Poetry Please - 18th March 2012

Feeling drained after Cerys Matthews beautfully moving " With Great Pleasure" we adjourned (after acquiring yet more low numbered ticket stamps) for a lovely walk around the neighbouring park. We duly returned in time to claim good seats for Radio Four's " Poetry Please".

Hosted by the great Roger McGough this allows listeners to request their favourite poems based on particular themes. Today's was listening, in line with the concept of the "More than Words" festival. Our reason for attending was to listen to one of our favourite actresses Harriet Walter. She was joined by Guy Paul, John Mackay and the poet Paul Henry.

This does what it says on the label but Roger McGough controls this lively recording so tightly it becomes a conveyor belt of poems with the readers popping up and down as regularly as pop-up toast in a busy cafe. Only the poets themselves had the opportunity to explain their thought processes and for me the highlight was Roger McGough reading his own poem "The Sound Collector" with the audience providing the special effects noises ourselves.

I was also particularly impressed by Guy Paul whose American twang perfectly suited his pieces, especially " A Litany For Monsieur Sax" by Michael Coady. In contrast I din't feel the new Dame quite caught the euphoria of Siegfried Sassoon's " Everyone Sang" by Siegfried Sassoon but the beauty of this programme is that it encourages you to find new favourites every week.