Radio Bimshire Presents

In House on James Street , episode five – “From Ann to Sarah”, a free coloured woman in Bridgetown, Anne Gill opens her home to persecuted Methodists and finds herself at the centre of a political firestorm that reaches all the way to London. White mobs attack her congregation, Barbadian magistrates look the other way, and a reluctant governor is forced to answer to the Colonial Office and Parliam...

House on James Street , episode four, follows the arrival of Moravian and Methodist missionaries into an island society built on sugar, slavery and Anglican respectability – and the backlash that followed. In “ Missionaries, Mobs, and the Conventicle Act ”, we trace how evangelical preaching, British debates over slavery, and fears of rebellion turn Methodist missions into targets for pro-slavery...

We continue the story of how one British family accumulated and protected wealth built on sugar, slavery and the suffering of enslaved Africans in Barbados in this second part of “ Wealth Built on Bondage” . British investigative journalist and author Dr Paul Lashmar joins host Shayla Murrell to explore the modern legacy of Drax Hall Plantation in St George, and how the Drax family’s fortunes rema...

Before she was a National Hero, Sarah Ann Gill was a woman of property in Bridgetown, navigating the brutal contradictions of a slave society. In this episode, we explore the precarious lives of free coloured women in early 19th-century Barbados. The late historian Professor Pedro Welch unpacked how these women — tavern owners, property holders, and political actors — used inheritance, commerce, a...

Wealth Built on Bondage (Part One) traces how the Drax family built and preserved generational wealth from sugar, slavery and land ownership in Barbados and Dorset, and asks what justice and reparations should look like today. When protests over racial injustice swept the world in 2020, Barbados was already wrestling with its own symbols of empire, including the statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson in...

Sounds of Freedom III : Esther Phillips and the legend of Monkey Noko digs into the haunting legacy of Drax Hall Plantation and the unfinished business of emancipation in Barbados. Against the backdrop of one of the hemisphere’s oldest sugar estates, Phillips reflects on growing up in the shadow of Drax Hall without ever being told its brutal history of sugar and slavery. Through her poem “Monkey...

In Episode Two - "Building A Slave Society" - House on James Street explores the roots of the world that would one day define Sarah Ann Gill. Joining us is historian Professor Pedro Welch, who walks us through the 17th-century transformation of Barbados into a laboratory of plantation slavery. We trace how an overwhelmingly African population, brought from the Gold Coast, was systematica...

This episode of Sounds of Freedom III traces the journey of a boy named Odifo and the enslaved mothers who loved – and lost – their children on Barbados’s sugar estates, through the words of poet and former Poet Laureate of Barbados, Esther Phillips. In this episode, Phillips reads her searing poem “Hard Love” and reflects on the emotional terror, brutality and impossible “adjustments” enslaved wo...

Before Sarah Ann Gill became a National Hero, she was a free woman in Bridgetown — navigating a society built on the brutal logic of slavery. In this episode, we step into her world to explore the precarious, complex lives of free coloured women in early 19th-century Barbados. The late historian Professor Pedro Welch unpacked the strategies these women — tavern owners, property holders, and politi...

In this special International Midwifery Day edition of  This Barbadian Life , we honour the Barbadian “birth women” – the lay midwives who walked cane tracks and village roads at all hours to catch babies long before there were labour wards and diplomas. Registered midwife Michelle Marshall guides us from the apprenticeship days of granny and auntie, through the 1937 riots and the Moyne Commission...

Sounds of Freedom is a journey through the soundscape of emancipation, memory, and hope. In episode one from a new season, host Shayla Murrell sits with Barbadian poet, teacher, and editor Esther Phillips, Barbados’ first Poet Laureate, to explore the making and meaning of her poem “Choice Young Negro”. Drawing on a chilling 1979 instruction manual written by plantation owner Henry Drax for the ru...

Legacy only lives if it is nurtured. In the final episode, we visit the Jackie Opel Residency Lab, where a new generation of musicians, visual artists and choreographers reimagine his work for today’s Barbados, proving that spouge is not a relic but a living, evolving movement. Written, produced and narrated by Shayla Murrell Produced with John Downes, Amour Chandler, Lamar Nicholls and Adrian Arc...

