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The Radio 3 Documentary

Exploring different aspects of history, science, philosophy and the arts.

Radio 3,113 episodes

Episodes

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Sound Sources
Paul McCartney, Jean-Michel Jarre and Lee Renaldo on their debt to classical music.
13 Jul 2025,42 mins
Time Canvasses - Morton Feldman and Abstract Expressionism
How friendship with Philip Guston and Mark Rothko took American music in new directions
07 Feb 2024,43 mins
Tuner of the World
A portrait of pioneering Canadian composer and soundscape maestro R Murray Schafer.
12 Jun 2023,43 mins
Supply Lines
Aidan Tulloch reimagines the journey an item goes on in the age of the 24/7 supply chain.
04 Jun 2023,28 mins
New Generation Thinkers: The Perfect Balance
Dr Anindya Raychaudhuri searches for different perspectives on the idea of balance.
15 May 2023,13 mins
The Pleasures and Pains of Denton Welch
New arts feature exploring the brief but brilliant career of writer Denton Welch.
07 May 2023,44 mins
The Black Cantor
The story of a Black tenor who sang Jewish music in America in the early 20th century
23 Apr 2023,43 mins
Sunday Feature - Shakespeare's Brum Ting
Islam Issa celebrates Birmingham's unique public ownership of Shakespeare's first Folio.
26 Mar 2023,13 mins
X-Ray Vision: Rudolph Fisher in Harlem
Lindsay Johns makes the case for writer Rudolph Fisher's portraits of Black American life
19 Mar 2023,43 mins
Heinrich Heine: The First Modern European
Michael Goldfarb tells the story of playwright, poet and essayist Heinrich Heine.
13 Mar 2023,43 mins
Government Song Woman
Rhiannon Giddens investigates the folk song collector Sidney Robertson Cowell.
05 Mar 2023,43 mins
Tutu - A Portrait of Nigeria
Chibundu Onuzo tells the fascinating story of ‘Africa’s Mona Lisa’ and artist Ben Enwonwu.
12 Feb 2023,43 mins
O Sole Mio
On the streets of Naples, Joanna Robertson celebrates the city's unique musical tradition
09 Feb 2023,43 mins
Metal City
How has metalworking affected the culture of Birmingham over hundreds of years?
05 Feb 2023,43 mins
Rebel Sounds: Musical Resistance in Barbados
Peter Brathwaite discovers the music of his black enslaved & white slave-owning ancestors
29 Jan 2023,44 mins,
Yiddish Glory
Musician Alice Zawadzki explores long-lost Yiddish songs from World War II
27 Jan 2023,44 mins
Scott Ross - Harpsichord Rebel
Phil Hebblethwaite traces the complex life of an early music maverick.
15 Jan 2023,43 mins
Unlocking Anne
Poet Clare Pollard introduced us to forgotten female sonneteer, Anne Lock.
01 Jan 2023,43 mins
What Walls Hold
Charles Dickens’ life was shaped by an extraordinary house. Docudrama with Alex Jennings.
25 Dec 2022,43 mins
Sunday Feature: Shostakovich and the Battle for Babi Yar
The story of Shostakovich's Symphony No 13 and the trailblazing poem which inspired it
13 Dec 2022,44 mins
Briggflatts - A Northern Poetic Odyssey
Rory Stewart in search of Basil Bunting’s neglected masterpiece about love, loss and time
28 Nov 2022,43 mins
Sunday Feature: Florence Price’s Chicago and the Black Female Fellowship
The remarkable female musicians and activists who helped Florence Price's music to thrive
06 Mar 2022,43 mins
Tchaikovsky's Island of Inspiration
How a trip to a remote island monastery inspired Pyotr Tchaikovsky's First Symphony
02 Jan 2022,46 mins
Then there was Light - Stockhausen and LICHT, his opera cycle based on the seven days of the week
How famous German avant-garde composer Stockhausen wrote an opera for each day of the week
12 Jul 2021,43 mins
Even more Kershaw Tapes
Andy Kershaw introduces his own cassette recordings of music from his travels.
09 May 2021,43 mins
More Kershaw Tapes
Andy Kershaw introduces his own cassette recordings of music from his travels.
04 May 2021,43 mins
New Generation Thinker short feature: Hilltop Histories
Archaeologist Seren Griffiths tells the multiple stories of a Sandstone ridge in Cheshire
14 Mar 2021,13 mins
NGT The Balcony
Dr Islam Issa celebrates the importance of Balconies, from Cairo to the Capulet's garden.
28 Feb 2021,13 mins
The Apple and the Tree
Carlo Gébler, son of Edna O’Brien, asks why the children of writers often become writers
17 Jan 2021,43 mins
Sunday Feature - Dissecting Beethoven
An exploration of Beethoven’s music through the body that gave him so much trouble.
15 Dec 2020,43 mins