Christmas 2011 with ORLA.fm

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Created on Sunday, 18 December 2011 12:49

Written by Fran Gilles

If you are all Harked out we have some great Angels singing on ORLA.fm this Christmas season. Packed with music from Cliff's Mistletoe And Wine to less well-known songs, we have spanned the decades with a festive musical mosaic - and the music will be all-Christmas between December 24 and 26.

We also proudly bring you a super play by Michal Karski about the legendary Tadeusz Kościuszko who was a Polish–Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus, yet little is known about his visit to Britain. Michal's short play for radio will form the centrepiece of our Christmas special broadcasts season.

You can hear the premiere at 1000 GMT (1100 CET) on Christmas Day, December 25 and repeated on Boxing Day December 26 at 2000 GMT (2100 CET) exclusively on ORLA.fm. The show is presented in English. The cast comprise of Poles born in the UK and reinforce our Anglo-Polish roots as a radio station.

Everyone at ORLA.fm would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year.

About the voices you will hear:

Iwona Makowska was born and educated in London. After training as a teacher, she worked in England and abroad, including setting up a language school in Spain. She also trained in dance therapy at the Roehampton Institute and worked in this field for a number of years. She spent 4 years working as an in-house therapist at Canon Research Centre Europe. She is currently teaching English in London. With Tom Wachtel she belonged to the legendary Klub Milenium in 1960s Ealing, a focal point for Polish youth of the day.

Tom Wachtel was born in London in 1950 and educated in Ealing, then art school and film school followed by Universities of York and Sussex. After graduating in linguistics, he spent five years lecturing at the University of Warsaw and a further 20 years in industrial R&D, including for Philips and Canon. He now runs his own company which performs a range of pan-European consultancy work including video production.

Michal Karski was born 1949 in Worcester, England and educated in Worcester, then at Munich American High School in Germany. Returning to England in 1966, he spent a year at Chiswick Polytechnic, then studied for a language degree at Queen Mary College, London. His employment history includes 15 years working for a London-based charity organization. Has known Tom and Iwona since the sixties. Played in a band with Tom at Ealing's Klub Milenium.

Alex Karski was born and educated in London. At high school he performed in a number of dramatic productions, including the role of Moon in Tom Stoppard's 'The Real Inspector Hound'. He also performed in several productions of the Artists' Theatre School. He is currently completing an MA in Classics at University College London. During his time at UCL he has played guitar in several productions, including The Rocky Horror Show, RENT and a number of UCLU Jazz Society performances.

Julian Mazowiecki was born in London and grew up in Brussels, Paris and Warsaw. Whilst in Warsaw, he worked part time as a voice actor, recording English as a Foreign Language tapes aimed at school children and, later, businessmen. After studying at University College London, he worked in Brussels, before returning to London