Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Something Understood

Religion & Ethics

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry

BBC Radio 4 FM

Something Understood: When Soft Voices Die

Walking in Ireland and Spain - Philippines

15/03/2015

When Soft Voices Die

BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, When Soft Voices Die

John McCarthy explores the way people's senses can summon memories and emotions.

John McCarthy explores the way smells, tastes and sounds can transport people to their past and summon the feelings they had back then.

When Soft Voices Die: John McCarthy explores the way smells, tastes and sounds can transport us to our pasts and summon the feelings we had back then.

The most famous example of this is Marcel Proust's tasting of a teaspoon of tea and cake crumbs which causes a shudder of pleasure and an involuntary memory of childhood setting him off on a seven volume search of times past.

In this programme, John McCarthy reflects on how the experience of involuntary memory can bypass the intellect, surprise us with emotions and sensations we thought we had forgotten and unsettle our sense of self.

John remembers how a cool, damp passageway plunged him back into the past, discusses the power of scent with the perfume archivist of Les Senteurs, James Craven, and hears from Justin Champion, a historian, about the music and memories he finds inside and MRI scanner.

There are poems by Helen Dunmore, Edward Thomas and Seamus Heaney, music by Schubert and Lou Read and songs sung by Eartha Kitt and Bryan Ferry.

The readers are Emily Taaffe, Matthew Addis and Seamus Heaney.

Producer: Natalie Steed
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Something Understood

When Soft Voices Die

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4