radio 3 essays

1,088 episodes

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay BBC Radio 3

• Society & Culture
• 4.5 • 80 Ratings
• 11 APR 2024

During his less than stellar acting career Michael Goldfarb spent a lot of time watching from the wings waiting to go on for his single scene. In this series, he talks about the plays he appeared in, their histories, and the lives of the actors who performed them. In this essay, he's understudying in K2: a play about two climbers trapped on an ice ledge, having fallen on their way down from the summit of the mountain. It wasn't a very good play but had an amazing set with the capacity for near cinematic feats of climbing and falling. The play made it to Broadway for a brief Tony-winning run and Michael talks about performing in a show where a huge Styrofoam mountain was the star and the jostling for supremacy among actors, directors and set designers.

Preparation for a performance on stage goes beyond just memorising lines, learning blocking and hoping it will be alright on the night. A diligent actor studies the history of the period of the play, learns about the intentions of the playwright, and absorbs from older colleagues knowledge of how the play has been done in the past. In his less than stellar career as an actor, Michael Goldfarb went through this process many times. In this essay, Michael recalls his admiration for John Gielgud. He remembers The Motive and the Cue, the play about John Gielgud directing Richard Burton in Hamlet. He also had a chance meeting with the legendary actor at the stage door of the Apollo theatre in London when Gielgud was starring in David Storey's 'Home'.

Preparation for a performance on stage goes beyond just memorising lines, learning blocking and hoping it will be alright on the night. A diligent actor studies the history of the period of the play, learns about the intentions of the playwright, and absorbs from older colleagues knowledge of how the play has been done in the past. In his less than stellar career as an actor, Michael Goldfarb went through this process many times. In this episode, it's the story of The Count of Monte Cristo, as performed by James O'Neill, father of playwright Eugene O'Neill. It was the play that made him rich and his family miserable, as depicted in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Nearly fifty years ago, it was revived by the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre, located on the Bowery in New York. The Cocteau was the only rotating rep theatre in New York and Michael Goldfarb was part of the company.

Preparation for a performance on stage goes beyond just memorising lines, learning blocking and hoping it will be alright on the night. A diligent actor studies the history of the period of the play, learns about the intentions of the playwright, and absorbs from older colleagues knowledge of how the play has been done in the past. In his less than stellar career as an actor, Michael Goldfarb went through this process many times. In this essay, he appears in Maxim Gorki's Summerfolk, a play about the Russian upper-middle classes at their summer homes, as their country teeters on the brink of revolutionary catastrophe. He remembers Russian theatre, theatrical friendships and after-show drinking.

Preparation for a performance on stage goes beyond just memorising lines, learning blocking and hoping it will be alright on the night. A diligent actor studies the history of the period of the play, learns about the intentions of the playwright, and absorbs from older colleagues knowledge of how the play has been done in the past. In his less than stellar career as an actor, Michael Goldfarb went through this process many times. He recalls meeting John Gielgud at the theatre door and understudying in a play where a huge Styrofoam mountain was the star of the show. In this essay: theatrical superstition says you shouldn’t mention the play Macbeth, by name. But how else to speak of the play on which Michael finally got his equity card?

• 29 MAR 2024

Unravelling plainness

Gold sequins, silk and vibrant colour threads might not be what you expect to find in a sampler stitched by a Quaker girl in the seventeenth century. New Generation Thinker Isabella Rosner has studied examples of embroidered nutmegs and decorated shell shadow boxes found in London and Philadelphia which present a more complicated picture of Quaker attitudes and the decorated objects they created as part of a girl's education. Dr Isabella Rosner is a textile historian and curator at the Royal School of Needlework on the New Generation Thinker scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to highlight new research. You can hear more from her in Free Thinking episodes called Stitching stories and A lively Tudor world Producer: Ruth Watts

• © (C) BBC 2024

Customer Reviews

Great...but.

