This is one of those rare commodities: genuinely entertaining, yet at the same time eye-opening when it comes to racial stereotyping.”
Jayne Anderson, Radio Editor, The Radio Times
“This week’s Uncovering Iran programmes on Radio 4…. they’ve all been interesting – but I enjoyed From Tehran with Laughter the most. Presented by Omid Djalili, this was more than just jokes. Djalili hopped deftly between comic turns and social commentary. Comedian Shappi Khorsandi recalled the time she met an American comic. ‘I didn’t know Iranians had humour,’ he said wonderingly. Yes, they do, and this programme showed it with style”.
Miranda Sawyer, The Observer
“The most memorable moments have been the glimpses into very ordinary corners of Iranian life – the food eaten, the laughter, the complexities of dating – in place of the extraordinary aspects, which tend to grab headlines. From Tehran With Laughter, presented by Omid Djalili, was very funny and very illuminating”.
Elizabeth Mahoney, The Guardian
“From Tehran with Laughter (Radio 4, Sat), part of the network’s Uncovering Iran season, made me think a lot. What Djalili was talking about was the place of humour in Iranian tradition, how everything changed after 1979 and the Islamic revolution, how perceptions of Iranians in the wider world changed after September 11, 2001. He drew on his own experience and that of other young comedians here and in the USA. The essence of Iranian humour, it seems, is ironic, satirical, self-deprecating. The traditional subjects – politics, family life, food, football – are accessible to audiences in other countries. But, if it is hard to maintain the comic tradition in Iran these days, it is just as difficult to get it a hearing in post- 9/11 America. This was a thoughtful, useful programme.”
Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph
“Quite the most illuminating programme in the season was last Saturday’s From Tehran with Laughter (Radio 4), in which the cuddly British Iranian stand-up and, more latterly, Hollywood go-to guy when it comes to expendable Middle Eastern character actors, Omid Djalili made the case for not wiping the land of his forefathers off the face of the earth because, well, they enjoy a good laugh as much as the rest of us. Djalili had this listener on toast. His fellow comics came across as both reasonable and funny. So they’ve got satire sussed, and irony and whimsy and also, it appears, sarcasm.”
Chris Campling, The Times
In Business
Since the year 2000, I have made seven programmes for Radio 4’s leading business documentary series, presented by Peter Day. The Times has described In Business as “the best business-related programme on TV or radio”. It is also regularly one of the highest ranking podcasts of the BBC.
Who Needs an MBA?
Are entrepreneurs born, or are they made? Can you teach business skills? In short, Who Needs an MBA?
With contributions from
Lord Sainsbury
Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of advertising giant WPP
John Quelch, Dean of London Business School
Mike Lynch, founder of Autonomy
Cyril Levicki, a businessman without an MBA.
Credits
30 minutes, 2000
In Business, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Peter Day
My First Billion
A profile of Mike Lynch, founder of internet giant, Autonomy.
Dr Michael Richard Lynch has been dubbed by the Financial times as “the doyen of European software” and generally considered one of Britain’s most successful technology entrepreneurs. He is the co-founder and CEO of Autonomy Systems and his entrepreneurship is associated with Silicon Fen. He is a leader in the area of computer understanding of unstructured information, an area which is becoming known as meaning-based computing.
The main venture investor in Autonomy was APAX, the UK European Venture capital titan and its founder Sir Ronald Cohen called Lynch his favourite entrepreneur in an interview in 2007. This may not be surprising as APAX is claimed to have made a $5M investment into $1Bn giving one of the best returns for a European Venture investment of all time.
Credits
30 minutes, 2000
In Business, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Peter Day
The Magazine Industry
Britain has a diverse and successful magazine industry. But in 2002, the magazine industry was in a state of uncertain flux. This programme took the temperature of the industry through meeting some of the leading figures in the business.
Contributors include:
Terry Mansfield, former head of National Magazine Company
Nicholas Coleridge, Managing Director of Conde Naste in the UK
Felix Dennis, owner of Dennis Publishing
James Brown, former founder of Loaded magazine and Jack magazine
John Brown, owner of John Brown Publishing.
