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New Generation Thinker Dr Islam Issa has a strong cultural attachment to the balcony. In his native Egypt, the place where architectural historians believe the balcony was first developed, the balcony is a pivotal part of family homes, a place that blurs the line between private and public living. He recalls it being a place that linked communities and allowed an external life without the risks of life in the open streets.

When he saw Italians singing from their balconies during the early weeks of the Covid pandemic he was reminded that they have many other roles in political, cultural and literary settings. With the help of Egyptian film-maker and photographer Alia Aidel and Shakespeare scholar Reverend Paul Edmondson, Islam explores the use of balconies from Romeo and Juliet to Buckingham Palace and reflects on his own upbringing in which he learned to look up and in to the family balcony and yet as he matured, realised he thought of it principally as a place to look out and down.

Producer: Tom Alban