> It was a play written for the British radio (BBC4),
> the 3rd and last in a series called 'Real Women',
> broadcast Friday afternoon, November 6. This one was
> called 'A Spinster of No Profession' by Judith French,
> and its resume was: "Using an assumed name Sophie Germain
> corresponds with Carl Fredrich Gauss, the most famous
> mathematician of the French revolutionary age.
> I've just telphoned the BBC to see if it is available, but
> their duty officer said it wasn't, in any form, and that they
> didn't normally sell such recordings. For more enquires, he
> said that one should telephone the BBC number +44 171 580 4468
> and ask for the Audio Collection, BBC Worldwide, during office
> hours. For further details, he said to consult their Website,
> www.beeb.com (that looks a bit short to me). They don't have an
> email address for this kind of thing, he said, which surprised
> me; I pressed him on this, but he stuck to his point.
Audio colection is a marketing organisation, independent of the BBC, and
they just said that there was nothing that they could sell me. So I want
back to the BBC itself (number above), who connected me to their
Information Service, Radio, where a man whose computer had broken down
disappeared fo 15 minutes to try and get more information ("Just bear with
me one second" is what they always say), and never reappeared. I called
again, and got cut off again. Third time lucky: this time I got the
telephone number of the production company that made the play -- +44-171
765 2369. So I phoned them but got an answerphone on which I left brief
details of what I wanted to know, in particular how to contact the author,
and am now waiting for a reply. If none comes, I'll call them again later.
There is a general way of contacting people connected with the BBC, which
to send them a letter care of the BBC asking it to be forwarded. Here it
might be best to write to something like:
The Producer of the series Real Women (Friday afternoon, Nov 6)
BBC Radio 4, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA
and enclose a letter to be sent to the author, and any questions for the
producer. It's such a big organisation that I'm sure things go astray
unless you give them as much help as possible.
I'll report back if I make any more progress.
David Fowler