"Nobody can beat Roosevelt,” I said. "Lindbergh's going to. America's going to go fascist." Philip #Roth's The Plot Against America - a chilling vision of a USA moving towards fascism - is read by the brilliant Richard Schiff #WestWing 22.45 @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun’ #Keats’ To Autumn, written #otd 19 Sept 1819, after an evening walk by the River Itchen near Winchester - one of the last poems he would write. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44484/...

Mrs Robinson: Lydia struggles to tolerate her children’s governess, Anne #Brontë, but is intrigued by her bad boy brother, Branwell. New fiction by Helen Cross read by Anne-Marie Duff. Produced by Mair Bosworth & Fay Lomas 22.45 Mon-Fri @BBCRadio4 #fiction www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Escape for half an hour with How to Play 9.30am @BBCRadio4 where we eavesdrop on rehearsals for @maxrichtermusic.bsky.social's off-road trip with #Vivaldi - Four Seasons Recomposed with violinist Elena Urioste & the Odyssey Ensemble. Produced by Amelia Parker www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Robert #Schumann is our Composer of the Week each weekday at 4pm @BBCRadio3 Donald Macleod explores his years in #Düsseldorf – the city where he would spend the final years of his life & write some of his greatest music. Producer Sam Phillips #classicalmusic #Rhineland www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The fire, drama & soaring beauty of #Verdi’s #opera La Traviata are explored in How to Play at 9.30am @BBCRadio4 with the artists of @operahollandpark.bsky.social & City of London Sinfonia as they prepared for their recent production. Producer @jolyonjenkins.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Such a privilege to record this #drama - Origin - in #Darwin’s Down House, Kent @englishheritage.bsky.social Sarah Woods’ play tells the story of the evolution of his world-changing book. Stars Robert Glenister & Clare Corbett 3pm Sun 31 Aug @BBCRadio4🧵https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002htxs

How to Play - the insiders’ guide to much-loved pieces of #classicalmusic - returns 9.30am @BBCRadio4 with @BBCPhilharmonic under Anja Bihlmaier as they rehearse #Berlioz’s fever dream Symphonie fantastique for @bbcproms Producer Martin Williams🧵1/2 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Glorious Gloucester Cathedral. The earliest example of fan vaulting (1350s) & the first use of alabaster for a king’s effigy (Edward II). I also enjoyed our guide’s gloss of Edward II’s downfall as being due to ‘his wife not liking him very much’.

Balls - Sophie Melville & Mia Khan star in Siân Owen’s play on motherhood, neurodiversity & the joy and empowerment of women’s football. Directed by Fay Lomas, BBC Audio Wales 2.15pm Weds 20 Aug @BBCRadio4 or catch up @BBCSounds #WelshDrama #ADHD #womenseuros2025 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This might be my favourite episode of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics this series because, well #Catullus 😍 @daisydunn.bsky.social & Llewelyn Morgan join Natalie to discuss the love #poet extraordinaire 9am Tues 19 @BBCRadio4 or @BBCSounds Producer Beth O’Dea www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Early 20C Belgian photographer Léonard Misonne specialised in light and atmospheric effects. His photos, often backlit, have a painterly, almost dreamy quality ~ here’s his Waterloo Place, London / Brussels Market

When Eric met Fred (Delius) - our Composer of the Week. Fellow Yorkshireman Eric Fenby helps an ailing #Delius to complete his work. Each weekday at 4pm with Donald Macleod @BBCRadio3 or @BBCSounds @bradford2025.co.uk #Bradford #Yorkshire #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

One last weekday Breakfast on BBCRadio3 from Salford for a while. On Monday we'll be starting our roadtrip in Gloucestershire at Slimbridge WWT. Moving on to Westonbirt Arboretum, then Bath, Wells Cathedral & Bishops Palace, and ending up at Tyntesfield house. I cannot wait!

Famously, between the first and the second act of Waiting for Godot, the only difference in the stage set is that a previously bare tree ‘has four or five leaves’. So what’s the main note to self I found in this copy which seems to have belonged to a stage manager called Nigel...?

