Poetry Extra

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Weekly opportunity for listeners to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A brand new poetry slot on Radio 4 Extra gives listeners a weekly opportunity to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

Poetry Extra: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - 1/2

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - 1/2

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - 1/2

Daljit Nagra selects the very best programmes from the BBC's poetry archive.

Poet Daljit Nagra selects TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Part One. Read by Jeremy Irons.

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive and selects part one of TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.   

On Christmas Day 1937, nearly two years before book publication, five of TS Eliot's Practical Cats poems were broadcast as readings by Geoffrey Tandy on BBC Radio. The Radio Times wrote:

 'For some time past Mr Eliot has been amusing and instructing the offspring of some of his friends in verse on the subject of cats. These poems are not the kind that have been usually associated with his name'.
 
Now one of our greatest actors, Oscar winning Jeremy Irons revisits the original five poems along with the further ten that make up the Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
 
You’ll hear much-loved familiar characters like Growltiger, Mungojerrie, Rumpleteaser, Old Deutoronomy, Mr Mistoffelees, Macavity Gus and Skimbleshanks. These notorious cats lurk in shadows, baffle Scotland Yard, dance by the light of the moon and who must not be woken. They’re found on trains, in the theatre, in the high street. They juggle, sleep, conjure, are curious and bore - but all show another side of one of our most important British poets.
 
TS Eliot's poems have been enjoyed by many in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats, but here we return to the poems without any music and celebrate the inventiveness in the original words. 
 
* The Naming of Cats
* Skimbleshanks The Railway Cat 
* Growltiger's Last Stand
* The Rum Tum Tugger
* The Song of the Jellicles
* Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer
* Old Deuteronomy
* Of the Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles
* Mr Mistoffelees
* Macavity: The Mystery Cat
 
Directed at BBC Salford by Susan Roberts 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2015.

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