Emma Harding

BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, Roleplay, Blanche DuBois One big role. Actors who have played the part tell their stories. Today: Blanche DuBois.

‘I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.’

Roleplay @BBCRadio4 - actors from Cate Blanchett to Patsy Ferran tell stories of playing Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Produced by Camellia Sinclair & Sam Grist
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Photo of Rachmaninov at work in the garden of Ivanovka

Composer of the Week - Donald Macleod explores #Rachmaninov’s life in exile from Russia and attachment to the country estate he left behind: Ivanovka. 4pm each weekday @BBCRadio3 or @BBCSounds Producer Megan Jones www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Maria Balshaw and Léa Ypi The director of Tate and the political philosopher swap books they love.

Fiction by #OctaviaEButler #Gogol & Lissa Evans - all on A Good Read, Mon 3pm @BBCRadio4 Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate art museums & galleries & Léa Ypi, professor of politics & philosophy at LSE swap books they love with @harriettsg.bsky.social Producer @elizalomas www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Valentine’s Day: Impress them with these love poems Michael Longley, Elaine Feeney and eight other Irish poets choose their favourite romantic verse

from @martindoyle.bsky.social 2019

Michael Longley choose Graves:
She tells her love while half asleep,
In the dark hours,
With half-words whispered low:
As Earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite the snow,
Despite the falling snow.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

BASHÕ 1Old man among the reeds mistrust of the poet.He is on his way to the North he is making a book with his eyes.He is writing himself upon the water he has lost his master.Love on...

And that poem in full - Bashō www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poe...

Cees Nooteboom, Dutch novelist and travel writer, dies aged 92 Writer made international breakthrough with 1980 novel Rituals and won acclaim for his travel writing

‘Death took off his hat,
as should be. The sense has remained.
Only in his poems could he dwell.
Just a little while and you will see the cherry blossoms of Yoshino.’

Thank you, Cees Nooteboom. Today’s a day for reading one of his astonishing books.

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Rays of Darkness The lives and imaginations of two writers interweave in this lyric drama by Gwyneth Lewis.

Rays of Darkness - the lives & imaginations of two writers interweave in this lyrical, autobiographical drama by Gwyneth Lewis, former National Poet of Wales. Stars Eiry Thomas, Sharon Morgan & Clare Corbett as Margiad Evans 2.15pm Weds 11 Feb @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Yes, the wider impact is very much the argument the programme makes - so hope you’re be reassured when you hear it.

BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, Drama in Schools: An Unfolding Tragedy? The actor Christopher Eccleston investigates the decline in drama education in schools.

Drama in Schools: an unfolding tragedy? Actor Christopher Eccleston investigates the decline in #drama education in schools in England. 4pm Tues 10 Feb @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds Producer @robinmarkwell.bsky.social #education #schools www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

View of Dresden by Moonlight by Johan Christian Dahl

Need some uplift? Head to @BBCRadio3 at 4pm for Composer of the Week when Donald Macleod explores the life & music of the great German #Baroque composer Heinrich Schütz #Dresden #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - A Good Read, Robin Ince and Philip Hensher The comedian and the writer share good books with Harriett Gilbert.

Looking for reading inspiration in this #NationalYearOfReading2026 ? A Good Read is back 3pm @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds with eclectic suggestions. Today, writer @philiphensher.bsky.social & comedian @robinince.bsky.social join @harriettsg.bsky.social with favourite #books www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Text of Heaney’s poem

Photo of snowdrops

Now it's #StBrigidsDay and the first snowdrop
In County Wicklow, and this a Brigid's Girdle
I'm plaiting for you, an airy fairy hoop
(Like one of those old crinolines they'd trindle),
Twisted straw that's lifted in a circle
To handsel and to heal, a rite of spring…

#SeamusHeaney #otd #poetry

Thank you! Will look it up.

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Walden Henry David Thoreau's account of a year living in a cabin in the woods next to Walden Pond

Other Americas are available… #Walden: Paul Farley’s evocative dramatisation of #Thoreau’s classic memoir of paying attention & attempting to live lightly on the Earth. Stars the wonderful Matthew Needham. A huge pleasure to make this one. 3pm Sun 1 Feb @bbcradio4 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A packed second hand bookshop

Did a book completely transform your life?

