Ethel Smyth: Resilience and Resistance

Available for over a year

Maxine Peake tells the story of how Dame Ethel Smyth’s anthem for equality, March of the Women, propelled the Suffragettes to victory, despite her arrest and imprisonment. In this episode, we meet Dame Ethel Smyth in her prison cell: locked up for smashing windows in her fight for the right to vote. Despite the composer’s genteel upbringing, she had been battling for equality since she was a girl - in music, in politics, and in life. As the Suffrage movement swelled into more violent protest in the face of police brutality, Ethel Smyth’s exceptional musical skills gave women on the front lines something to yell from the top of their lungs, or whisper in the depths of a hunger strike. Maxine Peake explores how the composer’s “March of the Women” became the ultimate campaign anthem. In Facing The Music, we experience the human drama behind some of the most extraordinary classical music ever written - told by legendary figures of stage and screen including Michael Sheen, Dominic West, Nina Sosanya, Kit Harington and Adeel Akhtar. Ten episodes explore the human frailties, obsessions, emotions and vulnerabilities we all experience - and the composers who confronted them: to create extraordinary music that would stand the test of time. In each episode we hear from creatives, psychologists and other experts to understand what we can all learn from their hopes, their struggles and their music. This episode is narrated by Maxine Peake and features contributions from Lauren Duncan, Professor of Psychology at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and Laurie Stras, Professor Emerita of Music at the University of Southampton. The programme is written and produced by Leonie Thomas. Facing The Music is an Overcoat Media production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 3 The series is written and produced by Hannah Dean, Leonie Thomas, Gareth Ceredig, Katie Hill and Barney Rowntree – with additional production from Melvin Rickarby Original Music: Peter Gregson Sound Design and Mixing: Mike Woolley, with additional mixing by John Scott Executive Producer: Steven Rajam Production Management: Amy Wheel and Janice Jardine Commissioner for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds: Philip Raperport