Tracks of My Life with Christopher Hunter

Tracks of My Life is a show on RNIB Connect Radio presented and produced by Toby Davey where he invites a guest to take us on a journey through their life, sharing the tracks that mark important moments which bring back memories to them.

Their chosen tracks of their life might include the first track they can remember hearing, the first track they bought, a number of tracks that mark moments in their life and the final track, a track that they would like to pass on which might give people hope for the future.

 In this trimmed down podcast version of Tracks of My Life Toby is joined by visually impaired Theatre Director, Writer and Actor Christopher Hunter.

In Christopher’s Tracks of My Life we will start with early life for Christopher growing up in India as his Farther went out there to work on a Tea Plantation and met his Mother in the 1950s.  Although Christopher was born in England and went to boarding school in England, he spent his childhood growing up in India with fond memories as a child of flying to and from England to India.  Christopher’s first language was Hindi as it was the policy among Planters at the time to teach their children Hindustani, although he would speak English at home to his parents.

Christopher will then talks about boarding school life in England and spending his pocket money on his first single which was by Cliff Richard and the Shadows.  Cliff Richard at the time was marketed as the British Elvis Presley and due to Cliff’s Indian heritage his records seemed to be the only ones you could buy out in India at the time. 

Then we will move to College life in Manchester for Christopher and his first steps treading the boards as an Actor.  With a track by the poet of those student years for Christopher and many others at the time  who could encompass the feelings of a generation in a song.

Christopher will then talk about his best friend Duncan Gibbins who he met while they were both at  the National Youth Theatre School who went to Hollywood to make films after winning many awards for pop videos in the early days of MTV.  Duncan tragically died in a wild fire that swept down Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles in the early 1990's.

Then we will come to some of his Theatre work including the recent production ‘States of Mind’ for Extant where Christopher took one of Shakespeare’s poems and turned it into a live performance with integrated audio description.

As Christopher says he is a child of the 60s and a lover of folk music and before we come to his final track, we have a folk track by a British artist who certainly puts a modern twist on to old folk songs. 

Christopher’s final track is one that demonstrates as a performer you can still be creative and leave a legacy even in those last few days of your life.

You can catch the hour-long version of Tracks of My Life with Toby’s guest’s music tracks in full by tuning in to RNIB Connect Radio every Tuesday at 7pm, repeated on Thursday at 1pm and Sunday at 8pm.