Lemn Sissay's Origin Stories
Lemn Sissay provides a comic and poetic look at the treatment of children raised in care, orphans and foster children
- Genre
- Stand-Up
- Broadcast
- 2016
- Channel
- BBC Radio 4
- Episodes
- 4 (1 series)
- Starring
- Lemn Sissay, Geoffrey McGivern and Alison Belbin
- Writer
- Lemn Sissay
- Producer
- Ed Morrish
Following the success of Lemn Sissay's Homecoming, Lemn Sissay returns to BBC Radio 4 with Origin Stories, a comic and poetic look at the treatment of children raised in care, orphans and foster children in popular culture, comparing them with reality. Because it surely says something about how we view them that we create so many for fiction: Batman was an orphan; Lisbeth Salander, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was an orphan; Superman was an orphan and a foundling. Cinderella was a foster child. Darth Vader - well, they can't all be winners.
Lemn will explore the gap between fiction and reality, based on his own experiences of growing up in care as well as those of some special guests.
- Production company
- Laugh track
- Live audience
Broadcast details
- First broadcast
- Monday 3rd October 2016 on BBC Radio 4 at 11:30am
- Last new broadcast
- Monday 24th October 2016 on BBC Radio 4 at 11:30am
- Length of episodes
- 30 minutes
- Last repeat
- Wednesday 27th November 2019 at 10:30pm on Radio 4 Extra

Supporters and subscribers get more
Additional content and tools are available across the site for Supporters and BCG Pro subscribers. On this page you can:
- View location details
Already a donor or Pro user? Sign in