Words and Music

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

Drama

Music: Classical

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: Birmingham

Birmingham

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Birmingham

With the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, hear literature and music linked to the city.

Writers from Erasmus Darwin to Jonathan Coe and Clare Morrall on Birmingham - the industrial powerhouse and cultural centre. With music from the CBSO, Ex Cathedra and Laura Mvula.

Actors Helen George and Kevin McNally read works by writers from Erasmus Darwin to Clare Morrall, Jonathan Coe to Roy Fisher and Benjamin Zephaniah which explore Birmingham's history as the industrial powerhouse and cultural centre in a programme which marks the city hosting the Commonwealth Games. Readings pick out the number 62 bus route, Soho Road and the river running alongside the Soho works powering mills into motion, the Dudley Road and "the beat.. which makes this road complete", the "chocolate girls" who work at Bournville, and the day Queen Victoria came to visit and was greeted by 500,000 people. The music includes recordings by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Ex Cathedra and Laura Mvula.  

Readings -
Second City: Birmingham and the Forging of Modern Britain, by Richard Vinen
Astonishing Splashes of Colour, by Clare Morrall
Soho Road Then And Now, by Benjamin Zephaniah - read by the poet
Samuel Langford reviews Gustav Holst conducting five of his The Planets at Birmingham Town Hall, 1920
Moonlight and Gas, by Constance Naden
The Economy of Vegetation, by Erasmus Darwin
Chocolate Girls, by Annie Murray
Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes
Eve's Ransom, by George Gissing
Floozie, by Rachael Nicolas
Birmingham Roller, by Liz Berry - read by the poet
Birmingham River, by Roy Fisher
January, by Charlotte Wetton
Changing Places, by David Lodge
The Rotters' Club, by Jonathan Coe
Turning 30, by Mike Gayle

Producer: Barnaby Gordon

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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