Words and Music

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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: Dickens's World

Dickens's World

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Sam West reads the letters of Charles Dickens, marking the 150th anniversary of his death

Sam West with the personal letters of Charles Dickens, who died in 1870, to friends, family and other literary greats, including Mrs Gaskell and Wilkie Collins set to music. 

Charles Dickens: tireless novelist, journalist, amateur theatricalist, traveller, socialiser, and liver of life. To mark the 150th anniversary in 2020 of the death of this literary titan, actor Sam West reads from the letters Dickens sent to correspondents including other greats of the time like Mrs Gaskell and Wilkie Collins; close friends such as actor William Macready and artist Daniel Maclise; and his wife and children at home as he travelled extensively giving public readings to his thousands of adoring fans. 

Including observations of his first trip to America at the height of slavery in 1842, reflections on the incumbent British government and the prevailing class system, his traumatic account of the 1865 Staplehurst Rail Crash, guidance for his youngest son on departing for Australia, and the story of hunting a ghost with a shot gun, which turned out to be a sheep.

With music by Haydn, Beethoven, Kathryn Tickell, The Divine Comedy, and Michael Nyman.

Producer: Ruth Thomson 

On the Free Thinking programme website you can find an episode with Matthew Sweet discussing the writing of Dickens with novelist Linda Grant, New Generation Thinker Laurence Scott and Lucy Whitehead from Cardiff University:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jt6c

Readings: 
A Tale of Two Cities
Furnival's Inn, Wednesday Evening, 1835. To Miss Hogarth (future Mrs Charles Dickens)
Greta Bridge, February 1st, 1838. To Mrs Charles Dickens
Baltimore, March 22nd, 1842. To Mr W C Macready
Villa Di Bagnarello, Albaro, July 22nd, 1844. To Mr Daniel Maclise
Devonshire Terrace, January 31st, 1850. To Mrs Gaskell
Tavistock House, January 3rd, 1855. To Monsieur de Cerjat
Folkestone, Oct. 4th, 1855. To Mr W C Macready
Gad's Hill Place, Rochester, Kent, Oct. 15th, 1859. To Monsieur Regnier
Tavistock House, May 3rd, 1860. To Monsieur de Cerjat
Office of "All the Year Round," Oct. 24th, 1860. To Mr Wilkie Collins
Gad's Hill Place, Tuesday Night, Oct. 14th, 1862. To Mr Wilkie Collins
57 Gloucester Place, Hyde Park, Feb. 23rd, 1864. To Mr Marcus Stone
Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent, June 13th, 1865. To Mr Thomas Mitton
1868, to Mr. Edward Dickens (his youngest son) on his departure for Australia
Anon - Announcement of the Death of Mr Charles Dickens, Manchester Guardian, Friday 10th June 1870

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