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Conversations on a Bench

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Anna Scott-Brown hears stories from the people who stop to sit beside her on benches.

Anna Scott-Brown hears stories from the people who stop to sit beside her on benches around the country.

Conversations on a Bench: Series 1

Conversations on a Bench: Series 1: Mumbles - Owen Sheers

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Factual

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

16/10/2016

Mumbles - Owen Sheers

Series 1

BBC Radio 4 - Conversations on a Bench, Series 1, Mumbles - Owen Sheers

Owen Sheers' poem reflects tales told to Anna Scott-Brown on a bench facing Swansea Bay.

A specially commissioned poem by Owen Sheers intertwines stories told to Anna Scott-Brown on a bench in Mumbles overlooking Swansea Bay and the threatened Tata Steelworks.

Anna Scott-Brown hears more stories from the people who stop to sit beside her on benches around the country. In this edition she is joined in Mumbles, on a bench overlooking Swansea Bay, by locals, holidaymakers and the family of the person to whom the bench is dedicated. 

Throughout the programme, a specially commissioned work by poet Owen Sheers draws on the voices and stories of those who sit and contemplate the inscription, "Born to be Wild - Dinks Nash -Loved Forever."

The views from the bench of the Gower Peninsula and the threatened Tata Steelworks evoke stories of migration and community, of division and cohesion, and of grief for what has gone we well as celebration for what lives on.

Hidden lives are revealed and common threads recur as Anna Scott-Brown's gentle - but insistent and sometimes extremely direct - questions elicit poignant and profound responses from those sitting on the bench.

Presenter: Anna Scott-Brown
Producer: Adam Fowler
An Overtone production for 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.

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Conversations on a Bench

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Mumbles - Owen Sheers

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