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Antarctica - from Shackleton to Happy Feet

Jessica Turner and John Lightbody are the readers for this celebration of Antarctica marking the 150 anniversary of Shackleton's birth.

If you call to mind an image of Antarctica, it is likely you will come up with something informed by the heroic but ultimately unsuccessful Endurance Expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton. That鈥檚 because the extraordinary photographs and film from that trip planted the so-called White Continent in our imaginations for ever. Shackleton, who was born in Ireland in February 1874 before moving to London as a boy, might be best known for that failed trip but the fact that his crew survived, when so many did not, is now seen as a credit to his exceptional leadership skills.

Today鈥檚 Words and Music is a tribute to the frozen landscape that inspired the heroic age of exploration. It is not just remote - it contains the world's highest, driest, coldest and windiest places. And these days it鈥檚 a hub of scientific discovery, international diplomacy and environmental change too. We鈥檒l hear fiction from Beryl Bainbridge to Edgar Allan Poe, poetry from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Derek Mahon, memoir from Jenny Diski and Sara Wheeler as well David Attenborough, Maori scientists and other Polar Explorers. Alongside you鈥檒l hear hugely varied music inspired by Antarctica from Vaughan Williams to Tanya Ekanayaka, from The Muppets to Nigel Westlake and Cab Calloway. Our readers are Jessica Turner and John Lightbody.

Produced in Salford by Olive Clancy

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 18 Feb 2024 17:30
成人快手 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:01

    骋濒氓蝉产颈谤诲

    Overwinter

    Performer: 骋濒氓蝉产颈谤诲.
    • Whitelabrecs.
    • Tr 3.

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    The Rime of the Ancient Mariner read by John Lightbody

  • Ranulph Fiennes

    Shackleton: a biography read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:05

    Jabra Latham

    Antarctic Triptych II: The Hut

    Performer: Andew Seymor.
    • ABC Classic.
    • Tr 2.

  • Ranulph Fiennes

    Shackleton: a biography read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:06

    Jabra Latham

    Antarctic Triptych II: The Hut

    Performer: Andew Seymor.
    • ABC Classic.
    • Tr 2.
  • 00:07

    Ezio Bosso

    Symphony No 1 Oceans (Antarctic)

    Performer: Ezio Bosso.
    • Sony Classical.
    • Tr 4.

  • Sir Ernest Shackleton

    Race to the Pole

  • 00:08

    Ezio Bosso

    Symphony No 1 Oceans (Antarctic)

    Performer: Ezio Bosso.
    • Sony Classical.
    • Tr 4.
  • 00:09

    Ernest Shackleton

    The Dash to the South Pole

    • Parlophone UK.
    • Tr 22.
  • 00:09

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Symphony No 7 Sinfonia Antarctica

    Performer: Halle Orchestra/Sir Mark Elder.
    • Halle Concerts Society.
    • Tr 22.

  • Sara Wheeler

    Terra Incognita read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:15

    Drecker/Jenssen/Johansen

    White Out Conditions

    Performer: Bel Canto.
    • WM Norway.
    • Tr 12.

  • Derek Mahon

    Antarctica read by John Lightbody The Poems: 1961-2020 (The Gallery Press, 2021)

  • 00:18

    Nigel Westlake

    Antarctica Suite 鈥� Penguin ballet

    Performer: John Williams.
    • Sony Classical.
    • Tr 4.

  • Beryl Bainbridge

    Birthday Boys read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:23

    Ludovico Einaudi

    Temple White

    Performer: Ludovico Einaudi.
    • Decca Classics.
    • Tr 10.

  • Sinfonia antartica: I. Prelude. 'to suffer woes鈥�

    David Timson

  • 00:26

    Henry Mancini

    Arctic Whale Hunt

    Conductor: Erich Kunzel.
    • Telarc.
    • Tr 13.

  • Sir Ernest Shackleton and Crew

    Parody of Kipling鈥檚 If read by John Lightbody

  • 00:26

    Henry Mancini

    Arctic Whale Hunt

    Conductor: Erich Kunzel.
  • 00:28

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Scott of the Antarctic, Distant Glacier

    Performer: 成人快手 Philharmonic.
    • Chandos.
    • Tr 11.
  • 00:29

    Men Without Hats

    Antarctica

    • Demon.
    • 3.

  • Doris Lessing

    Afterward to The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:31

    Howard Goodall

    Shackleton鈥檚 Cross

    Performer: Howard Goodall.
    • Decca.
    • Tr 5.

  • Caroline Alexander

    Mrs Chippy鈥檚 last Expedition: the remarkable journal of Shackleton鈥檚 Polar-Bound Cat read by John Lightbody

  • 00:35

    Brian Setzer

    Stray Cat Strut

    Performer: Stray Cats.
    • RCA camden.
    • 1.
  • 00:36

    Franz Schubert

    Winter Journey - Frozen Tears

    Performer: Roderick Williams.
    • Signum Records.
    • n/a.

  • Emily Dickinson

    Our Journey Had Advanced, read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:39

    George Fenton

    Antarctic Mystery

    Performer: 成人快手 Concert Orchestra.
    • Silva Screen.
    • 5.

  • Edgar Allan Poe

    The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

  • 00:41

    George Fenton

    Antarctic Mystery

    Performer: 成人快手 Concert Orchestra.
    • Silva Screen.
    • Tr 5.

  • Bernadette Mayer

    The Way to keep going in Antarctica read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:44

    John Grant

    Glacier

    Performer: John Grant.
    • Bella Union.
    • Tr 1.

  • Jenny Diski

    A feeling for Ice read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:47

    Evangelos Papathanassiou

    Antarctica Echoes

    Performer: Vangelis.
    • UMC.
    • Tr 2.
  • 00:48

    Vangelis

    Antarctica Echoes

  • Elizabeth Bishop

    The Imaginary Iceberg read by Jessica Turner

  • 00:51

    Evangelos Papathanassiou

    Antarctica Echoes

    Performer: Vangelis.
    • UMC.
    • Tr 2.
  • 00:53

    The Muppets

    Antarctica!

    • Sesame Workshop Catalog.
    • Tr 7.

  • Graham Billing

    Forbush and the Penguins read by John Lightbody

  • 00:56

    Cab Calloway

    Penguin Swing

    Performer: Cab Calloway and Orchestra.
    • JSP records.
    • Tr 7.

  • MaoriAntarctica.org

    Maori Antarctica read by Jessica Turner

  • 01:00

    Gillian Whitehead

    Lullaby for Matthew

    Performer: Dan Poynton.
    • Rattle.
    • Tr 10.

  • David Attenborough

    Forward from Frozen Planet read by John Lightbody

  • 01:05

    Einojuhani Rautavaara

    Cantus Arcticus: Melancholy

    Performer: Max Pommer.
    • Ondine.
    • Tr 7.

  • Ailbhe Ni Ghearbhuigh

    Return from Antarctica read by Jessica Turner

  • 01:09

    Tanya Ekanayaka

    Antarctica with Mercury

    Performer: Tanya Ekanayaka.
    • Grand Piano.
    • Tr 2.

Broadcast

  • Sun 18 Feb 2024 17:30
    成人快手 Radio 3

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