Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Gratitude

Rory Kinnear and Pandora Colin read from Lytton Strachey, a film star's letter to the composer Mancini, and Yeats in praise of teachers, with music by Beethoven and The Kinks.

Rory Kinnear and Pandora Colin read diary extracts from 1945, recalling visits to see the royal family waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace and the pubs extending their licensing hours for a programme exploring gratitude on Remembrance Sunday. We hear from Hadley Freeman’s book House of Glass, recalling the trains sent from France to America laden with gifts after the US had sent France food trains in the Second World War. Gratitude to medical staff is much on our minds at the moment so we picture Florence Nightingale, depicted in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Santa Filomena ‘A lady with a lamp shall stand / In the great history of the land’. Plus poems about our feline friends and the benefits of childhood piano lessons - as well as a thank you letter from Audrey Hepburn to the composer Henry Mancini. And in a reading by Clive James, a poem in which he gives thanks that "the book of my enemy has been remaindered".

The soundtrack includes Beethoven, writing in thanks for the restoration of his health after illness, a very grateful Pharaoh created by Verdi and The Kinks, who are just thankful for The Days.

Producer: Georgia Mann

Readings

Welcome Morning - Anne Sexton
Extract from I Hear You Say So - Elizabeth Bowen
Pied Beauty - Gerard Manley-Hopkins
Extract from Eminent Victorians - Lytton Strachey
St Filomena - Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow
Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors - Yeats
The Book Of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered - Clive James
Extract from The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
Extract from Twelfth Night - Shakespeare
Audrey Hepburn’s Thank You note to Henry Mancini
Extract from We Shall Never Surrender: British Voices 1939-1945 - Penelope Middelboe and Christopher Grace
Extract from House of Glass - Hadley Freeman
Extract from Wild Gratitude - Edward Hirsch
Extract From My Own Life - Oliver Sacks
Extract from Hope Is The Last To Die - Helen Birenbaum
Thanks In Old Age - Walt Whitman

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 14 Nov 2021 17:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Easter

Next

Derek Jarman's Garden

See all episodes from Words and Music

Music Played

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

  • 00:00

    R. Nathaniel Dett

    Morning Barcarolle

    Performer: Clipper Erickson.
    • Direct To Tap, DTR 9807.

  • Anne Sexton

    Welcome Morning, read by Pandora Colin

  • 00:01

    Sammy Cahn & Nicholas Brodszky

    How Do You Like Your Eggs in the Morning

    Performer: Dean Martin & Helen OÂ’Connell.
    • Techniche, OMP, B004B3GW2C.

  • Elizabeth Bowen

    Extract from I Hear You Say So, read by Rory Kinnear

  • 00:07

    °Õ°ùä»å

    Sweet Nightingale from album: Short Sharp Shanties: Sea Songs Of A Watchet Sailor, Volume 2

    Performer: Sam Lee & Jackie Oates.
    • Wild Goose, 5016700114126.

  • Gerard Manley-Hopkins

    Pied Beauty, read by Pandora Colin

  • 00:11

    Ralph Vaughan Williams

    5 Mystical songs, no.5; Antiphon (Let all the world)

    Choir: Corydon Singers. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Matthew Best.
    • Hyperion, CDS44322.
  • 00:14

    Felix Mendelssohn

    Lied ohe worte Op. 109 for cello and piano

    Performer: Antônio Meneses. Performer: Maria João Pires.
    • DG, 4790965.

  • Lytton Strachey

    Extract from Eminent Victorians, read by Pandora Colin

  • Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow

    St Filomena, read by Rory Kinnear

  • 00:18

    Alex Woolf

    Extract from The NHS Symphony

    Choir: The Bach Choir. Performer: The Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir. Conductor: Mark Austin.
    • Â鶹ԼÅÄ Recording.

  • Yeats

    Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors, read by Rory Kinnear

  • 00:21

    Beethoven

    Sonata for Piano, Op. 2 No. 1, 1st Mvt.

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • Decca 4782118.

  • Diane Wakowski

    Extract from Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons, read by Pandora Colin

  • Clive James

    The Book Of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered, read by Clive James

  • 00:28

    The Kinks

    Days

    • Sanctuary Records Group.

  • Edith Wharton

    Extract from The House of Mirth, read by Pandora Colin

  • 00:33

    Frank Loesser

    Baby ItÂ’s Cold Outside

    Performer: Buddy Clark & Dinah Shore.
    • From The 1940s, Volume II (16 Most Requested Songs), Sony, 5099704510927.

  • Shakespeare

    Extract from Twelfth Night, read by Rory Kinnear

  • 00:35

    John Rutter

    Blow, blow, thou Winter Wind (When Icicles Hang)

    Choir: The Cambridge Singers. Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia. Conductor: John Rutter.
    • Collegium, CSCD516.
  • 00:39

    Henry Mancini

    Theme from Breakfast at Tiffany's

    Orchestra: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Conductor: Erich Kunzel. Choir: The Henry Mancini Chorus. Conductor: Henry Mancini.
    • Telarc, CD-80183.

  • Audrey Hepburn

    Audrey HepburnÂ’s Thank You note to Henry Mancini, read by Pandora Colin

  • Penelope Middelboe and Christopher Grace

    Extract from We Shall Never Surrender: British Voices 1939-1945, read by Rory Kinear

  • 00:43

    °Õ°ùä»å

    I Had A Lover

    Performer: Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa.
    • Manteca ?– MANTDCD224.
  • 00:47

    Mack Gordon & Harry Warren

    Chattanooga Choo Choo

    Performer: Glenn Miller Orchestra.
    • Castle Communications , CCSLP 185.

  • Hadley Freeman

    Extract from House of Glass, read by Pandora Colin

  • 00:49

    Maurice Chevalier

    Fleur de Paris

    Performer: Maurice Chevalier.
    • Galaxy Music, 3888032.
  • 00:52

    Domenico Scarlatti

    Sonata (Kk.30) in G minor "Cat's fugue"

    Performer: Scott Ross.
    • Erato, ECD75401.

  • Edward Hirsch

    Extract from Wild Gratitude, read by Rory Kinnear

  • 00:56

    Al Rinker & Floyd Huddleston

    EvÂ’rybody Wants To Be A Cat

    Performer: Phil Harris, Scatman Crothers, Liz English, Thurl Ravenscroft, Lord Tim Hudson, Paul Winchell, Vito Scotti, and Robie Lester.
    • Walt Disney Records, WD 115632.
  • 00:58

    Beethoven

    Extract from Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart

    Performer: Takács Quartet.
    • Decca, 470 849-2.

  • Oliver Sacks

    Extract From My Own Life, read by Rory Kinnear

  • Helen Birenbaum

    Extract from Hope Is The Last To Die, read by Pandora Colin

  • 01:05

    Isaak Dunayevsky

    Extract from Fishing On The River

    Performer: Vera Brynner.
    • Monolit.

  • Walt Whitman

    Thanks In Old Age, read by Rory Kinnear

  • 01:08

    Tessa Lark

    Appalachian Fantasy

    Performer: Tessa Lark.
    • FHR 86.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 10 May 2020 17:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3
  • Sun 14 Nov 2021 17:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

The hidden history of plant-based diets

The hidden history of plant-based diets

Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.

Books website

Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.