Just to echo others comments here. Downloads!!! Sometimes they work, sometimes not. Is it a dev problem? Whatever it is, can you sort it out please. Ta

Whither the download (pt. 2)?

It’s a year on, and the downloads have shuddered to a halt again, which is a shame, as it’s so good. This is what I wrote in 2022: ‘I am missing this terrific programme in my downloads - the last was 15th June, and there are plenty of programmes listed on the R3 website. Any thoughts?’

Churches of Breckland

Have somebody who lives in Breakland and I thought today’s essay about the churches was really interesting. Would highly recommend this podcast to anybody I listen to it while I’m walking the dog through the flat Sandylands that are Breckland. PS I really hope he visited our lovely church weeting

Top Podcasts In Society & Culture

You might also like, more by bbc.

BBC Radio 3 The Essay

Five Irish writers each take a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses and, through a close reading, explore its meaning and significance within the wider work, as well as what it means to them. February 2022 marks the centenary of the novel's publication. Reading Ulysses is a famously challenging experience for most readers, so can our Essayists help?

In the first essay of the series, award-winning Irish writer Anne Enright explores the first couple of pages of Joyce's epic. She examines the characters of Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus - the two men we first meet at the top of a tower overlooking Dublin Bay. She tells us from where Joyce drew his inspiration in creating his protagonists and she reveals a little about how she first discovered the famous tome.

In the second essay of the series, young Irish writer John Patrick McHugh selects the fourth episode of the novel: Calypso. In it we encounter the novel's main character: Leopold Bloom. John gives us a close reading of its opening which sees Mr Bloom make breakfast for his wife and feed his cat. John says it's a chapter that "smells both of melted butter and defecation" and explores Joyce's unique description of a cat's miaow. He tells us about feeling lightheaded when he first encountered Ulysses and how his experience of the book has changed on re-reading it.

In the third essay of this series, acclaimed Irish writer Colm Tóibín talks about the role of songs and singing in the novel. He says that in early 20th-century Dublin, professional and amateur concerts and operatic singing flourished - and he argues that many of the characters in Ulysses are connected by music and song.

Colm selects a passage from the Sirens episode of the book which sees the character, Simon Dedalus, sing in his rich tenor voice. Colm examines the parallels between the character of Simon Dedalus and Joyce's own father, John Stanislaus Joyce - both good singers. Colm argues that all the "badness" in Simon "is washed away by his performance as singer" and he explores how the reverberations of Simon's song echo later in book.

In the fourth essay of the series, novelist and short story writer Mary Costello selects an excerpt from an episode full of questions and answers, known as Ithaca. The episode sees Leopold Bloom, the novel's main character, and his friend Stephen Dedalus walk back to Bloom's house in the middle of the night.

In the passage which Mary selects, Bloom has got home and turns on the tap to fill the kettle. Mary says that what follows is a "magnificent, bird's-eye view of the water's journey from County Wicklow" all the way through the city to the Mr Bloom's sink. Mary argues that Ithaca is compelling not just because of the maths, science and language contained within it but also because of the fuller picture it paints of Mr Leopold Bloom.

In the final essay of the series, novelist Nuala O'Connor chooses the last episode of the book - Penelope - which is the one Nuala discovered first. In Penelope, we hear Molly Bloom, the wife of the novel's main protagonist, speak to us.

In the extract Nuala selects, Molly lies in bed, top to tail with her husband. We hear Molly consider him and his antics - and muse on what husbands, and men in general, mean to her. Nuala examines some of her favourite phrases from the passage; she reveals some of the parallels she can see in Joyce's own biography; and she tells us why the novel's final words might prove the ultimate key to unlocking the book.

Producer: Camellia Sinclair

Find out more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00141tf

You might also like

Ulysses: a conversation with ambassador and professor, dan mulhall.

Dan Mulhall joins Aurora Piñeiro and Mario Murgia for a conversation about his latest work.

