Alexandra Harris tells the story of how the weather has written and painted itself into the cultural life of Britain.

The Sun: a rare treat?

"I kept a kind of weather diary during a hot spell last summer - the warm, basic ingredients from which summer days are made. There's the waking up already hot with a single sheet in a crumpled mess, and why does the traffic sound louder – oh yes, because the window's open behind the curtain. Best keep the curtains closed all day. So the house stays dark, and there's a white-green flash when you come back into it from brightness, before the eyes have adapted, as well as the swooning doziness of sitting at a desk again after half an hour in the sun. There's all the action in the street outside, people going to the park, hot children pulling scooters, hotter children crying, music from open car windows, wasps in the kitchen, a cloud of heat hovering half way up the stairs. In the evening the scent of lilac pools in the stillness; you can walk into it like a room."

Music by Jon Nicholls.

Producer: Tim Dee

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016. Show less