The Verb

Original version

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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

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.

Radio 4's cabaret of the word, featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance

The Verb: Repair

Repair

BBC Radio 4 - The Verb, Repair

With Mona Arshi, Chris McCabe, William Letford and Kate Fox.

Ian McMillan and guests Mona Arshi, Chris McCabe, William Letford and Kate Fox consider the language of repair.

This week on The Verb we're thinking about the language of repair. Ian McMillan and guests discuss poetry's ability to heal, putting literary puzzles back together again,  finding what was once lost, and the often impenetrable vocabularies of 'getting stuff fixed'.

Ian is joined by Chris McCabe, poet and National Poetry Librarian. During lockdown the Southbank Centre's National Poetry Library ran the 'lost quotes' service, reuniting remembered fragments of poems with the rest of the text. His latest book is 'Buried Garden', in which he searches for the lost poets of Stoke Newington's Abney Park Cemetery, hoping to revive their forgotten words.  Mona Arshi has just published 'Somebody Loves You', a poetic novel about a young girl who chooses silence as a protective mechanism when everything around her feels fragile. The poet William Letford used to be a roofer, and he's written a brand new poem especially for The Verb about returning to his old profession to help out family. And Kate Fox considers repair and the meaning of home.

Presenter: Ian McMillan
Producer: Jessica Treen

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Verb

Repair

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3