Programme Outline
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.
