Peter Curran | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Occupation(s) | Audio producer, writer, broadcaster, documentary maker, actor |
Peter Curran is a broadcaster, writer, audio producer and documentary maker. He grew up in Belfast, the eldest of six children and worked on funfairs in the USA before moving to London, playing drums in various bands and working as a site carpenter and office fitter for six years. Curran re-trained as a BBC reporter and in 1992 began DJing full-time for the London radio station BBC GLR.[1] He presented BBC London's movie programme The Big Picture for three years and reviewed films[2] for the magazine Sight and Sound.
Curran co-founded audio publisher Talking Music in 2012, publishing books on Eminem, Jimi Hendrix, Acid house, The Coasters, The Beatles, Glam rock, Adele, The Clash and others, written and read by authors such as Charles Shaar Murray, Jane Bussmann and Barney Hoskyns.
During 2017/18 he travelled across the USA for the Radio 4 series Litter From America[3] which featured "the scuffed and stained American dreams" of actor Richard Schiff, comedian Maysoon Zayid and director Kwame Kwei-Armah as their creative work and beliefs grappled with the Trump presidency.[4]
With co-host Patrick Marber, Curran created Bunk Bed (radio programme), a series of bizarre late-night conversations recorded in beds and in the dark, featuring music, archive speech and guests such as Cate Blanchett, Andi Oliver, Jane Horrocks and Kathy Burke. First broadcast in April 2014 on BBC Radio 4,[5] Series 10 began in July 2023.
In 2018, he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to explore the role of Ireland's borderland communities in the First World War for The Art of Border Living, featuring his essays, BBC documentaries and commissioned short story podcasts from Irish authors.
He has reported from South Africa, India and the USA for From Our Own Correspondent[6] and in 2020 for Spirit of the Midnight Sun, explored the effects of climate change on nomadic Sámi reindeer herders in Finnmark and the ancient sea Sámi community at Varangerfjord.
Curran produced and directed the 2022 Radio 4 Christmas Drama Love Pants about the turbulent relationship between actor Jane Horrocks and the singer and songwriter Ian Dury featuring Dury's letters, Horrocks' diaries, and accompanying music by Mick Gallagher.[7]