Swimming
Shaun Evans and Rebekah Murrell dip into the waters, reading from EM Forster, Bryon and Stevie Smith alongside music by Max Richter, Anna Calvi, Fanny Mendelssohn and Smetana.
Yeats brings us fish; Emily Dickinson mermaids:, Marriott Edgar Channel swimming; and Lewis Carroll a pool of tears. We visit the Ladies pond at Hampstead in a poem by Linda Gregerson and are transported to the East Coast of America in John Cheever's short story The Swimmer, brought alive by Marvin Hamlisch鈥檚 haunting score from the film version. But swimming can also bring perils and we look back to Stevie Smith鈥檚 Not Waving, but Drowning and observe ponds and lakes as places where bodies are on display in EM Forster's Room With a View and Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. Our music comes from composers including Max Richter, Fanny Mendelssohn, Bed艡ich Smetana and also from Marvin Hamlisch, Anna Calvi and REM. Our readers are Shaun Evans and Rebekah Murrell.
Producer: Belinda Naylor
You can find a Sunday Feature from Radio 3 in which Alice Roberts explored wild-swimming and the legacy of Waterlog by Roger Deakin still available on 蜜芽传媒 Sounds
and a Free Thinking episode featuring the poet Elizabeth Jane Burnett and writer Philip Hoare
Last on
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
-
![]()
00:01Max Richter
The Swimmer
Performer: Max Richter. -
Magi Gibson
Strange Fish, read by Shaun Evans
![]()
00:03Fanny Mendelssohn
Lieder ohne Worte Op.6 for piano: no.2
Performer: Irene Barbuceanu.WB Yeats
The Fish, read by Rebekah Murrell
EM Forster
A Room with a View, read by Shaun Evans
![]()
00:09Judith Bingham
The Drowned Lovers
Choir: Tenebrae. Conductor: Nigel Short.Stevie Smith
Not Waving but Drowning read by Shaun Evans
Linda Gregerson
With Emma at the Ladies-Only Swimming Pond on Hampstead Heath, read by Rebekah Murrell
![]()
00:17R.E.M.
Nightswimming
Seamus Heaney
Death of a Naturalist, read by Shaun Evans
![]()
00:23Gregor Joseph Werner
L'Aprile (Excerpts): V. The Croaking of the Frogs. Prestissimo
Choir: Rheinisches Bach-Collegium.![]()
00:25Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade, Op. 35: I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship
Orchestra: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.Carl Phillips
Swimming, read by Rebekah Murrell
![]()
00:28Loudon Wainwright III
The Swimming Song
Marriott Edgar
The Channel Swimmer, read by Shaun Evans
Emily Dickinson
Started Early, Took My Dog, read by Rebekah Murrell
![]()
00:34Franz Liszt
Annees de pelerinage - 3me annee S.163: Les Jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este
Performer: H茅l猫ne Grimaud.- DG.
- Tr 11.
Robin Robinson
Swimming in the Woods, read by Shaun Evans
John Cheever
The Swimmer, read by Rebekah Murrell
![]()
00:39Marvin Hamlisch
The Swimmer
Lord Bryon
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, read by Shaun Evans
![]()
00:43Anna Calvi
Swimming Pool
Lewis Carroll
Alice In Wonderland, read by Rebekah Murrell
![]()
00:49Bedrich Smetana
The Moldau (Ma Vlast)
Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.![]()
00:58Nina Miranda
Underwater Love by Smoke City
WB Yeats
The Mermaid, read by Rebekah Murrell
![]()
00:58Smoke City
Underwater Love
- Ministry of Sound Recordings.
- Tr 44.
Alan Hollinghurst
The Line of Beauty read by Shaun Evans
![]()
01:03Phil Phillips & The Twilights
Sea of Love
Shelley
Prometheus Unbound, read by Rebekah Murrell
![]()
01:08Johann Strauss II
An der schonen, blauen Donau (The Beautiful Blue Danube), Waltz, Op. 314
Orchestra: Wiener Symphoniker.Broadcasts
- Sun 8 May 2022 17:30蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
- Sun 14 Jul 2024 18:00蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
The hidden history of plant-based diets
![The hidden history of plant-based diets]()
Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.
Books website
Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.
Related Content
