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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

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: The Meaning of Trees: Series 2

The Essay: The Meaning of Trees: Series 2: Part 3: The Meaning of Trees: Apple

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The Meaning of Trees

Part 3 Part 3: The Meaning of Trees: Apple

The Meaning of Trees: Apple

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The Meaning of Trees, Series 2, The Meaning of Trees: AppleClose menu

Fiona Stafford discusses the apple tree, which has been loved and hated for centuries.

Professor Fiona Stafford discusses the apple, a tree that has been loved, hated and viewed with suspicion for centuries.

Essay Three: Apple

The second series written and presented by Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College Oxford, exploring the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises of five trees common in the UK.

The Apple, which seems the most British of trees, cultivated in orchards nationwide, but actually originates in Kazakhstan. There are in the region of 7,500 cultivars of the Apple, and the apple seems to go back to the very beginnings of the human race - it's there in the story of Adam and Eve, as well as being important in Ancient Greek and Old Norse mythology. But the apple-tree that features in so many Renaissance paintings of the Garden of Eden is actually a descendant of the wild apple - or crab apple which is the only truly British apple.

Producer, Turan Ali
A Bona Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 3.

The Essay: The Meaning of Trees

Series 2

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.

Fiona Stafford explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises of trees

Professor Fiona Stafford of Oxford University explores the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises about different trees, as well as our ambiguous relationship with them.

Professor Fiona Stafford of Oxford University continues to explore the symbolism, importance, topicality and surprises about different trees, as well as our ambiguous relationship with them.

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The Essay

The Meaning of Trees

Series 2

Part 3: The Meaning of Trees: Apple

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