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DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: POET CASTAWAYS - SIMON ARMITAGE (320kbs-m4a/98mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 6th October 2024
Appointed Poet Laureate in 2019 - Simon Armitage is castaway by Lauren Laverne.
His poems celebrate the everyday and the ordinary with wit and affection. But beyond the wood chip and washing lines he addresses the complexities and the profound feelings that underpin daily life.
Born in Huddersfield, Simon Armitage grew up in the village of Marsden in West Yorkshire. Marsden has informed and inspired much of his work and as a boy he would look out of his bedroom window at night to watch the comings and goings of village life.
He vividly remembers as a teenager discovering the work of fellow laureate Ted Hughes, recalling an almost electrical surge of excitement when he realised the power of words on a page. Hughes grew up in the next valley and Simon admits to thinking "If Ted Hughes can do it why can't I?"
He worked as a probation officer in Manchester for several years, writing poetry in the evenings and at weekends. His first collection Zoom! was published in 1989 and a few years later he left the probation service to write full time.
Prolific and popular, he was named the Millennium poet and in 2015 was appointed Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. Three years later he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Today he lives not far from Marsden where, when he's not writing poems, plays and novels, he still looks out of his window and daydreams.
BOOK CHOICE: The Oxford English Dictionary
LUXURY ITEM: A tennis ball
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Moonage Daydream by David Bowie
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2020.
David Bowie - Moonage Daydream
The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge - The Lamb by William Blake, composed by John Tavener, conducted by Andrew Nethsingha
Jonathan Pryce and the 1994 London Palladium Cast Of Oliver! - You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two
Ted Hughes - Icecrust and Snowflake
Joy Division - Atmosphere
Soft Cell - Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go?
Jon Rennard - Holmfirth Anthem
Else Torpe and Christopher Bowers-Broadbent - My Heart's In The Highlands
THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - PAM AYRES (320kbs-m4a/91mb/39mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 26th February 2023
If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink, waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement. From his wooden shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills, he's been working on a new kind of poem he's invented - the Flyku - inspired by the moths and butterflies he sees around him. Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about creativity, music, art, sheds, music, poetry and the countryside.
This week, poet, songwriter, comedienne and TV presenter Pam Ayres joins Simon in the shed. Their conversation ranges from Pam's first TV appearance on Opportunity Knocks in the '70s, to her love of performing to live audiences, writing her latest book of poems, her passion for wildlife and nature and her latest TV series The Cotswolds and Beyond with Pam Ayres.
Produced by Susan Roberts
THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - LUCY BEAUMONT (320kbs-m4a/112mb/49mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 12th February 2023
If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink, waiting for inspiration to strike, our current poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has a more mundane and domestic arrangement. From his wooden shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills, he's been working on a new kind of poem he's invented - the Flyku - inspired by the moths and butterflies he sees around him. Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about creativity, music, art, sheds, music, poetry and the countryside.
This week, writer, actress and stand-up comedian Lucy Beaumont joins Simon in the shed. Their conversation ranges from the differences in their Yorkshire accents - Lucy grew up in Hull, Simon in the village of Marsden, to writing comedy for TV and radio, appearing on panel shows and working with her husband Jon Richardson on their reality show Meet the Richardsons.
Produced by Susan Roberts
THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - IAN MCKELLEN (320kbs-m4a/140mb/61mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 5th February 2023
If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink, waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement. From his wooden shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills, he's been working on a new kind of poem he's invented - the Flyku - inspired by the moths and butterflies he sees around him. Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about creativity, music, art, sheds, music, poetry and the countryside.
To kick off the new series, Sir Ian McKellen, whose acting career spans seven decades joins Simon to talk about everything from his early childhood in Wigan, creating the character of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, remembering Shakespearian lines and getting an Elvish tattoo.
Produced by Susan Roberts
THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - HRH PRINCE CHARLES (320kbs-m4a/143mb/62mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 28th August 2021
For a special finale to the current series, Simon Armitage travels to Wales to talk to HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales in his Welsh home, Llwynywermod, in Llandovery. Swapping his shed in the Pennines for a barn beside the Brecon Beacons, Simon weaves the conversation around themes of creativity, inspiration and nature. He speaks to The Prince of Wales about the flora and fauna of their surroundings, his passion for conservation, the music of Wagner, and the former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. At one point, the doors of the big barn are thrown open and Prince Charles takes Simon through a series of hay meadows that surround the former farm, pointing out the trees that have been planted since he took over the property, including the maple trees used to line the aisle of Westminster Abbey for Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton.
THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - JK ROWLING (320kbs-m4a/140mb/61mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 24th July 2021
Joanne Rowling, known as JK Rowling, is known globally for writing one of the best selling book series in history. Harry Potter and his classmates now have their firm place in the collective imagination of a generation of readers. She also writes crime fiction under the pen name Robert Galbraith.
In the shed, Jo Rowling discusses the joys and the pains of writing with fellow author Simon Armitage, explaining how she picked up a pen to start again after the huge success of her first series. She discusses myths and the truths that have grown up around the books, including the idea that she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series while on a delayed train from Manchester to London.
Jo brings a very special 'show and tell' into the shed when she gives Simon the chance to dip into her very first notebooks, never before shown publicly, which she used to collect early ideas that might end up in a first Potter book, including the names of the pupils in Harry's class.
The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997. There were six further books in the series, of which the last was released in 2007. Since then, Jo has written several books for adult readers: The Casual Vacancy (2012) and - under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith - the crime-fiction Cormoran Strike series. She has lived a "rags to riches" life in which she progressed from living on benefits to being one of the best- selling writers of all time, giving away much of her earnings to charity.
Produced by Susan Roberts
THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - JOHNNY MARR (320kbs-m4a/136mb/59mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 3rd July 2021
If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink and waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement. From his wooden shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills and the Pennine weather, this summer he's working on a set of haikus inspired by the landscape around him and the people who drop by.
Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about poetry, creativity, music, art, sheds, sherry, music and the countryside.
To kick off the new series Johnny Marr, who first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of The Smiths, takes the trip over the Pennines from Manchester to visit the shed, along with his new twelve-string guitar. In a conversation punctuated by snatches of Smiths songs, Johnny Marr talks about his life in music and gives the Poet Laureate, a huge fan of The Smiths, a private run-through of chord sequences from his back catalogue.
Producer Susan Roberts.