John Betjeman - BBC Radio Interviews

Synopsis

Extracts from two BBC radio interviews with the English poet, journalist and architectural critic John Betjeman. Poet Laureate in 1972, Betjeman’s popular verse celebrated architecture, but concentrated mainly on middle-class social life in the metropolitan suburbs and Home Counties. In the first interview, broadcast in the BBC Home Service series PEOPLE TODAY on 24/12/1959, John Betjeman talks to Irene Slade about his terror at Marlborough 3 min 17; life at Oxford, hearties and aesthetes, being sent down 1 min 45. In the second interview, broadcast in Radio 3’s SOUND ARCHIVE on 25/12/1971, Betjeman talks to Alan Pryce Jones about WH Auden at Oxford, the sort of man he was, his influence 0 min 55; churchgoing, the aesthetic experience more important than dogma, Anglicanism and Catholicism 2 min 21

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2003

Year of production

1959 1971

Availability

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/
Online

Notes

Available free online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/betjemanj1.shtml. Requires Realplayer.

Subjects

English language and literature

Keywords

Auden, W H; Betjeman, John; literature - English; poetry; social history; writers - English; radio interviews

Online availability

URI

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/betjemanj1.shtml

Delivery

Streamed

Production Company

Name

BBC Home Service

Name

BBC Radio 3

Distributor

Name

BBC Four Audio Interviews

Web

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/ External site opens in new window