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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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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: West Country Dreaming

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West Country Dreaming

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Sarah Parish and John Nettles with westward-looking readings by Betjeman, Hardy and others

Sarah Parish and John Nettles celebrate Cornwall, Devon and Dorset in readings from Betjeman, Hardy and Charles Causley, and music ranging from Bax and Holst to Portishead.

Sarah Parish and John Nettles celebrate the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

'And citizens dream of the south and west' writes Hardy in his much-loved poem 'Weathers', and who indeed can resist the lure of the westerning sky? West-country memories and images in this week's programme range from family holidays to romantic medieval legend, and from the warmth of Betjeman's Dawlish to the unfriendly air of Hardy's Egdon Heath. Water is always near, whether beating the Cornish cliffs, flushing the boat of Brutus, son of Aeneas, up the River Dart (local legend says he came that way to found Britain), or flooding the fields of Glastonbury. And the West Country's own local talents are celebrated in poems by Charles Causley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the music of The Fishermen's Friends (Cornwall), The Yetties (Dorset), and Bristol bands Spiro and Portishead.

Producer: Lindsay Kemp

John Nettles is a Cornish actor who starred in the TV series Bergerac and Midsomer Murders, and more recently in Poldark as Ray Penvenen.
Sarah Parish was born in Yeovil, Somerset, and her most recent work has included W1A, Bancroft, and Series 3 of Broadchurch.

Readings:
Weathers (excerpt) - Thomas Hardy 
The Seasons - Charles Causley
Beeny Cliff - Thomas Hardy
Idylls of the King (excerpt) - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
In Search of England (excerpt) - H.V. Morton
Dart (excerpt) - Alice Oswald
The Return of the Native (excerpt) - Thomas Hardy
Dawlish - John Betjeman
Five on a Treasure Island (excerpt) - Enid Blyton 
Lines composed while climbing the left ascent of Brockley Coombe, May 1795 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge  
Grassing (excerpt) - Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Letter - Sylvia Plath
The Land’s End (excerpt) - W.H. Hudson 
Grave by the Sea - Charles Causley

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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