Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

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: In Praise of the Midlands

The Essay: In Praise of the Midlands: Episode 4: In Praise of Alan Sillitoe, 'Bard of Nottingham'

Factual: History

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

In Praise of the Midlands

Episode 4

Episode 4: In Praise of Alan Sillitoe, 'Bard of Nottingham'

In Praise of Alan Sillitoe, 'Bard of Nottingham'

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, In Praise of the Midlands, In Praise of Alan Sillitoe, 'Bard of Nottingham'Close menu

James Walker, chair of the Nottingham Writers' Studio, discusses writer Alan Sillitoe.

James Walker, chair of the Nottingham Writers' Studio, offers a eulogy to Nottingham writer Alan Sillitoe, author of the famous novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

We tend to think of England in terms of the binary opposition between the rebel North and establishment South, with the result that we often forget about the bit of the country sandwiched in between - the Midlands. This week five Essayists shed light on the distinctive history and culture of England's squeezed middle.

In this fourth programme, James Walker, Chair of the Nottingham Writers' Studio, offers a eulogy to the Bard of Nottingham, Alan Sillitoe, and his great fictional creation, Arthur Seaton, who famously declared 'Whatever you say I am, that's what I'm not'. The highly quotable hedonistic anti-hero of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is part of a long tradition of Nottinghamshire rebels and tough individualists, running from Robin Hood to the strike-defying Notts miners of the 1980s.

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.

Five writers explore the distinctive history and culture of the English Midland

Series in which five writers explore the distinctive history and culture of the English Midland

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

In Praise of the Midlands

Episode 4: In Praise of Alan Sillitoe, 'Bard of Nottingham'

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3