Mr. Bloom's Reading Club

An on-line reading club for newcomers and these who want to give ULYSSES another chance.

James Joyce sculpture exhibition

Studio exhibition of two bronze sculptures of James Joyce.

[A captioned Joyce]

Understanding Joyce from the Deaf perspective. Diversity and Joyce. An insight into deaf perceptions transferred...

Pastiche of Episode 18 in Lower Saxon minority language

The Reader’s Joyce

Rethinking the relationships between author, reader, and text in literature and criticism, through a study...

Multiple Joyce

David Collard and Rónán Hession discuss Collard's, Multiple Joyce: One Hundred Short Essays About James...

How We Mortals Blame The Gods - DEBUT NOVEL

If the characters of James Joyce’s Ulysses were alive today, who might they be?

Project Partners

Get in touch

Email: [email protected]

Academic Test Guide

Essay on Radio in English For Students and Children

We are Sharing an essay on Radio in English for students and children. In this article, we have tried our best to provide a very short Radio Essay for Classes 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, and Graduation in 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 words.

Radio Essay in English for kids ( 100 to 150 words )

The radio is a sort of wireless telegraphy. It brings to us the talks, news, and music from distant places without the help of a wire. It is one of the wonders of science. The Italian scientist Marconi invented this system. In 1901 this system worked successfully to send messages to distant places.

It is interesting to know how the radio works. The radio has two machines. One is called the transmitter and the other is called the receiver. At the radio stations, the transmitter works and in our homes, we receive through our radio receiver what the stations send. Thus the listeners can hear the music, songs, and talks with the help of the receiver.

The radio is very popular all over the world. We can know about the world and learn many things from the radio. It helps spread education. We also enjoy its programs of music and songs, the running commentaries of sports and games and many other things

Essay on Radio  ( 450 to 500 words )

The broadcasting system is a very strong medium of mass communication which is rather instant. With the development of science and technology, various suitable mechanical devices have been made for long-distance communications. Like telegraph and telephone, radio is also one of such devices. Through radio, communication may easily and instantly be made from one end to the other end of the world, and simultaneously to innumerable people.

In India, the All India Radio ( Akashvani) broadcasts various ‘types of programmes: news bulletins, weather reports, music, drama, talks and discourses on different subjects, children’s programme, a cultural programme for youth peasant’s programme, folk songs and instrumental music, educational programme, sports coverage etc. Those who can afford a radio set can enjoy the unique facilities of listening to the various programmes, that are broadcast by All India Radio in our country. in some of the rural community centres, the government have supplied free radio sets for the benefit of the poorer section of the people for listening to the educational programmes, especially in respect of modern and, developed methods of agriculture, poultry development and similar other useful features, in addition to the usual music, drama or other programmes that are generally broadcast.

In the developed countries, there are some powerful radio networks: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC of England), the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Moscow (U.S.S.R), Radio Peking (China) etc. These organizations are generally found to direct their programmes towards the under-developed countries, sometimes with the objective of propaganda.

Radio is an audio-visual system of communication. In it, the voice medium has to activize the hearing sense. The source of the voice remaining out of sight can be called one-way communication. This communication medium carries the voice simultaneously to millions in the neighbourhood as well as to distant places. It can perform miracles, provided it is used in the proper direction with good programmes having educative, cultural and aesthetic values. It should not be used for sensitive political propaganda or any other motivated cause against any kind of public interest.

Educational instructions for the students may be well carried through the medium of the radio. Music, vocal or instrumental, can be selectively broadcast for the entertainment of the listeners, Talks on important topics concerning social, historical, or educational matters can amuse and help the common man. News, local and overseas, win he relayed with the spirit, of true journalism, that is, without uttering or exaggerating the messages, alter they are received through the news agencies, The proper use of the powerful medium of radio can be used to play a significant role in forming public opinion in matters of national interest.

# Speech | Paragraph on Radio

Dear viewers, Hope you like this article Essay on Radio in English  and Please let us know by commenting below.

