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Bucket and Spade

It's summer holiday time so we're heading to the beach for seaside prose and poetry from Marcel Proust to Enid Blyton and music from Mendelssohn to The Beach Boys.

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside in this week's words and music, so we're heading to the beach. The girls of summer drift by in Proust's Balbec and in music from The Beach Boys. We're building sandcastles in poetry from Jean Sprackland and AA Milne. And we're celebrating the very British seaside holiday with a passage from David Kynaston's social history Family Britain and RC Sheriff's portrait of a family on their annual holiday, The Fortnight in September.

We're visiting the South Pacific with music from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical and Guyana in Grace Nichol's poem Like an Heiress, The Hebrides with Mendelssohn's concert overture and Lyme Regis with Jane Austen in Persuasion.

Readings:
Robert Louis Stevenson - At the Seaside
Jean Sprackland – Split
David Kynaston - Family Britain
RC Sheriff - The Fortnight in September
Lewis Carroll – The Hunting of the Snark
Enid Blyton - Five on a Treasure Island
Bill Bryson - Notes from a Small Island
AA Milne - Sand Between the Toes
Jane Austen – Persuasion
Grace Nicols – Like an Heiress
George Mackay Brown – Beachcomber
Verna Allette Wilikins - A Memory Evoked
Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach
Marcel Proust - Within a Budding Grove
Rabindranth Tagore - On the Seashore
Helen Dunmore - Terra Incognita
Helen Cresswell - A Gift from Winklesea

Produced in Salford by Jessica Treen
Readers: Hollie Chapman and Paul Rider

17 days left to listen

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 5 Jul 2026 19:45
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • Robert Louis Stevenson

    At The Seaside

  • 00:01

    Charles Trenet

    La Mer

    Composer: Albert Lasry. Performer: Charles Trenet.
    • Bonus, raretés et pépites.
    • Parlaphone.
    • 19.

  • Jean Sprackland

    Split

  • 00:04

    Franz Schubert

    Aus dem wasser zu singen

    Music Arranger: Franz Liszt. Performer: Murray Perahia. Performer: Murray Perahia.
    • Sony Classical.
    • Tr20.
  • 00:08

    John Glover-Kind

    I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

    Performer: Reginald Dixon.
    • Music For Pleasure.
    • Tr1.

  • David Kynaston

    Family Britain

  • 00:10

    The Tornados

    Blackpool Rock

    • Master Classics Records.
    • Tr26.

  • RC Sheriff

    The Fortnight in September

  • 00:13

    Grace Williams

    Sea sketches for string orchestra: no.5; Calm sea in summer

    Performer: English Chamber Orchestra.
    • Grace Williams: Fantasia On Welsh Nursery Tunes, Carillons, Penillion, Trumpet.
    • Lyrita C.
    • 17.
  • 00:18

    Stephen Sondheim

    Sweeney Todd - musical: Act 2; By the sea

    Performer: Angela Lansbury.
    • Masterworks Broadway.
    • Tr24.

  • Lewis Carroll

    The Hunting of The Snark

  • 00:24

    Claude Debussy

    La Mer; no.2; Jeux de vagues

    Performer: Nordic Symphony Orchestra.
    • Swan Flight.
    • Finlanda Records.
    • 9.

  • Enid Blyton

    Five on a Treasure Island

  • Bill Bryson

    Notes from A Small Island

  • 00:30

    Antônio Carlos Jobim

    Wave

    Performer: Antônio Carlos Jobim.
    • Wave.
    • Verve Reissues.
    • 11.

  • AA Milne

    Sand Between the Toes

  • 00:35

    Richard Rodgers

    South Pacific - musical: Bali Ha'i

    Performer: Bryn Terfel.
    • Bryn Terfel - Something Wonderful.
    • DG.
    • 5.

  • Jane Austen

    Persuasion

  • 00:39

    Dustin O’Halloran

    Dig

    Composer: Volker Bertelmann. Performer: Volker Bertelmann. Performer: Dustin O’Halloran.
    • Ammonite (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
    • Masterworks.
    • 3.

  • Grace Nichols

    Like An Heiress

  • 00:40

    Felix Mendelssohn

    The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) - overture (Op.26)

    Performer: London Symphony Orchestra.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • Tr7.

  • George Mackay Brown

    Beachcombers

  • 00:47

    Cal Tjader

    Pantano

    Performer: Cal Tjader.
    • Verve Reissues.
    • Tr3.

  • Verna Allette Wilkins

    A Memory Evoked

  • 00:49

    Roaring Lion

    Mary Ann

    • Master Classics Records.
    • Tr17.
  • 00:53

    Maurice Ravel

    Une Barque sur l'ocean orch. from no.3 of 'Miroirs' [orig. for piano]

    Performer: Berlin Philharmonic.
    • Debussy and Ravel: Pierre Boulez conducts.
    • DG.
    • 4.

  • Ian McEwan

    On Chesil Beach

  • Marcel Proust

    Within A Budding Grove

  • 00:59

    The Beach Boys

    California Girls

    • Capitol Records.
    • Tr2.

  • Rabindranath Tagore

    On The Seashore

  • 01:04

    Charles‐Valentin Alkan

    25 Preludes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs, Op. 31: No. 8 La chanson

    Performer: Laurent Martin.
    • Alkan: Preludes, Op. 31.
    • Marco Polo.
    • 5.

  • Helen Dunmore

    Terra Incognita

  • 01:08

    Adrian Sutton

    5 Theatre Miniatures; 4. Polperro Beach ('The Curious Incident of the Dog...')

    Performer: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • Chandos.
    • Tr15.

  • Helen Cresswell

    A Gift From Winklesea

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  • Sun 5 Jul 2026 19:45
    BBC Radio 3

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