Between the Ears: Miss Birdie's Letter

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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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Innovative and thought-provoking features on a wide variety of subjects

Innovative and thought-provoking features that make adventurous use of sound and explore a wide variety of subjects. Made by leading radio producers.

Miss Birdie's Letter

BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, Miss Birdie's Letter

Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf is on the trail of a letter sent to her Jamaican grandmother.

Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf travels to her ancestral home of Jamaica for the first time on the trail of a letter from the Church to her grandmother, celebrating 67 years of service.

Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf follows the trail of a letter sent to her Jamaican grandmother by her Church, commending her on 67 years of faithful service. The trip takes her back to her father’s village, and to 1918, when her grandmother sets off for downtown Kingston from the poor country parish of St Catherine, a district that is now under a state of emergency as part of a government crackdown on gang violence. What would life have been like for a rural migrant at the end of the First World War? And how does that compare to today?

Written and performed by Karen McCarthy Woolf
Pastor: Wyllie Longmore

Sound design Sharon Hughes
Produced by Susan Roberts
Directed by Sharon Sephton

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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