BBC Radio 3 to remember Wilfred Owen, 12-18 November 2006
October 25, 2006
BBC Radio 3 is to celebrate the life and writings of war poet Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) with a season of special programmes during the week following Remembrance Day. It will be the first time the radio station has featured special programming around a single literary figure. Highlights will include choral work based on Owen's letters, and current serving soldiers reciting his poems. The special programmes will be broadcast 12 -18 November in the week following Remembrance Day, 11 November.
Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918, aged 25. His mother received news of his death by telegram a week later on 11 November, Armistice Day - the official end of hostilities in the First World War - as the local church bells were ringing to celebrate the peace.
At the time of Owen's death, only five of his poems, which depict his experiences as a solider and the reality of life in the trenches, had been published. After the war, fellow poets Siegfried Sassoon and Edith Sitwell were instrumental in collecting together and arranging publication of an edition of the poet's work.
The complete war poems have been recorded for Radio 3 by actor Ben Whishaw and will be featured across the schedule throughout the week, while poet Paul Farley will guide listeners through the poems. Other contributors across the week include poets Lavinia Greenlaw and Alison Brackenbury and two of Owen's biographers, Jon Stallworthy and Dominic Hibberd. Radio 3 has also invited current serving soldiers to recite Owen's poems and speak of their impact on people who have served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Iraq. Some contributors will also read some of their own poems exploring their responses to conflict.
The radio station has also commissioned a new work from Judith Bingham as part of this season. Performed by the BBC Singers, 'An Ancient Music' takes two points of view from letters by Owen and poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. Both poets died within days of each other. Apollinaire seems to exult in the poetic imagery of the war in contrast with Owen's graphic descriptions of the horrors he experienced in letters to his mother.
Radio 3 head of speech programmes Abigail Appleton said: 'Listeners have responded enthusiastically to our recent composer-led seasons and we hope they will find Wilfred Owen Week both insightful and reflective.'
'This exemplifies the breadth of BBC Radio 3's cultural programming and the season is an integral part of wider celebrations around the station's 60th anniversary this autumn.'
Story from BBC NEWS, published: 2006/10/24 12:27:42 GMT: Visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/6080526.stm . © BBC MMVI. With extra information from the WPA.
Further details from the BBC of the programmes to be broadcast and these are reproduced below:
Sunday 12 November
18.30 The Choir
Aled Jones introduces a performance of Britten’s War Requiem which the composer dedicated to four friends who died in World War One and poetry by Owen figure in the text. The programme launches Wilfred Owen Week and includes Ben Whishaw's first reading of Owen’s War poems.
20.00 Sunday Feature: Strange Meetings: Owen’s Half-Known Roads
Poet Paul Farley presents a biographical feature about Wilfred Owen through the places that were significant throughout his life. As one young poet seeks another a lifetime away, Farley’s journey takes him from houses in Birkenhead where Owen spent much of his childhood to Craiglockhart, the hospital for shell-shocked soldiers in Edinburgh, where he met Siegfried Sassoon, the attic room in Ripon where he wrote some of his most powerful poems and finally the Sambre-Oise canal, where Owen died, and his grave in Ors.
20.45 Drama on 3: In Parenthesis by David Jones
Monday 13 November
Ben Whishaw's readings of the War Poems will be broadcast throughout the week. Single poems will be included in Morning on 3 (7.00-10.00am) and In Tune (5.00-7.30).
Paul Farley will introduce War Poems featured in the following slots:
Monday – Friday: 14.00 -14.05 23.55 -24.00 (Friday: 23.25-23.30)
20.20-20.40 Twenty Minutes: Jon Stallworthy discusses the drafts of Anthem for Doomed Youth
Tuesday 14 November
20.30-20.50 Twenty Minutes: The poet Alison Brackenbury looks at ‘the other Owen’ exploring the poems not directly about war.
Thursday 16 November
19.30-21.30 Performance on 3 – A Farewell to Arms
The programme includes the world premier of a new BBC commission by Judith Bingham ‘An Ancient Music’ based upon Owen’s letters and the poetry of his contemporary Guillaume Apollinaire. Music will be interspersed with readings of war poems by Owen and his contemporaries.
20.15-20.35 Twenty Minutes: Dominic Hibberd, author of the most recent Owen biography discusses Owen’s letters.
Friday 17 November
20.10-20.30 Twenty Minutes: Lavinia Greenlaw explores Landscapes and Englishness in Owen’s poetry.
Saturday 18 November
2130-2215 The Verb
BBC Radio 3's showcase of new writing, literature and performance explores Owen’s legacy and discusses contemporary war poetry.
2215-2245 Between the Ears Current serving soldiers discuss their impact on people who have served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Iraq. The programme will also include some of the soldiers' own poetry.
http://www.bbc.co.uk (With extra information from the WPA)