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Press Releases
Owen Sheers to present new poetry series for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four
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Poet and writer Owen Sheers is to present a new six-part series exploring poems that are important to British culture for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four.
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Each programme in the series, Lines In The Landscape - Six Poetic Journeys Around The UK (working title), will tell the story of a poem - where it comes from, how it works and the nature and reach of its influence and legacy.
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Presenter Owen Sheers passionately believes that poems, and particularly poems of place, not only affect people as individuals, but can have the power to mark and define a collective experience.
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He has chosen six powerful poems, all personal favourites and all poems that have become part of the way the British landscape is viewed.
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From Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth to Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach, these are poems with a strong sense of place.
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Owen will meet local people to find out what the chosen poem means to them as well as talking to other poets who will explain the importance of the poem and the influence it has had on them.
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The series has been commissioned from DCD by Jacquie Hughes. It will be executive produced by Fiona Morris and will be broadcast next year.
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Owen Sheers says: "I'm thrilled to be working with Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four on such an exciting and innovative project which fulfils my long held desire to explore the relationship between poetry and landscape on screen.
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"We hope we will take the audience on an exciting, illuminating and sometimes surprising series of journeys which will combine a love of British poetry with the endless fascination of exploring the British landscape."
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Jacquie Hughes says: "Owen Sheers is one of our most exciting contemporary writers and authors and I'm delighted he is coming to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four to present this captivating series."
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Fiona Morris adds: "Owen is a writer who feels passionately about the power of the British landscape to affect and define British culture. We're really pleased that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is giving us the opportunity of bringing that passion to its audiences."
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Notes to Editors
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 The other poems being featured will be revealed at a later date.
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Owen Sheers was born in Fiji in 1974 and brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales. He was educated at King Henry VIII comprehensive, Abergavenny and New College, Oxford.
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The winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer's Award, his first collection of poetry, The Blue Book (Seren, 2000) was short-listed for the Welsh Book of the Year and the Forward Prize Best 1st Collection 2001.
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His debut prose work The Dust Diaries (Faber 2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe, was short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize and won the Welsh Book of the Year 2005.
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Owen has also written for radio, TV and newspapers. In 2004 he was Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society's 20 Next Generation Poets. Owen's second collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005), won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award.
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Owen's first novel, Resistance (UK Faber, 2007/US Nan Talese/Doubleday 2008) will be translated into eight languages.
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His recent collaboration with composer Rachel Portman, The Water Diviner's Tale, an oratorio for children, was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Proms 2007.
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Owen is currently a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library. Μύ
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Arts programming
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The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ remains the greatest provider of music and arts television output in the UK. Last year the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ broadcast over 1,500 hours of arts and music programming across its portfolio of television channels: Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Three and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four.
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Arts programming coming up on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ this autumn includes:
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Imagine returns to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One featuring films on choreographer Akram Khan's collaboration with actress Juliette Binoche, sculptor Richard Serra plus an access-all-areas film about R&B star Jay Z.
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There will also be an additional three-part series - The Guitar - exploring the myths and mysteries of the guitar and looking at the personal stories of those who dedicated their lives to its music.
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In October a major landmark series for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two looks at all that is great and unique about British fashion and style.
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Across five one-hour programmes, British Style Genius examines the looks and trends that have come to define British style, and meets the movers and shakers that created them. Μύ
Later Live With Jools Holland and The Culture Show will return on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two.
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On Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Four there will be a season of programming dedicated to the Art Of Italy and a series called Picture Book tells the story of children's fiction through the pictures, comic strips and illustrations that have been the secret of the genre's success.
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TM
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