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Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Actors Martins Imhangbe and Ruth Bradley take us on a journey of discovery on all sorts of transport inspired by, and recorded in, Britain's 'Motor City' - Coventry.

With live music from Warwickshire harmonica virtuoso Will Pound and guitarist Jenn Butterworth, and from singer Amy Kakoura and violinist Simon Chalk with the Coventry composer and co-director of Talking Birds, Derek Nisbet.

Martins Imhangbe (Bridgerton) and Ruth Bradley (Humans) take us on a journey of discovery on various types of transport inspired by Britain's 'Motor City' - Coventry. In 1896 Henry Lawson had founded the Daimler Motor Company and built The Motor Mills – the factory which would give birth to the first British car. Companies including Jaguar, Chrysler, Rover and Humber then located in the Coventry area, leading the city to become the target of the Luftwaffe in the second world war.

We’re on Planes, with the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Frank Whittle - the Coventry-born inventor of the jet engine. We’re on Trains, with Duke Ellington, Wilfred Owen, and Anna Karenina. And we’re in Automobiles, with Jay Gatsby, Rachel Cusk, and Toad of Toad Hall.

We’re going underground with Seamus Heaney, we’re flying inside our own bodies with Margaret Atwood, and we’re floating in space with the cosmonaut Karpov.

Recorded at the Contains Strong Language poetry and spoken word festival at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Other Radio 3 recordings from the festival include episodes of The Verb, The Essay, a Sunday Feature exploring the rebuilding of postwar Coventry and a Free Thinking discussion about the Tudors and historical literature from Walter Scott to Philippa Gregory.

A new Contains Strong Language Festival takes place in Birmingham, across the weekend of September 8th - 11th 2022 when more Radio 3 programmes will be broadcast live and recorded.

Producer: Ruth Thomson

Image: Coventry Transport Museum
Image Credit: Garry Jones

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 21 Aug 2022 17:30
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • Greg Grandin

    Fordlandia, read by Martins Imhangbe

  • 00:01

    Stephen Flaherty

    Henry Ford (from Ragtime)

    Lyricist: Lynn Ahrens.
    • RCA Victor – 09026-68629-2.
    • 6.

  • Kenneth Grahame

    The Wind in the Willows, read by Ruth Bradley

  • 00:05

    Will Pound

    The Reckoning/Barrowburn/Clinch Mountain

  • 00:10

    Amy Kakoura

    Scir Burna

  • Sophie Hannah

    One Track Mind, read by Ruth Bradley

  • 00:16

    Gordon Langford

    3 Haworth impressions for brass band: no.3; The Worth Valley Railway

    Performer: Black Dyke Band.
    • Chandos CHAN4520.
    • 6.

  • Wilfred Owen

    The Send-off, read by Martins Imhangbe

  • 00:20

    Steve Reich

    Different Trains III 'After the War'

    Performer: Kronos Quartet.
    • Elektra Nonesuch 7559791762.
    • 3.

  • Cliff Yates

    Sky Blues Bus Part 1, read by Martins Imhangbe

  • 00:27

    Jimmy Hill/John Camkin

    Sky Blues Song

    Performer: Steve Taylor/Coventry FC Cup Final Squad.
    • Cherry Red Records.
    • 1.

  • Cliff Yates

    Sky Blues Bus Part 2, read by Ruth Bradley

  • 00:29

    Amy Kakoura

    Grandma's Song

  • Cliff Yates

    Sky Blues Bus Part 3, read by Martins Imhangbe

  • 00:33

    Will Pound

    My Darling Asleep/Jimmy Wards/Stensons No 2

  • 00:38

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Symphony No 1 in G minor 'Winter Daydreams' (3rd mvt, scherzo)

    Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski.
    • LPO 0039.
    • 3.

  • Leo Tolstoy

    Anna Karenina, read by Ruth Bradley

  • Seamus Heaney

    District and Circle, read by Martins Imhangbe

  • 00:50

    Derek Nisbet

    Karpov's Theme

    Performer: Amy Kakoura (harmonium), Simon Chalk (violin), Derek Nisbet (digital piano).

  • Margaret Atwood

    Flying Inside Your Own Body, read by Ruth Bradley

  • 00:53

    Amy Kakoura

    I Dream of Flying

  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti

    History of the Airplane, read by Martins Imhangbe

  • 01:00

    Aaron Copland

    Fanfare for the Common Man

    Orchestra: Los Angeles Philharmonic. Conductor: Zubin Mehta.
    • Decca 473146-2.
    • 1.

  • F Scott Fitzgerald

    The Great Gatsby, read by Martins Imhangbe

  • 01:04

    Billy Strayhorn

    Take the A Train

    Performer: Duke Ellington Orchestra.
    • BMG 09026 631302.
    • 18.

  • Rachel Cusk

    'Driving as a Metaphor' from Coventry, read by Ruth Bradley

  • 01:08

    Will Pound

    The Circular Reel/Castle Park

Broadcasts

  • Sun 3 Oct 2021 17:30
    ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 3
  • Sun 21 Aug 2022 17:30
    ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 3

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