Alexandra Harris tells the story of how the weather has written and painted itself into the cultural life of Britain. An island at sea - the storms of King Lear and Turner and others.

Any storm has its drama.

The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, like his contemporary Turner, knew the particular exhilaration of them. Blowing in from the Bristol Channel, the gales are funnelled into the bowl of heathland known as the Valley of the Rocks, where they beat around furiously, trying to get free.

Coleridge wanted to be in the midst of this great weather theatre, opening himself to its energy, feeling its effects on his skin, his nerves, his imagination.

Music by Jon Nicholls.

Producer: Tim Dee

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2016. Show less