Essay on Television

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Advertisement

Supported by

In Moscow, the War Is Background Noise, but Ever-Present

Muscovites go about their daily lives with little major disruption. But the war’s effects are evident — in the stores, at the movies and in the increasingly repressive environment.

• Share full article

By Valerie Hopkins

Photographs by Nanna Heitmann

Reporting from Moscow

Metro trains are running smoothly in Moscow, as usual, but getting around the city center by car has become more complicated, and annoying, because anti-drone radar interferes with navigation apps.

There are well-off Muscovites ready to buy Western luxury cars, but there are not enough available. And while a local election for mayor took place as it normally would last Sunday, many of the city’s residents decided not to vote, with the result seemingly predetermined (a landslide win by the incumbent).

Almost 19 months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Muscovites are experiencing dual realities: The war has faded into background noise, causing few major disruptions, and yet it remains ever-present in their daily lives.

This month, Moscow is aflutter in red, white and blue flags for the annual celebration of the Russian capital’s birthday, No. 876. Its leaders marked the occasion with a monthlong exhibition that ended last Sunday. Featuring the country’s largest hologram, it showcased the city of 13 million people as a smoothly operating metropolis with a bright future. More than seven million people visited, according to the organizers.

There is little anxiety among residents over the drone strikes that have hit Moscow this summer. No alarm sirens to warn of a possible attack. When flights are delayed because of drone threats in the area, the explanation is usually the same as the one plastered on signs at the shuttered luxury boutiques of Western designers: “technical reasons.”

The city continues to grow. Cranes dot the skyline, and there are high-rise buildings going up all over town. New brands, some homegrown, have replaced the flagship stores like Zara and H&M, which departed after the invasion began in February 2022.

“We continue to work, to live and to raise our children,” said Anna, 41, as she walked by a sidewalk memorial marking the death of the Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin. She said she worked in a government ministry, and like others interviewed, she did not give her last name because of a fear of retribution.

But for some, the effects of war are landing harder.

Nina, 79, a pensioner who was shopping at an Auchan supermarket in northwestern Moscow, said that she had stopped buying red meat entirely, and that she could almost never afford to buy a whole fish.

“Just right now, in September, the prices rose tremendously,” she said.

Nina said that sanctions and ubiquitous construction projects were some reasons for higher prices, but the main reason, she said, was “because a lot is spent on war.”

“Why did they start it at all?” Nina added. “Such a burden on the country, on people, on everything. And people are disappearing — especially men.”

When asked about the biggest problems facing Russia, more than half of the respondents in a recent poll by the independent Levada Center cited price increases. The war, known in Russia as the “special military operation,” came in second, with 29 percent, tied with “corruption and bribery.”

“In principle, everything is getting more expensive,” said Aleksandr, 64, who said he worked as an executive director in a company. His shopping habits at the grocery store have not changed, but he said he had not traded in his luxury Western-branded car for a newer model.

“First of all, there are no cars,” he said, noting that most Western dealerships had left Russia and that Chinese brands had been taking their places on the roads.

The war has made itself evident outside supermarkets and auto dealerships. Moscow may be one of the few cities in Europe without sold-out showings of the movie “Barbie.” Warner Bros, which produced the film, pulled out of Russia shortly after Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine, and bootleg copies of “Barbie” were shown only in a few underground screenings .

Theaters regularly show movies that premiered more than five years ago because of licensing issues and strict new laws banning any mention of L.G.B.T.Q. people.

Advertisements to join the military are plastered on roadside billboards and on posters in convenience stores. Moscow’s metro recently stopped making announcements in English, with a Russian-language voice announcing every stop twice.

Cosmetically, Moscow is changing, too. A statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet political police, was inaugurated this past week in front of the headquarters of the foreign intelligence services. It is a copy of a statue that stood in front of the headquarters of the K.G.B. until it was torn down in 1991 by Russians hungry for freedom.

