Words and Music Episodes Episode guide
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Butterflies and Moths
Readings from Nabokov, Sebald, Tagore, Poppy Adams, David Henry Hwang and Emily Dickinson.
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Electricity
Frankenstein, lightning, the national grid, Bob Dylan, electronic orchestral instruments.
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Birmingham
With the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, hear literature and music linked to the city.
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Courtroom Drama
Readings from Kafka, Cyril Hare, Dorothy L Sayers, Carol Ann Duffy in this legal episode.
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The Ledbury Poets
Prose and verse from Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds inspired by Ledbury Poetry Festival
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Keep Calm and Carry On
From disastrous concert performances to shark attacks: how do we cope with challenges?
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Cats
Felines in works by Chaucer, Aaron Copland, Stevie Smith, SF Said, Ravel and Hauschka.
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Swimming
From deep ocean fish to Hampstead ponds and EM Forster's pool party in Room with a View.
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May Day
Robert Glenister and Norah Lopez Holden are the readers in a celebration of May customs.
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April
The cruellest month, when sweet showers fall, or the time to be in England?
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Movies
Robert Powell and Amanda Donohoe with readings celebrating cinema set alongside music.
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Vikings
The seafaring Norse warriors and their gods and mythology.
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Sisters
Dorothy Wordsworth, Fanny Mendelssohn, Hildegard of Bingen, the Labeques and Unthanks.
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Sand and Deserts
Seroca Davis and Tommy Sim'aan with readings from Robyn Davidson to Alex Garland.
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Two
Famous couples and pairs, present in nature and in cultures, inspired by the number two.
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Modernism in the 1920s
Lisa Dwan and Anthony Howell with readings from the age of Joyce, Eliot and jazz.
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惭辞濒颈猫谤别
With speeches about hypochondria miserliness and self deception from the French playwright
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Seven Ages of Christmas
Robert Webb and Nina Sosanya present a mix of festive music, poetry and prose.
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Madame Bovary and independent women
Emma Fielding and Alex Jennings read from Flaubert's novel about a frustrated wife.
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Dungeons and Dragons
From George and the Dragon to Puff the Magic Dragon to dungeons in The Pilgrim's Progress.
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Twilight
With music by Bernard Herrman, Frank Bridge, Simon Holt and Sally Beamish.
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Mushrooms
With extracts written by John Cage, Merlin Sheldrake, Margaret Atwood and Emily Dickinson.
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Keats
The Romantic poet's writings on beauty, the seasons, his own health woven with music.
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Actors Martins Imhangbe and Ruth Bradley at Contains Strong Language in Coventry.
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Translation
From the idea of the interpreter and language differences to translating emotions in music
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Light and Shade
Today's theme is prompted by contrasts in the work of Renaissance artist Caravaggio.
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Dante
Visions of heaven and hell from the writings of Dante, set alongside musical evocations.
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Red
The red-headed Tom Goodman-Hill and Bettrys Jones bring us red shoes, paint, love, death.
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The Dance
From Bharatanatyam to ballroom, tango and tap to the tarantella.
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Walter Scott
From gothic novels and history to music by Rossini, Thea Musgrave, Schubert and Berlioz.
