Lindsay Johns
Writer & Broadcaster
Lindsay has made BBC radio documentaries on South African novelist and freedom fighter Alex La Guma, Chicagoan Jazz Age artist Archibald Motley, Jr, the black British blood donor crisis, The Canon Wars, Harlem Renaissance novelist and polymath Rudolph Fisher, the movement to promote the Kaaps language in Cape Town, South Africa and for BBC TV, Children of the Caribbean Revolution.
He has made a series of Essays for BBC Radio 3 on Africa In The City. In them, re-working Ian Fleming’s colonial Thrilling Cities 1963 travelogue premise, he looks at the African influence on five global cities (Marseille, Philadelphia, Kingston (Jamaica), Fort-de-France (Martinique), and Cape Town).
He has also made a series of Essays for BBC Radio 3 on From Biltong To Bobotie: Journeys In South African cuisine, in which he looks at the various culinary traditions of the Rainbow Nation (Black, White, Coloured, Indian and Cape Malay and what they say about South Africa today.
Lindsay has given a BBC Radio 4 Four Thought talk on why language is power, a BBC Radio 3 Essay on Tommie Smith and the literary canons, and been on BBC Radio 4's Great Lives championing Frantz Fanon.
He has been interviewed on the Better Known podcast, talking about 6 things he felt deserved greater recognition.
He has been interviewed several times on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, BBC Radio 4’s PM program, reviewed the papers on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House, been a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 3’s Nightwaves, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Review, BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent and on the BBC World Service.
On TV, Lindsay has presented features on BBC Two’s flagship arts program The Culture Show on topics as diverse as the Classics, taking his Peckham mentees to the theatre, playwright Terence Rattigan and the iconic film character John Rambo.
He has also been a guest on BBC Two’s Review Show, been interviewed on BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live, BBC Two’s Newsnight, BBC World, BBC London, ITV’s London Tonight, has presented a Channel 4 polemic against bling culture, and has also appeared as a contributor in several Channel 5 history documentaries.