The Radio 3 Documentary

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

Radio 3,113 episodes

Episodes

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New Generation Thinkers: Edmund Richardson and Sarah Jackson
New Generation Thinkers: Edmund Richardson and Sarah Jackson
03 Dec 2017,43 mins
Resurrecting Mayakovsky
Ian Sansom attempts to resurrect the spirit of poet Vladimir Mayakovsky
19 Nov 2017,44 mins
Sunday Feature: Emigranti - 1917 Revisited
How do Russia's latest cultural emigres feel about leaving their homeland?
06 Nov 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature: New Generation Thinkers
Features from two New Generation Thinkers on Afrofuturism and German Lieder
29 Oct 2017,43 mins
A Flapper's Guide to the Opera
Dr Alexandra Wilson steps into the shoes of a flapper for a journey back to 1920s London.
22 Oct 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature: John Tusa's Opera Journey
John Tusa revisits the three provincial German towns where he first discovered opera
08 Oct 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature: Every County in the State of California
A radio road movie with Dana Gioia, Poet Laureate of California, reading in every county.
01 Oct 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature: The Killers
Adam Smith traces the birth and afterlife of Ernest Hemingway’s explosive short story.
13 Aug 2017,43 mins,
Edinburgh 70: Nothing Short of a Miracle
Jim Naughtie reflects on the origins of the Edinburgh Festival.
07 Aug 2017,26 mins
Literary Pursuits: EM Forster's Maurice
Forster's gay love story was a forbidden book, unpublished until his death.
09 Jul 2017,43 mins
From the Ashes
Allan Little looks at arts festivals started in the aftermath of World War Two
08 Jul 2017,43 mins
Canada 150: Geeking Glenn Gould
James Rhodes goes in hunt of his boyhood hero: Candian pianist Glenn Gould.
25 Jun 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature: Monteverdi's Women
Catherine Fletcher explores Monterverdi's pioneering use of female roles and performers
14 May 2017,43 mins
Breaking Free - Martin Luther's Revolution. Reformation 500
Germany's celebrating 500 years since the Reformation - how did it shape German culture?
08 May 2017,43 mins
A Square Dance in Heaven
The Rev Lucy Winkett goes on the trail of Martin Luther's musical reformation.
02 May 2017,43 mins
v. is for Tony
To mark Tony Harrison's 80th birthday, Paul Farley presents a profile.
24 Apr 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature: I Know an Island
Jon Gower uncovers the work of the pioneering naturalist RM Lockley
18 Apr 2017,43 mins
The Radio 3 Documentary: Hitting the High Notes
Why did hundreds of jazz musicians turn to heroin in the post-war period?
27 Mar 2017,43 mins
Opera Across the Waves
Flora Willson traces the roots of global opera broadcasting to old New York.
12 Mar 2017,43 mins
Alice Coltrane: Her Sound and Spirit
Kevin Le Gendre presents a portrait of musician and spiritual leader, Alice Coltrane
05 Mar 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature: Boulez and His Rumble in the Jungle
The controversial French composer Boulez made three life-changing trips to South America.
06 Feb 2017,43 mins
Sunday Feature:Kandinsky - A Story of Revolution
Christian Weikop, examines Kandinsky's Russian roots.
10 Jan 2017,43 mins
Why Music?
Philip Ball asks scientists and musicians why music is such a universal human trait.
29 Sep 2015,59 mins