Woman's Hour - 03/11/2009

With Jane Garvey. Comedian Miranda Hart talks about her new BBC2 sitcom, Miranda, in which she plays a tall, thirty-something social misfit who makes ill-fated and hilarious attempts to 'fit in'. The series stars Patricia Hodge as Miranda's overbearing mother, Sally Phillips as her posh boarding school chum and ex-Eastenders actor Tom Ellis as the love interest. There are over 65,000 women working in engineering, technology and construction, about ten percent of the workforce. Most work clothing is unisex and some women have no choice but to wear inappropriate, ill-fitting clothing which they feel compromises their work. Woman's Hour hears from one civil engineer who has to carry multiple pairs of socks to make too-big boots fit, and has to fight flapping jacket sleeves and rolled-up trouser legs, and discusses solutions to the problem. The Eton Memorial School in Ypres, Belgium, was established to educate the children of the gardeners who built and tended the war graves in the aftermath of World War 1. The pupils there enjoyed a very patriotic British education. But in 1940, when Germany invaded Belgium, the children had to flee for their lives. Jane hears the story of the school and meets one of its former pupils. Former women's world snooker champion Allison Fisher has taken America's pool halls by storm. She has won 11 world titles, including a gold at the 2009 World Games for Britain, and has just been accepted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. She talks to Jane about her decision to pursue her career in the United States, and the challenges of playing at the top level.