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Press Releases
Ken Loach makes his radio debut on Radio 3
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91Èȱ¬ Radio 3's Between The Ears broadcasts acclaimed film-maker Ken Loach's first work for radio, Blackpool – The Greatest Show Town on Saturday 23 June 2007.
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Taking a nostalgic look at the seaside town of his childhood holidays, Ken Loach recalls the working class resort, the music and comedy acts of Blackpool in the Forties, a time when the northern holiday town was at its peak.
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Ken says: "My earliest memories of theatre are from the music halls and theatres in Blackpool. The programme will be a mixture of my memories and songs from the time."
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Like so many others, Ken's family took him to Blackpool for his school holidays in the Forties – the place to be for a young boy, with the best theatres for a summer variety show.
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Ken's earliest memories of the theatre are of Blackpool and its comics, and the peculiarly northern breed of comic personified by Frank Randle.
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The acts were legendry: Jewell and Wariss, Norman Evans, Arthur Lucan, Tessie O'Shea, George Formby – George at one end of the spectrum, clean and respectable; Frank Randle at the other, with his endlessly retold jokes of thin beer and indigestion.
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Ken returns to Blackpool in search of a particular time and place, brought to life by a rich mix of contemporary voices and the music and comedians from the period.
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He meets the people who worked in the theatres, those who, like him, holidayed in Blackpool – looking forward to a touch of magic, a week by the sea, a Saturday night shuffle round the Tower ballroom.
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Abigail Appleton, Head of Speech, Radio 3, says: "Radio 3 has a strong track record in attracting major artists from other creative fields to work in radio and we're delighted that Ken Loach has chosen to make his first radio programme for this series.
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"At a time when so much creative innovation comes from crossing artistic boundaries we hope Between The Ears offers both artists and audiences some memorable adventures in radio."
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Other programmes coming up in Between The Ears include Sleepover, Judith Kampfner's personal account of a night spent alone in Jackson Pollock's Long Island studio, and Communicating Underwater in which classically-trained musician Lisa Walker takes her music out onto Pacific waters to collaborate with the musicians of the underwater world – humpback whales.
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Notes to Editors
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Blackpool – The Greatest Show Town is broadcast on Saturday 23 June at 8.45pm and is A Just Radio production for Radio 3, directed Ken Loach and produced by Margaret Renn.
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Ken Loach's film and television career spans 43 years. His most recent films are The Wind That Shakes The Barley, 2006, and Ae Fond Kiss, 2004. He made the memorable Kes for the cinema in 1969, and Cathy Come 91Èȱ¬ for television in 1965. His next film is due for release later this year.
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Between The Ears Summer 2007 schedule:
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- Saturday 16 June: The Sleepover
- Saturday 23 June: Blackpool – The Greatest Show Town
- Saturday 30 June: Ports (repeat)
- Saturday 14 July: Communicating Underwater
- Saturday 21 July: Maysles In The Dakota Building (repeat)
- Saturday 28 July: Horse Whisperer (repeat)
- Saturday 4 August: Ivories In The Outback
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