Original version

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 LW

BBC Radio 4 Extra

The I Love You Bridge

Documentaries

Factual

07/08/2011

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The I Love You Bridge

Penny Woolcock investigates who sprayed a marriage proposal on a Sheffield bridge.

Penny Woolcock investigates who sprayed a marriage proposal on a Sheffield bridge, creating a controversial landmark.

A quest for the original lovers of the 'I Love You Bridge' - a fabulously incongruous message painted on a footbridge on a hollowed-out housing estate in Sheffield. 

Presented by feature film maker, opera director and screenwriter, Penny Woolcock, in her first radio documentary.

Perhaps you quietly ask yourself "How do they live like this." / Then out of nowhere the answer / "I love you"/ scrawled on the highest bridge." (Rowan Blair Colver). Funny how graffiti can transform cement. How a simple love message scrawled on a bridge between two empty flanks of Brutalist flats can lift our hearts. That's what happened when somebody, somehow, leaned over the perilous edge of this narrow footbridge on Norwich Row at Park Hill flats, high above Sheffield's train station, and painted:

Clare Middleton I love you will u marry me

We call it The I Love You Bridge. It's visible for miles, from town. When we set off on this journey we don't know who wrote it or when, or even if it all went up at once. We don't know whether she said 'Yes' or what happened next. Nobody knows, not even the people who've worked on the Estate for years - caretaker, needle exchange worker, decorator, or the few (like writer, Rowan, above) who still live there; not even the local builders who are regenerating the first flank that the bridge links. 

In this programme we follow up all kinds of rumours in the hope of sourcing the graffiti and its lovers. 

Producer: Frances Byrnes
A Rockethouse Production for BBC Radio 4.

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The I Love You Bridge

Genres

Formats

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4