The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed

Shortened

BBC Radio 4 LW

Podcasts

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage talks to guests about life, language and music in his shed.

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is a former probation officer, DJ and poet celebrated for his witty and profound take on modern life. He writes in the shed in his garden, and in this podcast he invites guests to join him to talk about poetry, creativity, music, art, sheds, sherry and the countryside.

BBC Radio 4 FM

The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed: Testament

Testament

BBC Radio 4 - The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed, TestamentClose menu

Hip-hop artist Testament visits Simon Armitage in his shed and teaches him to beatbox.

Hip-hop artist Testament visits Simon Armitage in his shed and teaches him to beatbox, along with discussing West Yorkshire, play-writing and being in a band.

If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink, waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement. From his wooden shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills and the Pennine weather, he scratches away at his reworking of the comic medieval poem The Owl and the Nightingale, which could be described as a medieval Rap battle between two birds. That's just what hip-hop artist Testament describes the poem as when he drops by to distract Simon and to throw light on some of the poem's internal themes. 

In The Poet Laureate has gone to his Shed, their conversation ranges from the Guinness Book of Records to spiritual faith and from West Yorkshire to New York. The shed soon becomes a classroom as Testament teaches Simon to beatbox and in return, Simon shows him how to imitate the call of a kookaburra.

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

The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed

Testament

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4