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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

Radio 3

Twenty Minutes

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Eclectic arts magazine programme, exploring a range of fascinating subjects

Eclectic arts magazine programme, exploring a range of fascinating people, places and events

Twenty Minutes: The Barley Bird

The Barley Bird

05/09/2010

BBC Radio 3 - Twenty Minutes, The Barley Bird

Richard Mabey reflects on a bird that has inspired poets and musicians - the nightingale.

Celebrated nature writer Richard Mabey on how the nightingale has inspired poets and composers across the years and led to a unique set of early broadcasts.

In Suffolk they call the Nightingale, the Barley Bird, as its arrival coincides with the sprouting of the barley. The acclaimed nature writer, Richard Mabey, a longtime devotee of the bird, reads extracts from his new book, 'The Barley Bird', and muses on how this mysterious and elusive bird has inspired poets and musicians across the centuries. He recalls too, the famous series of annual outside broadcasts made by the cellist Beatrice Harrison and her accompanist - a nightingale in her garden. 
The abridger is Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.

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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