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The Great Songbook

Episode 1: France

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

France's popular music legacy is vast and diverse. Cerys Matthews travels to Paris in search of some of the key classic songs that constitute the French songbook, and talks to a panel of guests including musicologist Catherine Rudent, writer and commentator Catherine Guilyardi and popular music journalist Bertrand Dicale. Whilst some French songs have been chart successes in the UK, and others have become jazz standards, Cerys uncovers a patrimony that ranges from the seductive to the salacious, but which is always delivered with wit and panache. And with some 3,000 French songs including 'Paris' in their titles, the city itself acts as muse as well as backdrop to many of France's greatest popular classics. Show less

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