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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 Light in the Darkness

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The Light in the Darkness

01/12/2011

BBC Radio 3 - Twenty Minutes, The Light in the Darkness

A contemplation of the 'endless days and nights' that affect northern Scandinavia.

A contemplation of the 'endless days and nights' that affect northern Scandinavia. In summer the sun barely sets, but winter brings three months of darkness.

In summer the sun barely sets, bringing long nights of partying and heavy drinking. But in Lapland, as winter closes in, the lights go on, not to be extinguished until the sun finally begins to rise again above the horizon nearly three months later. Some find the seemingly endless darkness forbidding, but others find it comforting, enjoying the way the starry blackness allows their minds to play over thoughts of the infinite... 

Programme makers Hannu Karisto from Finland and his Swiss colleague Jean-Claude Kuner were shortlisted last year in the prestigious Prix Italia for their contemplative documentary feature exploring the pleasures and profound pessimism that this ineluctable seasonal flux brings on. In this English language version of the programme first broadcast by Finnish radio, the programme makers travel to the far north of the country in both seasons to catch the spirit of those 'endless days and nights'.

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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