April 15, 2007

Just Laughing My Head Off

One of Britain's best-known writers has been nominated for the National Short Story Prize for a story inspired by watching videos of hostages being murdered by their Islamic captors.

Hanif Kureishi, the author of "My Beautiful Laundrette" and "The Buddha of Suburbia" said watching the videos made him wonder about the man behind the camera:

“The idea started with a joke,” said Kureishi, 52. “I thought, what if you were a cameraman, having to do these kind of jobs and you had a business card that said ‘Weddings and Beheadings’? I thought it was hilarious and told my children about it, but they just stared at me blankly.”

He added: “Seeing the footage, I started to think what about that wobbly camera — what is the story of that bloke trembling behind the camera? You’re only going to get one take, you know, would be the line.”

Kureishi said he saw the person doing the filming not as a terrorist but as an innocent roped in for his ability to use a video camera, “like any young guy, living in Camden wanting to make movies, except that he happens to be in Baghdad”.

The BBC is scheduled to broadcast the story this week on the radio; although one BBC executive voiced concern over the timing which coincides with the reported murder of Alan Johnston, a long-time BBC correpsondent kidnapped in Gaza more than a month ago.

Maybe the terrorists can start adding a laugh track to their beheading videos.

UPDATE: Radio 4 story delayed for BBC man

The BBC has postponed the broadcast of a story about western hostages being executed in Iraq as concern grows for missing BBC journalist Alan Johnston.

Weddings and Beheadings was due to be broadcast on Radio 4 this Thursday.

But it was pulled from schedules after Palestinian militants claimed to have killed Mr Johnston, who was abducted at gunpoint in Gaza City on 12 March.

The author, Hanif Kureishi, criticised the decision as censorship, saying: "It all seems rather arbitrary".