Kirsty Lang on

Shinzo Abe - Japan’s longest-serving prime minister who sought to end a wartime legacy of defeat and occupation and to tackle the economy through ‘Abenomics’.

Actor Mona Hammond is best known for her TV role in Eastenders.

Lorna de Smidt, the anti-apartheid and anti-racist activist who cut her political teeth in the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa in the late 1960s.

And Monty Norman - Composer and singer who wrote the James Bond main theme and a string of successful musicals as well.


Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Nakano Koichi
Interviewed guest: Dr Kristin Surak
Interviewed guest: Michael Buffong
Interviewed guest: Graham de Smidt
Interviewed guest: Matthew Sweet

Archive clips used: BBC News, Report on death of Shinzo Abe, 08/07/2022; BBC Radio 4, The World This Weekend, Votes counted for Japanese election, 29/07/2007; BBC One, Eastenders 25/10/2010; Humphrey Barclay Productions for Channel 4, Desmond's S01E04 26/01/1989; BBC Radio 4, The Archers 28/12/2003; BBC Two, Storm Damage (1989), 23/01/2000; Paramount Pictures/ Albert S. Ruddy Productions/ Alfran Productions, The Godfather Part 1 (1972); BBC Radio 4, News Bulletin19/03/2001; BBC Two Omnibus - Monty Norman interview 17/10/1982.