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With Great Pleasure at Christmas

Michael Rosen chooses festive poems and stories, read by Henry Goodman and Yasemin Özdemir. With live music from traditional folk band Shovel Dance Collective.

Michael Rosen chooses poems and stories that have meant the most to him in his life, with guest readers Henry Goodman and Yasemin Özdemir and a special appearance by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, all recorded in the ±«Óătv Radio Theatre.

Michael chooses extracts from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage. With poems by Warsan Shire, Raymond Carver and James Berry. Many of Michael’s choices touch on ideas of home and heritage, or they remind him of stories handed down by family members, like ‘When Schlemiel came to Warsaw” by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Amazing live music from Shovel Dance Collective, a nine piece traditional folk band, who explore folk songs from a perspective that ‘isn’t imperial, white and male’. They include a new setting for ‘Full Fathom Five’ from Shakespeare’s Tempest.

Prepare for some unusual instruments and sounds and great stories by a master storyteller. Intensely festive with a tinge of melancholy, hilarious, sublime. The perfect way to start the festive season.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery

57 minutes

Last on

Boxing Day 2022 11:00

Broadcasts

  • Christmas Eve 2022 21:00
  • Boxing Day 2022 11:00

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