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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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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

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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: Anglo-Saxon Portraits

The Essay: Anglo-Saxon Portraits: Episode 23: The Smith - Gold and Black

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Anglo-Saxon Portraits

Episode 23

Episode 23: The Smith - Gold and Black

The Smith - Gold and Black

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Lesley Webster on the life of the smith and his ambivalent status in Anglo-Saxon society.

Lesley Webster vividly recreates the life of the smith and his ambivalent status in Anglo-Saxon society.

The return of the major series which rediscovers the Anglo-Saxons through vivid portraits of thirty individuals - women as well as men, famous we well as humble - written and presented by leading historians, archaeologists and enthusiasts in the field.

23. The Smith - Gold- and Black-. 


Starting at the lonely grave of an anonymous smith buried in 7th century rural Lincolnshire, Lesley Webster vividly recreates the life of the smith and his ambivalent status in Anglo-Saxon society.

Drawing on archaeology and written sources such as Beowulf and Aelfric's Colloquy, she reflects on the practical role of the blacksmith in making everyday tools and weapons, and the legendary celebrity of a handful of goldsmiths, who created magnificent works of art such as the Alfred Jewel, which can still be seen in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford today. 

Producer Beaty Rubens.

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.

Portraits of ground-breaking Anglo-Saxon men and women from the era between 550 and 1066AD

Series of portraits of ground-breaking Anglo-Saxon men and women from the era between 550 and 1066AD

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Episode 23: The Smith - Gold and Black

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