Six Centuries of Verse

Season 11984

Sir John Gielgud is joined by an outstanding repertory of actors in this pioneering, imaginative series demonstrating the immense variety and emotional impact of English-language poetry, from the fourteenth century to the contemporary era.

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16 Episodes

E01 Chaucer - Ted Hughes

This introductory programme establishes the continuity and variety of poetry over six centuries, touching on different genres by using extracts from some of the many poems featured in the series - from Chaucer to Ted Hughes.

May 2, 1984

E02 Old English

A look at the poetry composed between the mid-seventh century and the Norman Conquest, including Julian Glover's reading of part of his own adaptation of the heroic epic Beowulf.

May 9, 1984

E03 Chaucer 1340-1400

Chaucer was the first great named poet in English. This programme focuses on The Canterbury Tales, with a reading of the introduction by Gary Watson and a detailed exploration of The Pardoner's Tale.

May 16, 1984

E04 Medieval - Elizabethan 1400-1600

This programme explores the late Medieval period leading into the Renaissance, discussing poems dealing with love, death and ambition by Skelton, Wyatt, Raleigh, Marlowe and Shakespeare.

May 23, 1984

E05 Shakespeare 1564-1616

A chronological look at Shakespeare's dramatic genius, using extracts from eight plays: Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline and The Tempest.

May 30, 1984

E06 Metaphysical and Devotional 1590-1670

The vigour and audacity of John Donne's love poetry is contrasted with his equally powerful devotional works. The programme then explores the work of Donne's disciple George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell.

June 6, 1984

E07 Milton 1608-1674

Milton's dedication, his humanity and his blindness are all given illustration in Ian Richardson's reading of the sonnet to his dead wife, Katharine, while his eloquence is highlighted in Richardson's spectacular readings from Paradise Lost.

June 13, 1984

E08 Restoration and Augustan 1660-1745

An overview of the great age of satire: among the works featured are Rochester's 'A Satire Against Reason and Mankind', Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel' and the mock-heroic 'MacFlecknoe', and Pope's masterpiece of mordant wit, 'The Dunciad'.

June 20, 1984

E09 Romantic Pioneers 1750-1805

This programme features excerpts from Jonathan Smart's 'Jubilate Agno', written in Bedlam, five poems by Blake, Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan', and Wordsworth's 'The Solitary Reaper' - a fine example of "emotion recollected in tranquillity".

October 21, 1984

E10 Wordsworth 1770-1850

'Upon Westminster Bridge', 'Daffodils', 'A Slumber Did My Spirit Steal', and an extract from Book I of 'The Prelude' are among the poems read by Julian Glover; all were filmed in Wordsworth's native Lake District.

October 28, 1984

E11 Younger Romantics

Among the poems featured are Shelly's 'Ozymandias', 'The Mask of Anarchy' and 'Adonais'; Keats' 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' and 'To Autumn'; and part of Byron's 'Don Juan'.

November 4, 1984

E12 Victorians 1837-1901

The Victorian period of richly represented with extracts of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emily Bronte, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold and Agernon Charles Swinburne.

November 11, 1984

E13 American Pioneers 1855-1910

Lee Remick reads Julia Ward Howe's 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' along with poems by Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson; Stacy Keach reads poems by Walt Whitman and Herman Melville; John Gielgud recites Robinson's 'Miniver Cheevy'.

November 18, 1984

E14 Romantics and Realists

This programme covers verse of the late Victorian period and the early twentieth century, with poems by Thomas Hardy, Gerard Manley, A.E. Houseman and Rudyard Kipling.

November 25, 1984

E15 Early Twentieth Century 1914-1939

Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and Edward Thomas' 'Old Man' are among the featured poems, while Cyril Cusack reads a selection of poems by W.B. Yeats, and Ian Richardson and Isla Blair give voices to an excerpt from Eliot's 'The Waste Land'.

December 2, 1984

E16 Towards the Present 1934-1984

Anthony Hopkins reads two of Dylan Thomas' most widely known poems, and Stacy Keach reads Robert Lowell's 'For the Union Dead'; poetry by Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes close the series.

December 9, 1984

Six Centuries of Verse

E01 Chaucer - Ted Hughes

E02 Old English

E03 Chaucer 1340-1400

E04 Medieval - Elizabethan 1400-1600

E05 Shakespeare 1564-1616

E06 Metaphysical and Devotional 1590-1670

E07 Milton 1608-1674

E08 Restoration and Augustan 1660-1745

E09 Romantic Pioneers 1750-1805

E10 Wordsworth 1770-1850

E11 Younger Romantics

E12 Victorians 1837-1901

E13 American Pioneers 1855-1910

E14 Romantics and Realists

E15 Early Twentieth Century 1914-1939

E16 Towards the Present 1934-1984

Mr. Queen

Criminal: Germany

Twilight of the Gods

Daredevil: Born Again

Roots

The Artful Dodger

Painkiller

When the Phone Rings

Bottom

Two Guys and a Girl

The Newsroom

Salário Mínimo

Sunny

Rosemary's Baby

Mademoiselle Holmes

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Les Misérables

Joey

Frank Herbert's Children of Dune

White Lines

E01 Chaucer - Ted Hughes

E02 Old English

E03 Chaucer 1340-1400

E04 Medieval - Elizabethan 1400-1600

E05 Shakespeare 1564-1616

E06 Metaphysical and Devotional 1590-1670

E07 Milton 1608-1674

E08 Restoration and Augustan 1660-1745

E09 Romantic Pioneers 1750-1805

E10 Wordsworth 1770-1850

E11 Younger Romantics

E12 Victorians 1837-1901

E13 American Pioneers 1855-1910

E14 Romantics and Realists

E15 Early Twentieth Century 1914-1939

E16 Towards the Present 1934-1984