Rain, etc.

A short anthology of autumn poems, old and new, to mark the beginning of the season. Liz Berry reads her poem The Way Home, Bill Patterson reads George Ellis's pithy and witty account of the year, and Simon Russell Beale sings a Shakespeare song.

Four Seasons will return three more times through the year. These solsticial and equinoctial turning points in the seasonal year still - even in our mostly centrally heated and waterproofed lives - operate on us all and continue to drive and shape the national mood. How far into our adult lives do we feel the back to school tang of September? How keenly do we detect a clouded sky greying and weighing up for snow? Producer: Tim Dee.