Do Not Go Gentle

Synopsis: Radio programme featuring a selection of poetry and music on the subject of the challenges and consolations of old age. An extract from Cymbeline ('Fear no more’) are read by actors Barbara Jefford and Jason Neville. The programme also includes a 16-minute audio sample of Paul Scofield playing Lear,
recorded for Naxos Audio Books in 2001 when Scofield was in his 80th year.
Series: Words and Music
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Radio
Transmission details: 24 May 2009 at 22:15 (Channel: BBC Radio 3)
Duration: 75 (total)

Producer

Writer

Cast

Barbara Jefford
Jason Neville

Notes: For details of the music and verse featured in this programme, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kl0fq (accessed 3/2010).
General: Words and Music is a BBC Radio 3 evening series that offers a selection of classical music, interspersed with poetry and prose chosen to illustrate a theme. The literary excerpts are read by leading actors.
Reviews: Producer’s note from BBC programme website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kl0fq):
"When I approached Barbara Jefford and Neville Jason to do the readings for my programme on the theme of old age I discovered that the last time they worked together was half a century ago when they played the twins Sebastian and Viola in Twelfth Night at the Old Vic and were only just starting out on their careers. At the start of Shakespeare’s play the twins are separated by a terrible storm and each thinks the other drowned. It takes the two and a half hours of Shakespeare’s drama to re-unite the pair and bring about the happy ending. It seemed a happy coincidence that this programme on age should reunite the pair in real life, fifty years on and both at the top of their game."

SHAKESPEARE