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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

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The King Returned

The Essay: The King Returned: Episode 2

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Factual: History

Factual: Politics

The King Returned

Episode 2

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The King Returned, Episode 2Close menu

Jonathan Sawday explores the return of the King's 'healing touch'.

Jonathan Sawday explores how in Restoration Britain Charles II's return brought a resurrection of the king's bodily powers like his 'healing touch'.

Jonathan Sawday continues his exploration of Restoration Britain. In this essay, how Charles II's return brought a resurrection of the king's bodily powers like his healing "touch". Jonathan Sawday uses this event to tell the story of how the body returned to public life in so many forms - women on stage, sexualised poetry, the return of fashion, the first attempts at surgery - it symbolised a pushing aside of the Godly people who had ruled under Cromwell.
Producer: Hannah Godfrey and Matthew Dodd.

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.

Jonathan Sawday paints a picture of Restoration Britain, exploring politics and science

Jonathan Sawday paints a picture of Restoration Britain, exploring the politics, the science, the culture and the philosophy which made this an extraordinary period in the country's history

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