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BBC Four: Poet's Guide to Britain: Sylvia Plath

This spring, on BBC Four, poet and author Owen Sheers explores six great works of poetry set in the British landscape.

The poems by William Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold, Lynette Roberts, Sylvia Plath, Louis MacNeice and George Mackay Brown explore a sense of place and identity across Britain and open doors to captivating stories about the poems, the places and the lives of the poets themselves.

Wordworth's "Upon Westminster Bridge" will air on 4 May at 20:30. Plath's "Wuthering Heights" is representing the lovely Yorkshire region and will air on 11 May at 8.30 PM (30 mins). It will re-air on 12 May at 2.15 am so that the surgeons can watch, too. An early inspiration to Plath, Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is another poem included in the series.

Here is a blurb on Plath's program: "Poet and author Owen Sheers explores six great works of poetry set in the British landscape. He looks at Sylvia Plath's Wuthering Heights, part of a rich seam of landscape poetry she wrote about the Yorkshire moors. Sheers visits the dramatic country around Heptonstall where the newly-married Plath came to meet her in-laws, a world of gothic architecture and fog-soaked landscapes, where locals have a passion for ghost stories that connect with tales told in the kitchen of the Bronte parsonage."

More information will be posted when it's available. It appears as though a companion book will be released later on this year in October. More info on that when it's available, too.
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Comments

  1. panther01 May, 2009 09:07

    Oh, this sounds good ! Landscapes, mindscapes, poetry, Owen Sheers-yeah !
    I've made a note of the date and time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Peter K Steinberg01 May, 2009 09:11

    Panther,

    Great, you'll have to let me know how it is. If you'd like to write a review or impressions to be posted on the blog, please feel free: there are many readers here who won't have access to see it so it would be very valuable.

    Cheers
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  3. panther01 May, 2009 10:51

    I'll happily do that, Peter ! There's so little coverage of poetry on TV anyway (not much more on radio, either, which would seem the perfect medium) and I'm keen to see how they handle it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peter K Steinberg01 May, 2009 16:42

    Thank you, wonderful. I'm sure those not able to view the program will truly appreciate anything you have to say on it!

    pks

    ReplyDelete
  5. Plinius11 May, 2009 16:08

    Not bad I thought. It's on BBC iPlayer here.

    ReplyDelete

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