Credits
30 minutes, 2002
In Business, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Peter Day
Past Masters
Shakespeare is only one of the many great historical figures to whom the experts are now returning for insights that can influence and inspire modern managers. Is this a gimmick or are there really great lessons to be learned from sitting at the feet of ancient masters?
Contributors include:
Partha Bose, Author, Alexander the Great’s Art of Strategy
Sir Alastair McAlpine, Author, The New Machiavelli – the Art of Politics in Business
Mark McNeilly, Author, Su Tzu and the Art of War for Managers
Laurie Beth Jones, Author, Jesus CEO
William Ayot, Praxis Centre, Cranfield Business School
Lance Batchelor, Marketing Director, Vodafone
Credits
30 minutes, 2003
In Business, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Peter Day
Patents Make Perfect
In a world where new ideas may be the only things that keep a company in business, the twenty years of protection offered by a patent guard and defend corporate research and development which itself costs billions. But it’s bigger than just companies. Innovation is a vital engine of progress: and patents may be at the very heart of the innovation process itself. But the way patents work has evolved over hundreds of years, and now there are real worries that the system may be breaking down. In Business asks, does the system still work in the digital age?
Contributors include:
Joe Kraus Founder of the search engine Excite, CEO of owner of internet start-up Jotspot, which was acquired by Google in 2006 and is director of product management at Google.
Professor Lawrence Lessig Expert on the law of Copyright and Patents at Stanford University and author of The Future of Ideas
Bruce Lehman Head of the International Intellectual Property Institute
John Dudas Head of the US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO
Dominique Guellec Chief Economist of the European Patent Office
Kenneth Cukier Science policy writer at the Economist
Professor Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School and Professor Adam Jaffe of Brandeis University, authors of “Innovation and its Discontents.”
Credits
30 minutes, 2005
In Business, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Peter Day
But Wait, There’s More
In Business looks at the wonderful world of infomercials, those compelling sales pitches disguised as television shows on fringe TV stations across America… and increasingly, in Europe, too.
Peter Day hears from the pioneers who invented the industry 20 years ago, and from some of the famous names such as Jake (Body by JakeTM) who have made fortunes out of TV selling.
The perky Geordie John Parkin is a famous face all across America, little known in Britain despite his mansion in Country Durham; he explains how a chance phone call lured him from being a British department store basement pitchman into TV selling with sales now totalling $800-million dollars, and still on the rise.
“But wait, there’s more,” is the promise of the infomercials pitcher, and it’s the title of the first In Business of the autumn series.
Contributors include:
Jack Kirby, Head of Continuum
Greg Renker, Co-founder of Guthy-Renker Producrtions
John Parkin, British living legend of the infomercials industry
Jake Steinfeld, Body by JakeTM
Bill Trenchard, Chief Executive Officer, LiveOps
Credits
30 minutes, 2005
In Business, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Peter Day
Risky Business
Kidnappings, fraud, blackmail, terrorism, and shattered reputations – companies have been gradually waking up to the risks they run.
Now avoiding risks or trying to, has become a big business in its own right with its own special sort of people: part gumshoe, part bodyguard, part accountant, part investigative journalist.
Peter Day steps inside the Risk Business.
Contributors include:
Jules Kroll, founder of Kroll Inc.
Chris Morgan Jones, Head of Business Intelligence, Kroll Inc
Richard Fenning, CEO of Control Risks Group.
Rodney MacAlister, Founder and President of Business and Conflict.
Jessie Banfield, Senior Programme Officer, Business and Conflict, International Alert.
Richard Archdeacon, Technical Director, Symantec, Northern Europe.
Roger Cumming, Director of NISCC- National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre.
Credits
30 minutes, 2005
In Business, BBC Radio 4
Producer: Amir Amirani
Presenter: Peter Day
The World Tonight
In 2007, I was commissioned to write a short essay about the ‘Axis of Evil’ label given by President Bush to Iran, for Radio 4’s nightly news programme.