Armitage's celebration of Larkin to feature in Radio 4's summer of arts

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage will be exploring the legacy of Philip Larkin as part of Radio 4’s summer of arts programmes this August.

The summer schedule spotlights individuals across the arts who have made "a real impact on culture in Britain". Beginning on 8th August in 10 programmes of 15 minutes each, Armitage will explore the power of Larkin’s poems in his centenary year and aims to shed light on the poet behind them. He will investigate 10 poems, including "Aubade", "Bridge for the Living" and "The Whitsun Weddings", visiting the locations explored in the poems, including Coventry and Hull. 

Dan Clarke, commissioning editor for factual at BBC Radio 4, said: “This summer Radio 4 features an eclectic range of series exploring the work of innovators across the arts who have made a real impact on culture in Britain and beyond – some of whom are familiar, others less so. As these programmes attest, the Arts on Radio 4 exist to span a truly broad variety of subjects and approaches, but always with the same intention in mind: to explore in-depth, and in the most compelling and intelligent ways the art and culture that helps us understand who we are, and where we are going. I’m incredibly excited about what we have coming up.”

The schedule also includes Gus Casely-Hayford presenting a new history of fashion, singer Jamelia exploring music made in the West Midlands, DJ Ash Lauryn tracing the radical spirit of techno music, and journalist Ian Hislop investigating art made in the suburbs.