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: The Georgians

The Georgians

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, The Georgians

Music with readings by Kathryn Drysdale and Luke Thompson, currently seen in Bridgerton.

Words by Austen, Byron and Coleridge, Felicia Hemans and Mary Robinson, and music by Handel, Haydn and Donizetti with contemporary takes from Neil Hannon and Isobel Waller-Bridge.

From Jane Austen and Bridgerton to the music of Handel, the Georgian era is constantly on our screens and playlists. Today's programme celebrates the literature and music of the Georgian era – from the reign of George I in the early 18th century to the death of George IV in 1830. We’ll hear an extract from Alan Bennett’s play The Madness of George III, and from Julia Quinn’s Regency-era Bridgerton romances, now back on our screens again in the Netflix hit. Our readers today are Kathryn Drysdale (Madame Delacroix in the series) and Luke Thompson (Benedict Bridgerton).  

The Georgian public devoured Jane Austen novels and gothic horror like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The poets Wordsworth, Blake, Burns, Shelley and Byron made their names, and we’ll also hear celebrity actress and poet Mary Robinson’s description of a bustling London morning, and Felicia Hemans’s poem in praise of the Homes of England of her time. More recently, stately Georgian houses have inspired singer-songwriter Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy.

Georg Frideric Handel was top maestro in Georgian England for half a century - we'll hear from his Water Music and oratorio Messiah. We'll also hear from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, an operatic adaptation of one of Georgian author Walter Scott's popular romantic novels, Isobel Waller-Bridge's score to the 2020 film version of Austen's Emma, part of Iron Maiden’s epic heavy-metal take on Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale in Russian translation set by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. 

Producer: Graham Rogers 

READINGS:
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Mary Robinson: London’s Summer Morning
Samuel Richardson: Clarissa 
Sally Holloway: The Game of Love in Georgian England
Julia Quinn: An Offer from a Gentleman (Bridgerton book 3) 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
William Hazlitt: My First Acquaintance with Poets
Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho
Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey 
GK Chesterton: The novels of Jane Austen
Felicia Hemans: The Homes of England
Alan Bennett: The Madness of George III
Thomas Paine: The Rights of Man
Anna Letitia Barbauld: The Rights of Woman
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Percy Shelley: Ozymandias

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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