Jonathan Smith (novelist, playwright and teacher)

Tiny In All That Air

Novelist, playwright and teacher Jonathan Smith has written two plays about Poet Laureate John Betjeman (1906-1984), Mr Betjeman's Class, and Mr Betjeman Regrets that were first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2017. His wonderful new book Being Betjeman(n) has recently been published by Galileo Publishing (https://galileopublishing.co.uk/being-betjemann). We talk about the life of John Betjeman and his wider cultural significance, Betjeman’s many connections to Philip Larkin, and Jonathan’s own very personal relationship with Betjeman and actor Ben Whitrow, who played Betjeman in Jonathan’s plays. Jonathan also reads Devonshire St, W1.

Betjeman poems discussed; The Cottage Hospital, 5 O’Clock Shadow, Death in Leamington, Varsity Student Rag, At Pershore Station, Summoned by Bells.

Larkin poems discussed; The Whitsun Weddings, Toads Revisited, Aubade, The Old Fools, Church Going.

Other stuff; Evelyn Waugh, Andrew Motion, TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Barry Humphries, Kenneth Williams and the Carry On team, Grayson Perry, the ‘English Eccentric’.

Monitor ‘Down Cemetery Road’ (1964): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coe11pgoj8E

Kenneth Williams and Maggie Smith read Death in Leamington (Parkinson, BBC1 1970): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dI8SYa8Szo

John Betjeman: The Biography by Bevis Hillier (John Murray, 2007)

Betjeman by AN Wilson (Arrow, 2007)

Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life by Andrew Motion (Faber and Faber, 1993)
Presented by Lyn Lockwood.
Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band.
Audio production by Simon Galloway.

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Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/