Tahra Zafar, costume and effects designer

·51 min·4 clips

Tara Zafar describes the overwhelming feeling of releasing Paddington Bear to the public after years of private development.

Lauren Laverne opens quietly, placing Tara Zafar in a world of costumes, creatures, sets and stagecraft. The list is almost funny in its range: Harry Potter's Pets, In the Night Garden, the London 2012 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour and Paddington. But the conversation does not stay at spectacle. It moves back to an art room, still lifes, old boots, and the encouragement that helped Tara take her own work seriously. A little regret slips in too. She says she is sad he is no longer alive, and wishes she had found the moment to thank him. Then Terry Gilliam's Brazil changes the mood. For Tara, it is art school, hotels, somewhere in the world, a pianist who knows the tune and plays it their own way. She especially loves the whistling. That small sound leads to her father, and the memory lands more tenderly than any career headline could. Lauren gives it space, then brings the story back to work: theatre design, a degree show, pub theatre, painted sets, made costumes, and Stephanie Howard noticing someone who could turn her hand to what was needed. The episode keeps returning to that. The big, magical-looking things came from ordinary practice: classrooms, family habits, small theatres, and making. The archive returns at the end, with Douglas Adams, BBC Sounds, the production team and the next guest named before Radio 4 carries on.

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