“But imprint this on your mind: tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." -The Magic Mountain, #ThomasMann who died #otd 1955. I recommend this edition of Great Lives @BBCSounds with Matthew Parris @susiedent.com & Karolina Watroba Producer Toby Field #fiction www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Fiction from Japan, a #memoir of adolescence & essays on New York life in today’s A Good Read 3pm @BBCRadio4 The barrister & writer @robrinder.bsky.social & author @junodawson.bsky.social talk #books with @harriettsg.bsky.social Producer Sally Heaven #fiction www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

By the first of August the invisible beetles began to snore and the grass was as tough as hemp and was no color — no more than the sand was a color and we had worn our bare feet bare since the twentieth of June - Anne Sexton #poetry

Zadie Smith & Colm Tóibín join @harriettsg.bsky.social for today’s A Good Read 3pm @BBCRadio4 A devoted father in Colombia, a modern-day picaresque through London, and a languid summer romance. Produced by Eliza Lomas #books #fiction #memoir www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

In honour of poet Michael Longley, who died earlier this year - another chance to hear his Letter to a Young Poet (inspired by #Rilke) followed by Carol Ann Duffy on the world's oldest love poem @BBCRadio4Extra @BBCSounds 12pm and again at 6pm #poetry #lovepoems www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

How does a boy from the #Rhondda end up the hostage of gangsters in the south of France? Unicorn - new comedy drama by Alan Harris, starring the brilliant Darren Evans Directed by John Norton 2.15pm Sound by Nigel Lewis @BBCRadio4 #welshdrama #Wales #drama www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The travelling #Tchaikovsky - that’s the theme of our Composer of the Week each day 4pm @BBCRadio3 @BBCSounds Today Donald Macleod follows his grand tour of Europe. Producer Iain Chambers #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Need some summer #reading inspiration? Join writer @horatioclare.bsky.social criminal defence barrister @joannahs.bsky.social & presenter @harriettsg.bsky.social to hear about the #books that have inspired them. A Good Read 3pm Mon 21 July @BBCRadio4 or @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Rainy Sunday? Time for Thomas #Hardy (that just auto-corrected to Thomas Hardcore, which is about right for Jude the Obscure). Dramatised by Graham White and starring the wonderful Robert Emms & Kirsty Oswald. Whole series available @BBCSounds #fiction #literature www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Pleased to encounter this #AugustusJohn portrait of Richard Hughes @TenbyMuseum - author of A High Wind in Jamaica. He’s also often credited as writer of the BBC’s first radio drama - Danger (1924), though Phyllis Twigg’s The Truth about Father Christmas predates that (Dec 1922) #art #radiohistory

Postwar - Have been completely riveted by this @BBCRadio4 series from David Runciman and producer Martin Williams. Not only fascinating history, but a light on current times. Whole series available @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

‘A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.’ Three Transformations of Virginia Woolf 9am Tues 15 July @BBCRadio4 - Fiona Shaw discovers how #Woolf defied gender norms. Find whole series @BBCSounds Producer Ellie Richold #fiction www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Female desire, the challenges of monogamy and whether life is over at 45. A Good Read 3pm @BBCRadio4 @harriettsg.bsky.social is joined by filmmaker Desiree Akhavan & writer comedian @rosiewilby.bsky.social on the programme that is polyamorous for books #fiction #books www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Apples, yearning & bad decisions. Thomas #Hardy’s The Woodlanders, dramatised by Ayeesha Menon with Katy Sobey, Oliver Hembrough, Holli Dempsey, Sacha Dhawan & @janeslavin.bsky.social @BBCSounds or 8.45am @BBCRadio4Extra #fiction #Wessex www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Actor and poetry-lover Pippa Haywood (Green Wing, Bodyguard) is today’s guest at Poetry Please towers. She joins Roger McGough with her selection of listener favourites 4pm Tues 8 July including Naomi Shihab Nye & Wendell Berry @BBCRadio4 #poetry www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A Good Read @hayfestival.bsky.social with guests James Rebanks @herdyshepherd.bsky.social & @kiripritchardmc.bsky.social who join @harriettsg.bsky.social for some lively disagreement about novels set in Finland, Australia - and Hell. 3pm Mon 7 July @BBCRadio4 #books www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Move over Gavin & Stacey… Our Composer of the Week is the original star of #Barry - Grace Williams, one of #Wales’s most celebrated composers. Donald Macleod explores her life & work, 4pm each weekday @BBCRadio3 @BBCSounds Producer Alice McKee #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The Hiawatha Phenomenon - oboist and researcher Uchenna Ngwe charts the changing fortunes of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s choral hit, The Song of Hiawatha. Sunday Documentary @BBCRadio3 19.15 Sun 6 July or @BBCSounds Producers Chris Taylor and Amelia Parker #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Tiara-boom-de-ay… Lots of Royal bling on display in The #Edwardians exhibition at the King’s Gallery, but also a haunted sense of a world about to disappear. Was drawn to this Holbein-like chalk portrait of #Elgar by William Strang & Sarah Bernhardt’s self-portrait as a chimera #art

