Main content

The Other Third

Alan Dein explores the 'other voice' of the Third Programme - not the plummy accent, or the rarefied readings and art music, but the expressive voice of so-called ordinary people.

Think you know the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Third Programme? Think again.

Alan Dein explores the 'other voice' of the Third - not the plummy accent, or the rarefied readings and art music, but the articulate and expressive voice of so-called ordinary people, brought to the airwaves via a group of producers fascinated with everyday lives and the wild sounds they could collect beyond the confines of the radio studio.

There's a significant omission to most studies of the life and times of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Third Programme. In the words of a title of one of the Third's own history programmes, there are 'Gaps in the Record'.

The gap which the Third helped to fill - through the work of figures like Douglas Cleverdon, Philip O'Connor, AL Lloyd, Alan Lomax and David Thomson - was to harness the stories of ordinary people's lives with a collection of creative and ground-breaking radio features and talks spanning the Third's two decades.
These programmes changed our conception of what radio should sound like - and their influence continues in the programmes we hear today.

Featuring: Andrew Barrow, Alecky Blythe, Dame Julia Cleverdon, Tim Dee, Johnny Handle, Doreen Henderson and Sir Jonathan Miller.

Producer: Martin Williams.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Wed 18 Jul 2018 22:00

Broadcasts

  • Sun 23 Oct 2016 18:45
  • Wed 18 Jul 2018 22:00

Featured in...

What was really wrong with Beethoven?

What was really wrong with Beethoven?

Georgia Mann and neurosurgeon Henry Marsh explore the puzzle of Beethoven’s poor health.

Classical music in a strongman's Russia – has anything changed since Stalin's day?

What composer Gabriel Prokofiev and I found in Putin's Moscow...

Six Secret Smuggled Books

Six classic works of literature we wouldn't have read if they hadn't been smuggled...

Grid

Seven images inspired by the grid

World Music collector, Sir David Attenborough

The field recordings Attenborough of music performances around the world.