Ted Hughes - Tales from Ovid

Download Here

Pass: bbc4free.blogspot.com

Published in 1997, Tales from Ovid was immediately recognized as a classic in its own right, as the best reading of Ovid in generations, and as a major book in Ted Hughes's oeuvre. 

The Metamorphoses of Ovid stands with the works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton as a classic of world poetry; Hughes translated twenty-four of its stories with great power and directness. The result is the liveliest twentieth-century version of the classic, at once a delight for the Latinist and an appealing introduction to Ovid.

Dylan Thomas - Under Milk Wood

"To Begin at the Beginning…."

The words of Dylan Thomas as read in the mellisonant tones of Richard Burton. One of my most treasured books, I offer you to borrow indefinitely, switch off the lights and take your imagination for a walk.

Download Here

Coming Soon!

Pass:  bbc4free.blogspot.com

Under Milk Wood is a 1954 play for radio by Dylan Thomas, later adapted for the stage. A film version, Under Milk Wood directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released in 1972. 

Thomas’s poetic writing and an unforgettable cast of characters makes this a landmark play in the history of both radio and theatre.
An all-seeing narrator invites the audience to listen to the dreams and innermost thoughts of the inhabitants of an imaginary small Welsh village, Llareggub.
They include Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard, relentlessly bossing her two dead husbands; Captain Cat, reliving his seafaring times; the two Mrs Dai Breads; Organ Morgan, obsessed with his music; and Polly Garter, pining for her dead lover. Later, the town wakes and, aware now of how their feelings affect whatever they do, we watch them go about their daily business.

There is an original recording I've also uploaded ( Download Here ) if you're interested:

Pass: bbc4free.blogspot.com

The play had its first reading on stage on 14 May 1953, in New York, at The Poetry Center. Thomas himself read the parts of the First Voice and the Reverend Eli Jenkins. Almost as an afterthought, the performance was recorded on a single-microphone tape recording (the microphone was laid at front center on the stage floor) and later issued by the Caedmon company. It is the only known recorded performance of Under Milk Wood with Thomas as a part of the cast. A studio recording, planned for 1954, was precluded by Thomas's death during November 1953.

And I've also uploaded a BBC R4 continuity which played after the above recording back in the 1950s:

( Download Here )

Description:

I found a copy on an old tape my brother found at a charity shop some years ago. At the end of the production is about 10 minutes of priceless Radio 4 continuity, plugging three up-coming Just Before Midnight plays, giving details about the imminent wavelength changes and a complete playing of the 'New Radio 4 Opening Music', which became known as the UK Theme. This version of the Theme is about 2 minutes longer than the one that was axed in 2006.
Audio details: 96/44 mono mp3. Sound quality is rather poor - the recording was on an elderly C120 cassette, that gave up the ghost soon after this transfer.

I'm gonna try and find those three 'Just Before Midnight' plays too.

Radio Enthusiasts all up in this shiz.

Rock on.

Wordsworth - Two-Part Prelude

Download Here

Pass: bbc4free.blogspot.com

Some people prefer the other version of The Prelude done by Ian McKellen, but I love this recording of it, dream-like sounds and a voice draws me into the world of the poet.

The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind is an autobiographical, "philosophical" poem in blank verse by the English poet William Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote the first version of the poem when he was 28, and worked over the rest of it for his long life without publishing it. He never gave it a title; he called it the "Poem (title not yet fixed upon) to Coleridge" and in his letters to Dorothy Wordsworth referred to it as "the poem on the growth of my own mind." The poem was unknown to the general public until published three months after Wordsworth's death in 1850, its final name given to it by his widow Mary. The poem has been referred to as the first psychological epic. - Wikipedia

Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven

 

Download Here

What more can I say about this than that it's Christopher Walken being the Walken and thus delivering an excellent reading. enhanced by some creeptastic sound-effects as well.

Beowulf

Download Here

Password: bbc4free.blogspot.com

The one and only; completely unabridged. This is the epic narrative poem that has continued on for generations and for good reasons. great father Tolkien himself adapted the dragon in it for his novel The Hobbit.

BBC R4 - Bob Kingdom's 'Dylan Thomas: Return Journey'

Download Here

Bob Kingdom's one man show about Dylan Thomas based

on Thomas' prose and verse.

Kingdom gives what used to be called a 'tour de force'

[a useful phrase which seems to have dropped from use],

and shows that, in another life, Dylan Thomas could have

made a good living on the stand-up circuit.

.

[BBC Radio 4] - Siegfried Sassoon - A Friend

Download Here

In 1954 Edmund Blunden introduced Dennis Silk to Siegfried

Sassoon. They remained friends until Sassoon's death in 1967.

During the period of their friendship Silk tape recorded Sassoon

in conversation and reading his poems. This programme consists

Silk's reflections on Sassoon and a selection of the recordings.

Includes Sassoon reading:

The General

Base Details

Died of Wounds

Everyone Sang

Presented by Dennis Silk
Produced by Tom Auburn
Broadcast July 4, 2004

[BBC Radio 4] - Crazy For Love: Layla and the Mad Poet

Download Here

The inspiration for Eric Clapton's seminal pop song, 'Layla and Majnun' is said to be the most beautiful poem in the Arab world and beyond.

Pre-empting Romeo and Juliet by centuries, Layla and Majnun is the classic Middle East love story. Sitting at the heart of pre-Islamic Arab culture, its message is universal and it has since crossed borders and transcended language barriers even spreading as far as India and Turkey.

Based on a tale of thwarted love and poetry sent on the wind, Anthony Sattin tells the tale of its creator - Majnun - whose name is the word for 'mad' or 'crazy' in Arabic and tries to find out if he, or the object of his love, were real or imagined, fact or fiction.


Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
Briadcast: 05 September 2010
Duration:  28 mins

[BBC Radio 7 - National Poetry Day] - Spike's Fleas, Knees And Hidden Elephants

Download Here

Spike Milligan reads some of his magical poems, in his own inimitable style.

Duration: 15 minutes

First broadcast: Thursday 08 October 2009

[BBC Radio 4 - Poetry Please] - William Blake

Download Here

Readings from William Blake's works to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth.

Includes

Prologue - O For A Voice Like Thunder

Piping Down the Valleys

A Dream

London

The Tyger

The Schoolboy

A Poison Tree

Preface to Milton

'And did those feet ...' from Jerusalem

To the Accuser who is the God of this World

The Garden of Love

A Little Boy Lost

Readers

Samuel West

Janet Suzman

David Collins

Presented by  Roger McGough
Produced by Peter Everett
Broadcast November 18, 2007