The election for mayor also underscored the sea change in Russian politics. A decade ago, the opposition politician Aleksei A. Navalny stood as a candidate against Sergei S. Sobyanin. Now, Mr. Navalny is in jail, and there was no real competition for Mr. Sobyanin, who won a third term with an unprecedented 76 percent of the vote.

Other parties, including the Communist Party , fielded a candidate against the incumbent, but they are all considered “systemic opposition” parties, or groups in Parliament nominally in opposition but who align their policies with the Kremlin on most issues.

“Before the war, I still voted,” said Vyacheslav I. Bakhmin, a chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, the oldest human rights group in Russia. “I don’t want to vote now because, well, the result seems to be clear, right?”

Many in Moscow chose not to vote, though turnout was at a two-decade high because of electronic voting that allows Muscovites to cast a ballot online. There is also heavy-handed encouragement of public sector employees to vote.

Mr. Sobyanin, 65, benefited from a carefully cultivated image as an effective manager, and Moscow’s cleanliness and ease of getting around are praised even by people who oppose his political party. He has made transportation a hallmark of his tenure, and he not only keeps the trains running efficiently, but is opening brand-new stations.

The elections in Moscow and in more than 20 Russian regions are widely seen as a test run for presidential elections in March. Mr. Putin has not declared his candidacy, but he is widely expected to run.

As Mr. Putin presides over a war with no end in sight, the authorities have worked to limit public expressions of dissent and make things seem as normal as possible. Aleksei A. Venediktov, who headed the liberal Echo of Moscow radio station before the Kremlin shut it down last year, said that the government had engineered the war’s absence from political spaces.

“This war, it is mainly on TV, or on Telegram channels, but it is not on the street, it is not even discussed in cafes and restaurants, because it is dangerous, because the laws that have been adopted are repressive,” Mr. Venediktov said. He noted cases in which people expressing antiwar views were denounced — or in some cases reported to the police — by those sitting next to them on the subway or in restaurants.

“People prefer to tell one another, ‘Let’s not talk about it here,’” Mr. Venediktov said. “And that’s why you can’t see it in the mood.”

In Moscow City, an area of skyscrapers that is the Russian capital’s answer to New York’s Financial District, many people casually dismissed a series of drone strikes that damaged some of the buildings there but resulted in no casualties.

One woman, Olga, who said she worked nearby, just nodded as a colleague shrugged off the potential risk.

Later, Olga sent a New York Times journalist a message on the Telegram messaging app: “I couldn’t say anything, because at work they don’t talk about a position like mine,” she wrote. “I am against war and I hate our political system.”

When there is a drone strike inside Russia, she said, “I always hope that maybe someone will think about what it means to live under shelling, and regret the loss of our normal life before the war.” She said that if the explosions do not cause casualties, then “I don’t regret damage to the buildings at all.”

Mr. Venediktov said that even if changes on Moscow’s surface were hard to see, and increasingly harder to discuss, people were truly transforming inside.

“People are starting to return to the Soviet practice, when public conversations can lead to trouble at work,” he said. “It’s like toxic poisoning — a very slow process.”

An earlier version of this article misstated which birthday Moscow is celebrating this year. It is No. 876, not No. 867.

How we handle corrections

Valerie Hopkins is an international correspondent for The Times, covering the war in Ukraine, as well as Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. More about Valerie Hopkins

How will you prove that the drafts are original and unique?

Do my essay with us and meet all your requirements..

We give maximum priority to customer satisfaction and thus, we are completely dedicated to catering to your requirements related to the essay. The given topic can be effectively unfolded by our experts but at the same time, you may have some exclusive things to be included in your writing too. Keeping that in mind, we take both your ideas and our data together to make a brilliant draft for you, which is sure to get you good grades.

Affiliate program

Refer our service to your friend and receive 10% from every order

Finished Papers

Finished Papers