ARTS & DRAMA
Barrack-Room Ballads
Sunday 19 November 2006 16:30-17:00 (Radio 4 FM)
Repeated: Saturday 25 November 2006 23:30-0:00 (Radio 4 FM)
Kenneth Cranham presents a selection of his favourites from Rudyard Kipling?s 1892 collection of poems, which were inspired by the stories of enlisted soldiers he had met and drew on the rhythms and style of music hall songs.
Poems like Gunga Din, Boots and Tommy are still hugely popular, but the ballads, reflecting the endemic racism of the days of the British Empire, have a more problematic existence.
