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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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Words and Music

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Music: Classical

A journey of discovery, weaving music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

A weekly journey of discovery, weaving together a range of music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

Words and Music: The Parish Priest

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

The Parish Priest

16/10/2011

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Music and readings on the life of the parish priest, with Celia Imrie and Michael Kitchen.

Texts and music about the life of the parish priest, with readings by Celia Imrie and Michael Kitchen. Includes Trollope, Donne and Chaucer, Wagner, Bach, William Harris and Elgar.

Music, poetry and prose about the day to day life of the parish priest, with actors Celia Imrie and Michael Kitchen. Priests appear in major and minor roles in literature from Biblical times to the present day and frequently play a pivotal or catalyst part in the dramatic plot twists. Think of Mr Collins in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, or Obadiah Slope in Trollope's Barchester novels. Many priests have themselves been poets, such as R.S. Thomas and John Donne, whose work is featured along with the view points of long suffering vicars' wives, often the power behind the parish throne. Priests are often portrayed in novels and poetry as distinctive characters who are either malevolent, self absorbed, objects of desire or saintly. Rarely are they ordinary, frequently they are comical. Music surrounds the life of the church and the programme features works by Handel, J.S. Bach, William Harris, James MacMillan and Saint-Saens , and includes poetry and prose by, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, John Pritchard (Bishop of Oxford) and Thomas Hardy.
Producer Helen Garrison.

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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