To mark 100 years of #MrsDalloway, Fiona Shaw explores Three Transformations of Virginia #Woolf 9am Tues @BBCRadio4 with Michael Cunningham, Mark Haddon @naomialderman.bsky.social Sally Potter & Alexandra Harris. Readings by Gwendoline Christie. Producer Ellie Richold www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A Good Read - drummer Budgie & novelist Juhea Kim join @harriettsg.bsky.social to discuss favourite books by #Sartre #EvgenyVodolazkin & #JennyErpenbeck set in #France medieval #Russia & #Berlin 3pm Mon 30 June @BBCRadio4 Producer Maggie Ayre #fiction www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The Gymnopédiste - in Composer of the Week @BBCRadio3 each day at 4pm Donald Macleod explores the life of maverick composer Erik #Satie, inventor of “furniture music”, whose innovations delighted & divided France. Producer Alice McKee. Also @BBCSounds #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Composer of the Week @BBCRadio3 - Kate Molleson meets Gavin Bryars, the much-loved composer & bassist whose career defies categorisation. Today, they discus his early and unorthodox steps into composing. 4pm each weekday. Producer Chris Taylor. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A Good Read @BBCRadio4 - When God Was a Rabbit, The Alchemist & James - music producer & composer Xantoné Blacq joins actor & writer Harry Trevaldwyn to share the books they love with presenter @harriettsg.bsky.social Producer Becky Ripley 3pm Mon 23 June www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Roman Holiday... Donald Macleod invites you to Renaissance Rome, where our investigation into the origins of Giovanni da #Palestrina begins. One of history's most influential composers, born 500 years ago. Composer of the Week @BBCRadio3 @BBCSounds 4pm #Palestrina500 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A comic novel about sex, a harrowing drama of family secrets and a novelistic memoir: writers Josh Cohen and @nussaibah.bsky.social discuss the books they love with @harriettsg.bsky.social A Good Read 3pm Mon 16 June @BBCRadio4 @BBCSounds Producer Eliza Lomas www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

A poem a day keeps the doom-scroll away… Poetry Please & Toger McGough are back! 4pm @BBCRadio4 with a selection of listener requests curated by award-winning Cumbrian poet Jacob Polley @picadorbooks.bsky.social Producer Sally Heaven. Also @BBCSounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Sibling love, sibling rivalry. Donald Macleod traces the musical development of #FannyHensel née #Mendelssohn, whose own potential would be held back by social convention. Composer of the Week @BBCRadio3 each day at 4pm @BBCSounds. Producer Luke Whitlock #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Looking for your next unputdownable book? Look no further! A Good Read is back 3pm @BBCRadio4 Today, the creator of #Adolescence Jack Thorne & writer-director Peter Kosminsky #WolfHall join @harriettsg.bsky.social to discuss books they love. Producer Sally Heaven #books www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Like the moment when the film changes to Technicolor… #Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-50 @nationalgalleryldn.bsky.social Astonishing, strange, beautiful work from Siena’s most important painters: Duccio, Simone Martini & the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti + others (until 22 June) #art

Now on @BBCiPlayer #PowellAndPressburger #Hebrides #GlasgowOrpheusChoir Also…

Today at 3.30pm Robot, water, phone charger, lawn, iambic pentameter, sausage. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This is the kind of plot twist I like… After years of plugging away, #Czech composer Leoš #Janáček finally found fame in his 60s. Kate Molleson explores his phenomenal late outpouring in Composer of the Week each day 4pm @BBCRadio3 Producer Amelia Parker #classicalmusic www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Gielgud’s Letters - happy memories of recording these with the great Sir Derek Jacobi. “James Mason still talks through his nose & Marlon looks as if he is searching for a baseball bat to beat his brains out with.” 8.30 1.30 7.30 all week @BBCRadio4Extra #theatre www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Imagiste - poet Jean Sprackland explores the subversive beauty of the female #Imagist poets, such as HD and Amy Lowell. With Fiona Benson, Nisha Ramayya & Mona Arshi. Readings by Fenella Woolgar @BBCRadio4Extra Sun 6pm or @bbcsounds.bsky.social #poetry www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...