A new BBC documentary is looking for stories about the life-changing power of books.

If so, upload a video of you telling your story to the link below or email reading@blinkfilmsuk.com explaining how the book impacted on you.

we.tl/r-6yeldPIg2n

I’d forgotten that! Wonderful use of music in that film.

“My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here…”

Happy #BurnsNight 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 A favourite Burns poem - and Arvo Pärt’s haunting setting of it youtu.be/6UadEvSJMrQ?...

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Make You Feel My Love A huge hit for Adele, the song was written by Bob Dylan and has rapidly become a standard.

How one song takes on so many different meanings… today's Soul Music 10.30am @BBCRadio4 is Make You Feel My Love- #BobDylan's song, memorably covered by #Adele & many more. Producer Mair Bosworth.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Congratulations to Karen Solie on winning the TS Eliot Prize for her most recent collection Wellwater, published by @picadorbooks.bsky.social

Karen Solie teaches for half the year at St Andrews University and lives the rest of her time in Canada. Karen is part of @northseapoets.bsky.social group.

Great to see a packed house for #poetry at last night’s @tseliotprize.bsky.social readings in London & to hear the effulgent & eclectic shortlist. Brilliantly compered as ever by @imcmillan.bsky.social & thoughtfully produced by Mike Sims. The winner is announced this evening. tseliot.com/prize/

BBC Radio 4 - Spotlight, Murder in the Cathedral Danny Sapani stars in TS Eliot's drama about the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury.

Just 8 days left to listen to T S Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral @bbcsounds.bsky.social starring Danny Sapani as Thomas Becket, with music by Joseph Howard performed by the BBC Singers #drama #poetry #audiodrama www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The President & the Polka - Justin Webb 1pm @BBCRadio3 on the relationship between American political & musical #history. Today, Lincoln’s harmonica, #ManifestDestiny & the lure of the frontier. Music by #Copland, Stephen Foster & Marion Dix Sullivan www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Cranes in the Sky by Solange Solange's hit song from 2016 muses on themes of isolation and depression.

2016 is trending. Which is a happy coincidence for Soul Music, Sat 1030am @BBCRadio4 which looks at #Solange’s #2016 hit Cranes in the Sky & the stories of people it has touched. Producer Eliza Lomas #2016throwback #2016Vibes www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Roger McGough: ‘How often do I have sex? Hang on, I’ll find out … Alexa, how often do I have …’ The poet on running across a minefield, being bewitched at a bus stop, and his 88th birthday celebrations

Happy 88th Birthday to the irrepressible Roger Mcgough! #poetryplease @bbcradio4

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Great piece - thank you. And I’m very much with Stevie Smith here: “I long for the Person from Porlock/ To bring my thoughts to an end.”

Photo of Manhattan c.1970

New Music New York - 19.15 Sun 11 Jan @BBCRadio3 @BBCSounds Against a backdrop of financial crisis and disinvestment, New Music was born. Writer Richard King explores the conditions for creativity in #NewYork in the 1970s. Producer Martin Williams. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 3 - Music Matters, The President and the Polka, 1. An American Music Justin Webb traces the relationship between American classical music and political history

Did you know that the first English language book to be printed in North America was a book of songs? Or that George Washington could cut a rug on the dance floor? These & other stories in The President and the Polka with Justin Webb @BBCRadio3 1pm #America250 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Artworks, Poems on the Underground A programme to mark the 40th anniversary of London's Poems on the Underground scheme.

Poems on the Underground - 4pm @BBCRadio4 The inside story of one of the world's most successful and enduring public art interventions, as it marks its 40th birthday. With @imtiazdharker.bsky.social & @georgeszirtes.bsky.social Producer Mair Bosworth www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, The Dead Epiphanies at a Twelfth Night party in Dublin. By James Joyce. Read by Jonathan Forbes.

“Snow was general all over Ireland...” It’s the perfect day to curl up with some Smyrna figs & one of the great short stories - #JamesJoyce’s The Dead from #Dubliners - set at a party for the Feast of #Epiphany

Read by Jonathan Forbes for @BBCRadio3 @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...