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.

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: Everyday Heroism

Everyday Heroism

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Everyday Heroism

Paterson Joseph and Ruth Bradley with poetry and prose from Roger Robinson to Thomas Hardy and music by Arvo Part, Philp Glass, Carole King, Beethoven, Bowie and Charles Ives.

As the NHS marks 75 years of service on July 5th, our programme today celebrates everyday heroes with readings by Paterson Joseph and Ruth Bradley.  Recent poems by Raymond Antrobus and Jackie Kay consider the experiences of frontline medical staff dealing with COVID-19. Teachers feature in an extract from George Dennison’s account of The First Street School in New York, and in Roald Dahl's Matilda.  The quiet heroism of rural communities takes us to Sunset Song’s Chris Guthrie toiling daily on the land of North East Scotland, and the shepherd Gabriel Oak battling a fire in Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. And the global impact of a single bold act of everyday heroism is evoked by Rita Dove’s poem about civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who challenged where she had to sit on a bus.  The music includes works by Arvo Part, Vince Guaraldi, Carole King, Beethoven, and Charles Ives.

Producer: Ruth Thomson

Raymond Antrobus - On Touch
Jackie Kay - Home
George Dennison - The Lives of Children
Roald Dahl - Matilda
Sarah Moss - Night Waking
Thomas Hardy - Far from the Madding Crowd
Lewis Grassic Gibbon - Sunset Song
Rita Dove - Rosa
Patrick Marber - Closer
Emma Donoghue - The Pull of the Stars
Walt Whitman - The Wound Dresser
Roger Robinson - On Nurses

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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Words and Music

Everyday Heroism

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