Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Thanks Pink & Katy for the prompt to start a separate thread for these.

Hoping that other people will have ones they would like to mention, new or old - and some of the old ones may be around on YouTube and so easier to access for readers in other countries (like this doc about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, presented by one of its translators, Simon Armitage, which I watched when I read the poem last winter.)

A lot of the factual programmes I take in about literature are radio though - not sure if that is allowed here as it's a film & TV folder. And then what about podcasts too, for people who listen to those regularly?

Anyway, I started the thread because of the upcoming BBC Novels that Shaped Our World season. Its flagship is a 3-part documentary series shown in November (still can't find exact days & times), but as described here and here, there is an announcement of a list of 100 books on 8th November, and a succession of adaptations and documentaries through the year, as well as a libraries scheme around the UK and an academic reader-reception study.

Whilst the title has received some criticism on Twitter because the series is only about novels originally in English, the series does seem to be making some effort to be inclusive in other respects, mentioning The Lonely Londoners, The God of Small Things and other books by authors of colour among those which will be featured in the main documentary series. (Its themes of 'race and empire', 'women and the novel' and 'the class struggle' sound a lot like titles for modules from recent undergrad lit courses - something which I like the sound of though I appreciate that comparison isn't a selling point to everyone.) And there will be a series or programme on African literature presented by David Olusoga,

I guess that as I have followed prizes a lot over the last few years and found that the buzz and currency gave me motivation to read some of the books concerned, I like it that there's something kind of analogous going on with classics, at a time when I'd been wanting to get stuck into finally reading some books I'd been hoping to read for nearly 30 years now and still hadn't got round to. It has already pushed me to read Oroonoko and The God of Small Things in full, books I'd first got around twenty years ago but barely started then.

Antonomasia wrote: "...A lot of the factual programmes I take in about literature are radio though - not sure if that is allowed..."

It's allowed ;)

Well that series looks like a must-see!!

Michele wrote: "Well that series looks like a must-see!!"

In the UK, it is starting on Saturday 9th Nov at 9.45pm: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...

I hope it's going to be on Netflix or something!

If you have access to BBC Radio 4- through the Sounds app; the female characters of George Eliot have been explored in 15 minute episodes plus Middlemarch will be adapted over 12 days.

Not only sounds like something I would watch, but like something PBS might (eventually) pick up (crosses fingers).