Open reel tape

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 133 FRD3/11/1/3
  • Dates of Creation
      Aug 1959
  • Physical Description
      2 pieces: tape on plastic 7" reel, in original plastic EMI storage case; with loose note.

Scope and Content

A BBC Home Service programme entitled 'Poetry Readings by Robert Donat', broadcast on 4 October 1959 and pre-recorded on 22 August 1959. The programme consists of a series of RD's recorded poetry readings, with introduction and commentary provided by John Donat. The readings included are as follows: (1) 'Upon Westminster Bridge' by Wordsworth; (2) 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci', (3) 'Bright Star', and (4) 'To Autumn', all by John Keats; (5) 'The Immortal Swan'; (6) 'Testing only' (RD hopes for better weather, less asthma and BBC results); (7) 'The Way Through the Woods' by Rudyard Kipling; (8) 'Stone Fish Lake' by Whan Chei; (9) 'Futility', and (10) 'Greater Love', both by Wilfred Owen; (11) Introduction and reading of T.S. Eliot's 'Gus, the Theatre Cat'; (12) 'Pompilia' extract from Browning's The Ring and the Book; (13) Shakespeare anecdote and the 'Dirge for Fidele' from Cymbeline.

Duration: 35 minutes. With manuscript note of contents.

Arrangement

Transferred to cassette no. D72.

Related Material

A transcript of John Donat's commentary is included in file FRD2/1/5.