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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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BBC Proms

Music: Classical

2024

The world's greatest classical music festival - stunning performances and collaborations.

The world's greatest classical music festival. Stunning performances, unique collaborations and the sheer joy of live music. Relive 2023's highlights before the new season begins.

BBC Proms: 2009: Proms Plus

BBC Proms: 2009: Proms Plus: Proms Literary Festival - Samuel Johnson

Proms Literary Festival - Samuel Johnson

12/08/2009

2009

BBC Radio 3 - BBC Proms, 2009, Proms Plus, Proms Literary Festival - Samuel Johnson

Ian McMillan and Lynda Mugglestone explore the myth and reality of Samuel Johnson.

Ian McMillan is joined by Lynda Mugglestone of Oxford University and writer Matthew Parris to explore the myth and reality of Samuel Johnson, and his hold on the English language.

In a programme recorded in front of a Proms audience, Ian McMillan is joined by Lynda Mugglestone of Pembroke College, Oxford, and journalist Matthew Parris to explore the myth and reality of Dr Samuel Johnson, and his continuing hold on the English language.

Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, held centre stage in defining and describing the English language for at least 150 years until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary. Personally unimposing - he was blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and suffered from an assortment of physical tics which may have been Tourettes - Johnson rose from a modest background as the son of a bookseller in Uttoxeter to become one of the most quoted men of English letters.

His idiosyncratic dictionary is laden with his own personality, and he refers to words like lunch as 'as much food as one's hands can hold' and lexicographer as 'a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words'.

BBC Proms: 2009

Proms Plus

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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Selected coverage from the classical concerts of the Proms' 115th season.

Series of events providing a context to the 2009 Proms season's music and artists

Series of events providing a fascinating context to the 2009 Proms season's music and artists

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