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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

Words and Music

Drama

Music: Classical

A journey of discovery, weaving music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

A weekly journey of discovery, weaving together a range of music with poetry and prose read by leading actors.

Words and Music: Windrush: Some Kind of Homecoming

Windrush: Some kind of homecoming

Windrush: Some Kind of Homecoming

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Lenny Henry and Josette Simon explore the experience of the Windrush generation.

Lenny Henry and Josette Simon explore the experience of the Windrush generation through its poetry and prose, set against music from calypso to classical.

Seven decades after the docking of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury, Lenny Henry and Josette Simon explore the experience and emotions of the Windrush generation through its poetry and prose, set against music from calypso to classical: Lord Kitchener to Ligeti, Beethoven to Bob Marley and gospel to Errollyn Wallen.

In Sam Selvon's 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners, the hungry Galahad furtively filches a park pigeon for his lunch; Grace Nichols' and Merle Collins' evocative poems express the heartache of long-delayed, never-achieved returns to Caribbean warmth; John Agard and Benjamin Zephaniah are angry and frustrated in the face of cultural appropriation and racism; Floella Benjamin's shock at the cold of her first British winter turns to delight with her first sight of snow. And woven through the programme are the dual threads of John Berry's Lucy who writes home with bewilderment and affection for her adopted home and, from the BBC Caribbean Service, advice to would-be West Indian migrants on what to expect and how to behave in the UK, from appropriate winter clothing to dealing with a dodgy village squire umpire at the local cricket club.

Readings: 
Archive from The Colony (1964 BBC TV documentary directed by Philip Donnellan) 
Going to Britain? Labour Exchange - A BBC Caribbean Service pamphlet
To Sir With Love - ER Braithwaite
Lucy’s Letter - James Berry 
Going to Britain? Climate - A BBC Caribbean Service pamphlet
Coming to England - Floella Benjamin
Like a Beacon - Grace Nichols 
The Lonely Londoners - Sam Selvon 
In Praise of Love and Children - Beryl Gilroy 
Going to Britain? Church - BBC Caribbean Service pamphlet
From Lucy - James Berry 
To Bo - Marsha Prescod 
Checking Out Me History - John Agard 
Colonisation in Reverse - Louise Bennett
Going to Britain? Cricket - BBC Caribbean Service pamphlet
Beyond a Boundary - CLR James 
From Lucy - James Berry 
The Race Industry - Benjamin Zephaniah 
Seduction - Merle Collins 
Two Old Black Men on a Leicester Square Park Bench - Grace Nichols 

Producer: David Papp

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.

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