Redzi Bernard

radio and podcast producer

I love making thoughtful audio documentaries that celebrate art and address issues of social justice. I have created work for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3, the Guardian, Audible, and various corporate clients.

17 December 2023

Opening Lines:
A Grain of Wheat

A Grain of Wheat

John Yorke examines an African literary classic, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat. It's a novel set in the four days leading up to Kenya's Independence celebrations in 1963, but, through the viewpoints of multiple characters in flashback, we learn about the horrors inflicted upon Kenyans by the British in the decades prior. When your people have been systematically starved, beaten, tortured and murdered, what does hope look like?

26 November 2023

Afterwords:
Ursula Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin

Afterwords is an occasional series for BBC Radio 3 that invites you to spend time with some of our greaters writers and their ideas, through archive and interviews with people that knew, loved and admired them. It's safe to say Ursula K Le Guin is my Aunty now. I'm so privileged to have encountered her wisdom, delight and courage. And she ran with a great crowd; these were some of the most enjoyable conversations I've had in forever.

6 November 2023

Lights Out:
Crossings

Crossings

Crossings is the story of Sahid, an incredible young man searching for safety from Sierra Leone to Strasbourg. Forced to leave home under threat of violence, he crosses the desert, and the Mediterranean Sea. But when he finally reaches Europe, he is illegally detained, and must flee aross borders again.

31 August 2023

County Lines is a 2023 DIG Audio Finalist



DIG Awards

Delighted to have had County Lines chosen as a finalist at the DIG festival 2023, where prizes are given to the best international journalistic, audio and video productions, selected from more than 400 entries.
Listen to Lights Out: County Lines here

2 January 2023

Lights Out:
County Lines

Lights Out: County Lines

Four people talk about their involvement with county lines drugs gangs, who exploit children and vulnerable adults to traffic drugs around the UK. We spoke to so many incredible people for this documentary, and it's insane to me that more isn't being done to curb this wholesale exploitation of people happening every day across the country.

29 March 2022

Short Cuts
Shorter Cuts

A breath of fresh air

In search of something unashamedly feel-good after a long winter, Phoebe and I played in the BBC archive for this micro feature for Short Cuts.

10 March, 2021

Short Cuts
Moonlight

I was thrilled to interview Courttia Newland for an episode of Short Cuts on BBC Radio4. His novel, A River Called Time is an expansive work of speculative fiction that imagines a world where slavery and colonialism never happened and where a blend of traditional world beliefs have come to underpin the workings of every day life.

July 2020

Anthems
Proximity

I lost my sister to cancer. It completely changed me. Before she died I created a fantasy world for myself where I would be able to write my way out of my grief (reader, I couldn't, and I didn't), and during that desperate period, I pitched this to Broccoli Content.

13 October 2019

Mountains
Mules and My Mum

In 2019 I received the Royal Geographical Society’s Journey of a Lifetime Award, in association with BBC Radio 4. I recreated a journey my mother made 50 years before, travelling across the Ethiopian Highlands to Lalibela and its magnificent rock-hewn churches.