Sir David Attenborough kicks off Made in Leicester series

From the vibrancy of the Golden Mile and the teenage meanderings of Adrian Mole to Deep Purple headlining Leicester’s historic De Montfort Hall, for many of us who live and work in Leicester, an array of festivals and cultural events has become part of the cycle of life.

Then, last June, Leicester was amongst four places that were shortlisted for the title of UK City of Culture 2017. As the Arts reporter for BBC East Midlands Today, I knew we would cover the run-up to the final announcement in November, but it also felt like a great opportunity to delve beneath the surface of Leicester’s cultural landscape and produce a unique series of broadcasts.

And so Made in Leicester was born, a multi-platform series for BBC News exploring how Leicester has shaped and inspired a range of creative people. From Sir David Attenborough’s childhood memories, to emerging artists like the contemporary dancer Aakaash Odedra, each broadcast looks at their unique perspective and how Leicester influenced them as people.

As each film/radio piece is broadcast on East Midlands Today and Radio Leicester, it’s then added to the bespoke Made in Leicester website, an iPlayer archive of current and past broadcasts all debating culture in the city and lead up to the bid. The creation of this page has been supported by the English Regions iPlayer team in Birmingham. The material will also be used in an Inside Out piece on the 28 October.

Made in Leicester has been a truly cross-platform collaborative process, strongly demonstrated through the production of our TV title sequence and radio music bed. The title sequence designed by Harry Whinney, uses images from each of our Made in Leicester pieces. Harry worked with Andrew Fewster, Station sound producer for Radio Leicester, who beautifully blended the sounds from each piece to create a cacophony of voices and rhythms. If you listen closely you can hear the throbbing beats of Indian Kathak music blending into Sir David’s iconic voice, all building up to the young poet Jess Green mouthing Made in Leicester.

The second of our series on Tuesday 8 October features respected local printmaker and artist Sarah Kirby, who is documenting Leicester’s iconic buildings through her artwork (see one of her pictures above).

The series culminates in a 'call to action week', where we encourage our presenters and audiences to share a picture that sums up Leicester’s culture for them. From the Caribbean carnival in 1998 to the Clock Tower, we are hoping to pull together a rich interactive gallery of pictures all of which have been Made in Leicester.

Geeta Pendse is Arts Reporter and Journalist for BBC East Midlands.

• See the Made in Leicester website for audio and video clips.
• Read about Leicester native Sir David Attenborough in this blog: Marking David Attenborough's 60 years in broadcasting.