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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

Free Thinking

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival: The Free Thinking Essay

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival: The Free Thinking Essay: Part 3: New Generation Thinkers: Women on Their Own - Widows in Britain, Now and Then

New Generation Thinkers: Women on Their Own - Widows in Britain, Now and Then

Part 3 Part 3: New Generation Thinkers: Women on Their Own - Widows in Britain, Now and Then

2015 Festival

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, 2015 Festival, The Free Thinking Essay, New Generation Thinkers: Women on Their Own - Widows in Britain, Now and Then

Nadine Muller on the hidden history of widows in Britain from the 19th century to today.

Nadine Muller uncovers the hidden history of widows in Britain from the 19th century to the present day, asking what has made them so melancholic and exceptional in British culture.

'Widows are exceptions to every rule', Charles Dickens tells us in his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, published in 1837. Eighty years later, in 1917, a tune called 'Widows are Wonderful' rings through the theatres and homes of a war-stricken Britain. 'Widow! That great, vacant estate!' writes poet Sylvia Plath after the Second World War as the country grieves in silence. 

Nadine Muller of Liverpool John Moores University uncovers the hidden history of widows in Britain from the 19th century to the present day and explores what has made them so tragically melancholic, exceptional, and wonderful in British culture.

The New Generation Thinkers are the winners of an annual scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics at the start of their careers who can turn their research into fascinating broadcasts.

The Essay was recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. If you want to hear Nadine discussing her research you can download the Essay and conversation as an Arts and Ideas podcast. 

Producer: Jacqueline Smith.

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival

The Free Thinking Essay

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.

Events from the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

Series of events from the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers give talks in front of an audience at Free Thinking 2015

Series in which Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers give talks in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead for the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

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Free Thinking

2015 Festival

The Free Thinking Essay

Part 3: New Generation Thinkers: Women on Their Own - Widows in Britain, Now and Then

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