What began as a local rhythm became a chapter in Caribbean music history. This episode looks at how Jamaicans like Dean Fraser and regional scholars place Jackie Opel alongside reggae’s greats, and how spouge helped reshape ideas of what Barbadian music could be. Narrated by Shayla Murrell

Jackie Opel’s voice fell silent, but spouge did not. From Wendy Alleyne to the late Richard Stoute and a generation of performers, part seven follows the artists who carried his legacy forward, keeping Barbadian voices on stage and spouge alive in dance halls and on radio. Narrated by Shayla Murrell

On March 9 1970, at just 32, Jackie Opel’s story ended abruptly on Bay Street. Friends and collaborators remember the night of the accident, the outpouring of grief, and what it meant for a young nation to lose one of its brightest artistic lights just as his career was reaching new heights. Narrated by Shayla Murrell

Spouge was not only culture, it was commerce. This episode explores how bands like Blue Rhythm Combo, De Opels, The Escorts, The Troubadours, Draytons Two and Wendy Alleyne and the Dynamics took a Barbadian beat into hotels, dance halls, regional tours and record sales, turning rhythm into livelihoods.

Before Barbados had universal adult suffrage, before slavery was abolished in the British Empire, and before religious freedom was protected by law, a free coloured woman in Bridgetown did something dangerously simple: she opened her front door. In Episode One – “An Intrepid Fighter for Religious Freedom” – House on James Street introduces the life and times of the Right Excellent Sarah Ann Gill....

Before slavery was abolished in the British Empire. Before religious freedom was protected by law. A free coloured woman in Bridgetown did something dangerously simple: she opened her front door. House on James Street is a new Radio Bimshire original series that follows the life and times of the Right Excellent Sarah Ann Gill – from the making of a slave society and the rise of a free coloured com...

As independence swept the Caribbean in the 1960s, Jackie Opel became a symbol of a region finding its voice. Scholars and cultural critics set spouge in the context of nationalism, decolonisation and a maturing Barbadian recording industry that was finally ready for its own sound. Narrated by Shayla Murrell

His voice cut through bands, rocked Jamaican stages and stunned schoolboys who thought only Kingston stars could command a crowd. In part three, historians and eyewitnesses recall Jackie Opel’s time in Jamaica, his brushes with ska and rocksteady royalty, and how a Bajan singer earned respect in reggae’s heartland.

Jackie Opel was not just a star, he was a mentor who saw greatness in City youths long before the country did. This episode traces how De Opels, Richard Stoute and other young talents helped forge a new Barbadian sound that would become known as spouge.

Part one of the serial documentary, The Opel Effect: The Soul of Spouge, takes us back to the Bridgetown waterfront, where a skinny “wharf boy” with a fearless dive and a grown-up voice is about to change Barbadian music. We follow Dalton Sinclair Bishop from Chapman Lane to the bright lights of Showtime ’65 , through the memories of those who saw Jackie Opel rise from the harbour to become a head...

We go on the road with one of Barbados’ most beloved bands: The Troubadours. In “On Tour with the Troubadours – The Geoffrey Jones Journey”, presenter Shayla Murrell sits down with guitarist Geoffrey Jones to trace his path from a little boy playing under a mahogany tree in Christ Church, to lead guitarist with The Troubadours, and finally to veteran musician looking back from a life in Britain. A...

In this special episode, from in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters, Barbados’ Poet Laureate Esther Phillips lends her voice to the 2026 International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Against the backdrop of this year’s theme, “Justice in Action: Confronting History, Advancing Dignity, Empowering Futures”, Phillips delivers two p...

Based on the epic documentary that premiered on 9 March – the 56th anniversary of Jackie Opel’s tragic death at the age of 32 – The Opel Effect: The Soul of Spouge is a nine-part documentary podcast series that traces the life, music and legacy of Dalton “Jackie Opel” Bishop. Born in Chapman Lane in Bridgetown and inspired by American soul star Jackie Wilson, Opel rose from “wharf boy” diving for...