Passwords: Poets and Poetry from the Neab Anthology

Synopsis

The series features selected poets and poems from the NEAB GCSE English Language and Literature Anthology. Programmes 1-3 on Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and Ted Hughes feature the poets themselves and well-known personalities reading and discussing the texts. Programmes 4 and 5 cover two of the themes offered for poetry study in English Literature.

Series

English Programme, The

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Notes

Broadcast on Channel 4 on 19/10/01

Documentation

Accompanying notes available free online at www.channel4.com/secondary

Subjects

English language and literature

Keywords

literary criticism; poetry; Lochhead, Liz

Distribution Formats

Type

VHS

Format

PAL

Price

£19.99 together

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

5 x 25 minutes

Year

2004

Sections

Title

Simon Armitage

Synopsis

The programme is presented by Simon Armitage. The location is Marsden in Yorkshire where he lives. Armitage introduces, reads and discusses each poem.

Poem 1: ‘It Ain’t What You Do It’s What It Does To You’

Poem 2: '*' ('I am very bothered...')

Poem 3: ‘Poem’ ('And if it snowed...')

Poem 4: ‘About His Person’

Duration

25 mins

Title

Carol Ann Duffy

Synopsis

Carol Ann Duffy, accompanied by her mother and daughter, visits poet Liz Lochhead in Glasgow. Carol Ann Duffy reads her poems and discusses each with Liz Lochhead. ‘War Photographer’ is read from a Manchester cemetery.

Poem 1: ‘Before You Were Mine’

Poem 2: ‘Valentine’

Poem 3: ‘War Photographer’

Poem 4: ‘Stealing’

Duration

25 mins

Title

Ted Hughes

Synopsis

The location is mostly in and around Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, where Ted Hughes grew up. Hughes reads the poems but does not appear. He died a few weeks after the programme was completed.

Poem 1: ‘Wind’

Poem 2: ‘The Warm and the Cold’

Poem 3: ‘Work and Play’

Poem 4: ‘Hawk Roosting’

Duration

25 mins

Title

Hearts and Partners

Synopsis

The programme is introduced by Simon Armitage who also comments on the poems. Two poems are read by actors, but Clarke, Jennings and Lochhead read their own.

Poem 1: ‘To His Coy Mistress’ - Andrew Marvell

Poem 2: ‘i wanna be yours’ - John Cooper Clarke

Poem 3: ‘One Flesh’ - Elizabeth Jennings

Poem 4: ‘The Beggar Woman’ - William King

Poem 5: ‘Rapunzstiltskin’ - Liz Lochhead

The first poem, Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’, is read by the actor Chris Eccleston from the Old Hall and gardens of Tatton Park near Manchester. Simon Armitage then discusses the language, meaning and structure of the poem. The second poem, ‘i wanna be yours’ by John Cooper Clarke, is performed by the poet on the stage of the Vauxhall Tavern in London, where he then talks about his poetry. The actress Marianne Jean Baptiste reads Elizabeth Jennings’s poem ‘One Flesh’ from the bedroom of a suburban house; and Simon Armitage discusses the poem. ‘The Beggar Woman’ by William King is read by Malcolm Raeburn as an eighteenth-century ballad seller, and the action in the poem is dramatised in the grounds of Tatton Park. Finally the Scottish poet Liz Lochhead performs and talks about her poem ‘Rapunzstiltskin’ against a background of two classical illustrations from Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Duration

25 mins

Title

When the going gets tough

Synopsis

The poems are read by actors and Simon Armitage provides linking commentary and critical appraisal.

Poem 1: ‘Elegy for Himself’ - Chidiock Tichbourne

Poem 2: ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’ - Maya Angelou

Poem 3: ‘Vitaï Lampada’ - Henry Newbolt

Poem 4: ‘Song of the Worms’ - Margaret Atwood

Poem 5: ‘The world is a beautiful place’ - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Simon Armitage introduces the programme from a derelict clothing factory in Manchester. The first poem, ‘Elegy for Himself’, is read by Andrew Lincoln from the Tower of London, where the poem is thought to have been written in 1586. After the reading, Dave Bryant, a yeoman warder or ‘Beefeater’ from the Tower, gives his response to the tragic circumstances of its composition, and Simon Armitage talks about the curious contrast between the poem’s style and its subject matter. Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’ is read by a fellow black American, the Texan soul singer Carleen Anderson, who then describes her personal feelings about the poem and its author. The ITN newsreader Trevor McDonald reads Henry Newbolt’s ‘Vitaï Lampada’ from the playing fields of Eton College; boys from Eton and a group of Asian girls from a school near Halifax discuss the poem. Margaret Atwood’s poem ‘Song of the Worms’ is read by the actress Lia Williams from the Crystal Palace Eco Village protest camp, and some of the young ‘eco warriors’ share their impressions of the poem with Simon Armitage. The final poem in the programme, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s ‘The world is a beautiful place’, is read together by many of the poets, actors and participants who have taken part in the Passwords series.

Duration

25 mins

Distributor

Name

4 Learning

Notes

Channel 4 Learning has now closed. This used to be the educational broadcasting arm of Channel 4. The online shop sold educational DVDs and CD-ROMs for use in primary and secondary schools.