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Radio Heaney

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

12/01/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Radio Heaney

A compilation of some of Seamus Heaney's notable contributions to radio.

As broadcaster, contributor and interviewee, Seamus Heaney was a lyrical, engaging voice on radio. John Toal presents a compilation of highlights.

In his acceptance speech as newly anointed Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney recalled how vital a role the wireless had played in his early life growing up on a farm in Mossbawn Co. Derry. On the radio, he heard dispatches from the front line during the Second World War, was gripped by Dick Barton Special Agent and revelled in the musicality of the Shipping Forecast. As an up and coming published poet, Heaney wrote and presented many programmes for schools in Northern Ireland, exploring and celebrating fellow writers and the local landscape. He also made for a compelling contributor and interviewee to any discussion on the purpose of poetry and was ultimately crowned with the medium's greatest accolade, an invitation to Radio 4's Desert Island. This programme compiles many of Heaney's greatest radio moments.

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