Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Foxes and Wolves

Aesop to Sarah Hall, Jan谩膷ek and Sondheim to Jimi Hendrix, Rudyard Kipling to Roald Dahl - a programme exploring wolves as both wild and nurturing, foxes as both cunning and prey.

We go into the Forest with Red Riding Hood as Alison Steadman and Tim Dutton read from Aesop to Sarah Hall, Rudyard Kipling to Roald Dahl in a programme exploring wolves as both wild and nurturing, foxes as both cunning and prey.
Tying into 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 3's Into the Forest season, the landscape changes from woodlands to hunting fields to the plains of America in the film Dancing with Wolves and recent attempts at re-wilding which have seen wolves re-introduced to national parks in the USA and the UK. The musical palette moves from Mozart, Prokofiev and Sondheim to Los Lobos and Jimi Hendrix.
But these seemingly similar creatures are portrayed with very different characteristics. Blues singer Chester Burnett was apparently given the name Howlin鈥 Wolf by his grandfather who would scare the boy with tales of wolves in the Mississippi woods but the Wolf of Jungle Book is the creature who cares for Mowgli. And the cunning fox from Roald Dahl's Mr Fox gives way to the sexy fox of Sarah Hall's short story, which won her the 麻豆官网首页入口 short story prize in 2013, becoming fox fur worn in David Malouf's poem and in the fate of the heroine of Jan谩膷ek's opera after she dies at the hands of a poacher.

Producer: Harry Parker.

Image: Sloth, detail from the Seven Deadly Sins, 1485, by Hieronymus Bosch (ca 1450-1516), oil on canvas, 120x150 cm. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images); Madrid, Museo Del Prado.

1 hour, 15 minutes

Last on

Sun 21 Oct 2018 17:30

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • Vasko Popa

    Wolf Shadow, read by Alison Steadman

  • 00:01

    Stephen Sondheim

    Hello, Little Girl

    Performer: Wolf And Little Red Ridinghood.
    • RCA Victor 6796 2 RC.
    • Tr3.
  • 00:04

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    The Sleeping Beauty: Red Riding Hood And The Wolf (Act 3)

    Performer: Philharmonia Orchestra, George Weldon (Conductor).
    • Mitchell Beazley REED 1.
    • Tr6.
  • 00:05

    Sergey Prokofiev

    Peter and the Wolf, children's tale for narrator & orchestra, Op. 67 聳 The wolf appears

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra: Sir Charles Mackerras. Paul Dukas.
    • Calas Records CACD 1022.
    • Tr4.
  • Aleksey Tolstoy

    The Wolves, read by Alison Steadman

  • 00:09

    David Hidalgo, Louie Perez

    Will The Wolf Survive?

    Performer: Los Lobos.
    • Connoisseur Collection VSOPCD 225.
    • Tr5.
  • William Blake

    Excerpt from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, read by Tim Dutton

  • 00:14

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    String Quartet In B Flat Major K.458 (The Hunt) - 'Allegro Assai'

    Performer: Brodsky Quartet.
    • Silva Classics SILKD 6701.
    • Tr3.
  • Roald Dahl

    Excerpt from 'The Fantastic Mr Fox', read by Alison Steadman

  • 00:21

    Robin Milford

    Two Orchestral Interludes Op. 19e, Mr John Peel Passes By

    Performer: Guildhall Strings.
    • Hyperion CDA67444.
    • Tr6.
  • Siegfried Sassoon

    Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, read by Tim Dutton

  • 00:24

    Johann Strauss

    At The Hunt Polka Op. 373

    Performer: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Erich Kunzel (Conductor).
    • Telarc CD 80098.
    • Tr8.
  • 00:27

    Traditional

    Reynard the Fox

    Performer: Nic Jones.
    • Leader (2) LERCD2014.
    • Tr8.
  • Robert Herrick

    Excerpt from 'The Country Life', read by Tim Dutton

  • 00:30

    Barb Jungr, Simon Wallace

    Urban Fox

    Performer: Barb Jungr.
    • Naim Jazz naimcd179.
    • Tr6.
  • The Fables of Aesop, by Joseph Jacobs

    The Fox and Grapes, read by Alison Steadman

  • 00:35

    Frank Churchill

    Who聮s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

    Performer: Pinto Colvig, Mary Moder, Dorothy Compton, Billy Bletcher.
    • Walt Disney Records 60866 7.
    • Tr25.
  • Richard Edwards

    A Wolf in the Park, read by Tim Dutton

  • 00:38

    Howlin鈥 Wolf

    I聮m the Wolf

    Performer: Howlin鈥 Wolf.
    • MCA 1110732.
    • Tr3.
  • Frank Stanford

    The Wolves read, by Tim Dutton

  • 00:42

    John Barry

    Suite: Two Socks Theme (From 'Dances With Wolves')

    Performer: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • Silva Screen 5014929019420.
    • Tr3.
  • Sarah Hall

    Excerpt from The Wolf Border, read by Alison Steadman

  • 00:43

    Thomas Lupo the Elder

    Masque Music III

    Performer: New London Consort.
    • Linn CKD011.
    • Tr14.
  • Sarah Hall

    Excerpt from 'Mrs Fox', read by Tim Dutton

  • 00:46

    Leos Jan谩膷ek

    Can It be That I Am Lovely?

    Performer: Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Simon Rattle (Conductor).
    • EMI Classics CDS 7 54212 2.
    • Tr30.
  • 00:50

    Leos Jan谩膷ek

    Let me go! I am afraid of you!

    Performer: Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Simon Rattle (Conductor).
    • EMI Classics CDS 7 54212 2.
    • Tr31.
  • David Malouf

    The Year of the Foxes, read by Tim Dutton

  • 00:51

    Jimi Hendrix

    Foxy Lady

    Performer: The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
    • Polydor 847 234 2.
    • Tr10.
  • Alice Oswald

    Fox, read by Alison Steadman

  • 00:55

    George Fenton

    Wolf Pack

    Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker, George Fenton (Conductor).
    • Sony Music Soundtrax SK 92747.
    • Tr12.
  • Rudyard Kipling

    Excerpt from The Jungle Book, read by Tim Dutton

  • Rudyard Kipling

    Romulus and Remus, read by Alison Steadman

  • 00:59

    Carlos Lyra

    Lobo Bobo (Foolish Wolf)

    Performer: Jo茫o Gilberto.
    • 脡l ACMEM179CD.
    • Tr2.
  • 01:00

    John Adams

    The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot For Orchestra)

    Performer: San Francisco Symphony, Edo De Waart (Conductor).
    • Nonesuch 9548 38740 2.
    • Tr1.
  • Weekly Times, Victoria Australia, (1914, February 21)

    Fox In A Factory, read by Tim Dutton

  • Jane Hirschfield

    Three Foxes on the Edge of the Field at Twilight, read by Alison Steadman

  • 01:08

    Dmitry Shostakovich

    Jazz Suite No.1: III: Foxtrot in F sharp Minor

    Performer: Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly (Conductor).
    • Decca 475 9983.
    • Tr3.
  • 01:11

    Stephen Sondheim

    I Know Things Now

    Performer: Danielle Ferland (Little Red Ridinghood).
    • RCA Victor BD86796.
    • CD1 Tr5.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 3 Dec 2017 17:30
  • Sun 21 Oct 2018 17:30

Featured in...

The hidden history of plant-based diets

The hidden history of plant-based diets

Forget social media influencers - the meat-free movement started with the Victorians.

Books website

Get closer to books with in-depth articles, quizzes and our picks from radio & TV.