Samuel Beckett's Last Tapes, BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4, listen


"Robert McCrum explores the elusive Samuel Beckett’s astonishing literary career through rare audio tape recordings from the Samuel Beckett Research Centre at the University of Reading...Many of the tapes are interviews recorded by Beckett's friend, the scholar James Knowlson, while he was researching an official biography. The interviews they contain reveal fascinating insights into the way Samuel Beckett worked closely and collaboratively with his actors and friends - including Sian Phillips, Paul Daneman, Billie Whitelaw and Harold Pinter - and the respect they showed for him in return. Taking Krapp's Last Tape as inspiration for this programme, Robert tells the story of the Samuel Beckett archive at Reading and invites surviving collaborators, friends and those who have found inspiration in Beckett's work - including Tom Stoppard, Edna O'Brian, Sian Phillips, Lisa Dwan, Lady Antonia Fraser and James Knowlson - to listen to extracts from the tapes and reflect on his unique method and the expression of his genius. Robert aims to gain new insight into the mind of one of the 20th century's literary giants, while bringing out the poignancy and nostalgia involved in revisiting memories and life-events through the tapes".

Produced by Melissa FitzGerald, a Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.

Recalling the BBC Radio Ballads

"Like Blackpool Went Through Rock", BBC Radio 

"Sean Street recalls the Radio Ballads, a series which heralded a completely new form of radio feature making which began in 1958. Mixing original voices and sounds with specially composed music, producer Charles Parker and folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger eloquently documented the lives of people who, up to that point, had rarely been heard on the BBC. Charles's daughter Sara recounts how the series began and its continuing influence on programme makers and listeners".

John Betjeman, Summoned by Bells (BBC Film, 1976)

Watch on BBC iPlayer

Related:

A Betjeman tribute lecture I gave in Thessaloniki and Athens in 1984.

Peterloo, Modern Responses to the Massacre

BBC Radio 4 - A Poet Laureate's Peterloo

"Poetry and song specially commissioned to commemorate The Peterloo Massacre - curated by the outgoing Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and presented by Ian McMillan.

The Peterloo Massacre was the name given to a peaceful pro-democracy rally which took place on August 16th 1819, made up of around fifty thousand men, women and ‎children, who were attacked by an armed cavalry; eighteen people were killed, and hundreds injured. The ‎massacre inspired art and poetry at the time, including ‘The Masque of Anarchy’ by Percy Bysshe ‎Shelley. The aspirations of the protesters and the shock of their violent repression still resonate with writers and artists today.

Ian McMillan welcomes poets Carol Ann Duffy, Clare Shaw, Mark Pajak and singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams to perform their new commissions in front of an audience at Friends' Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester (the wall on the southern side of the building is only piece of infrastructure that would have been at the site of the massacre, and is mentioned in witness accounts). He is also joined by Professor Robert ‎Poole - author of a new study of Peterloo: 'Peterloo: The English Uprising'."

Presented by Ian McMillan
Produced by Faith Lawrence

West Country Dreaming: Words and Music (BBC Radio 3); England, West Country

West Country Dreaming, Words and Music, BBC Radio 3, Listen
Sarah Parish and John Nettles celebrate the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

'And citizens dream of the south and west' writes Hardy in his much-loved poem 'Weathers', and who indeed can resist the lure of the westerning sky? West-country memories and images in this week's programme range from family holidays to romantic medieval legend, and from the warmth of Betjeman's Dawlish to the unfriendly air of Hardy's Egdon Heath. Water is always near, whether beating the Cornish cliffs, flushing the boat of Brutus, son of Aeneas, up the River Dart (local legend says he came that way to found Britain), or flooding the fields of Glastonbury. And the West Country's own local talents are celebrated in poems by Charles Causley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the music of The Fishermen's Friends (Cornwall), The Yetties (Dorset), and Bristol bands Spiro and Portishead.

Producer: Lindsay Kemp

Corfu, Greece: Water Supply Problems (Not Just the Garbage)

From Corfu TV News, Dionysis Mamalos

https://corfutvnews.gr/tha-syzitisoume-sovara-kai-gia-tin-ydrefsi-den-einai-ta-skoupidia-to-monadiko-mas-provlima-grafei-o-dionysis-mamalos/

"23 days without water in Kavos, almost 1 month without water in Aghioi Deka, 15 days without water in Nisaki, so many other days without water in Barbati, 10 days in Petalia, one week in Perithia, 10 days in Loutses, and there is a long list of areas that have suffered from disruptions in water supply and a problematic water supply this year" (Google Translate).

«Θα συζητήσουμε σοβαρά και για την ύδρευση; Δεν είναι τα σκουπίδια το μοναδικό μας πρόβλημα», γράφει ο Διονύσης Μάμαλο:.

23 ημέρες χωρίς νερό στον Κάβο, σχεδόν 1 μήνα χωρίς νερό στους Άγιους Δέκα, 15 ημέρες χωρίς νερό στο Νησάκι, άλλες τόσες περίπου μέρες χωρίς νερό στο Μπαρμπάτι, 10 μέρες στην Πετάλια, μια εβδομάδα στην Περίθεια, 10 ημέρες στις Λούτσες και είναι μακρύς ο κατάλογος των περιοχών που και φέτος ταλαιπωρήθηκαν από τις διακοπές στην υδροδότηση και την προβληματική ύδρευση.