| Throughout August 2013 we were in Edinburgh at the world's biggest festival of free expression reminding people about the importance of free speech. This is what we got up to. |
Week one: Secret Comedy Podcasts off to a flying start with Ed Byrne
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Our Secret Comedy Podcast brings together the best comics around to raise awareness of the importance of free speech. It is easy to take free speech for granted, but without it none of these comedians would be able to work and we wouldn't be able to enjoy them.
We've a long history of using comedy to raise awareness of human rights and free speech and this year we took it to another level with 15 live shows.
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Week two: Fun and games - New hosts, more guests and football
| Week two was our first full week with four podcasts to record, edit and get out the door. Christian O'Connell and Jo Caulfield hosted a stella line up of guests including Mark Thomas, Stephen K Amos, Shirley and Shirley and Michael Che. | ||
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| In week two we also hosted the annual critics versus comic football match. Captained by Eric Lampaert the Comics team of Keith Farnan, Daniel Sloss, Kai Humphries, Milton Jones, Matt Winning, Foil, Arms and Hog, Jimoen, and Tom Rosenthal roared to victory over the Critics with an impressive 3-1 win. | ||||
Week three: Brining human rights home to the Fringe
| Week three brought more shows, more hosts and more great guests. Julian Clary wasn't preforming in Edinburgh this year but he made the trip to host two shows exclusively for us. With guests including Al Murray, Reginald D. Hunter and Alexei Sayle the shows were a sell out. | ||||
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Week four: Riding high in the charts and Freedom of Expression Award
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Our Podcast had been steadily riding up the iTunes charts for the past three weeks, but in our final few days we climaxed at number two. Not bad!
Our final four shows featured Mark Dolan, Tumi Morake, Barry from Watford, Johnny Walker, Elizabeth McGovan, Tig Notaro, Tanya Lee Davis, Adam Hills and many many more.
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In our final week we also presented our Freedom of Expression Award to the challenging and life-changing play Nirbhaya. The award recognises an outstanding production which raises awareness of human rights or highlights a freedom of expression issue.
Jyoti Singh Pandey, nickname Nirbhaya or 'fearless one', died after being ganged raped on a bus in Delhi last year. In this production Nirbhaya’s fearless cast present their personal histories of sexual abuse within the narrative of Jyoti’s gruesome ordeal. A very worthy winner. |