Radio 3 Essay

Glenn Patterson takes a humourous and distinctly Belfast-tinted look at Northern Ireland's 'second' city, revisiting his childhood bafflement at a place that seemed far off in the distant north west. Despite early ambivalence, Derry's unique cultural tale had a lasting impact and influence on Glenn - the city's Punk rockers The Undertones changed his view of music and 'shook' him awake, but are they from Mexico or Canada?

Actor and story-teller Nuala Hayes explores the common threads of the Londonderry's shirt factory and story-telling traditions, examining the shirt as a symbol in Irish poetry and literature, and story-telling on the factory floors of Derry where story and song became a way of life for the city's women.

Crime novelist Brian McGilloway explores how the urban landscape of Londonderry shaped him creatively, from the river Foyle which divides the city, to its dark, tangled streets and alleyways, and the strange hinterland of the nearby Donegal border.

Composer and pianist Neil Cowley revisits his year as Derry's official musician in residence for its year as UK City of Culture. He arrived in a city he knew little about, full of trepidation thanks to years of headlines about terrorism and violence. What he found among the city's young musicians challenged and changed not only his long-held preconceptions about Northern Ireland, and Derry in particular, but also reinforced his view of music as a powerful tool to bring about change.

Journalist and author Susan McKay returns to Derry to examine what City of Culture status and its rebranding and reimagining has meant to a place that endured some of the worst episodes of the 'troubles' throughout her school days. As its search for identity continues, what has the city gained from its year in the limelight?

Matthew Sweet explores those moments when the talkie stops talking and cuts the music dead and asks what's been lost now that cinema is no longer a physical, photochemical medium.

The writer and film critic David Thomson explores how film composers create mood and how the best music evokes a place beyond reality.

The American academic and social critic Camille Paglia on the scores which have inspired her since childhood including the work of Bernard Herrmann, John Dankworth and Max Steiner.

The novelist Jonathan Coe explores how a joint concert with Arthur Honegger led to the composer Miklós Rózsa writing for film, including the scores for 'Ben-Hur' and 'Spellbound'.

Matthew Sweet on the sound-world of cinema's beginnings from the orchestras of big-budget epics to the small bands of the fleapits and discovers how their ghosts haunt us today.

A L Kennedy contemplates the inconveniences of love in the 1945 Powell and Pressburger romance 'I Know Where I'm Going!', set on a remote Scottish island.

Ian Christie on the 1943 Powell and Pressburger film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a film that has been called Britain's answer to Citizen Kane.

As part of BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, historian and columnist Simon Heffer reflects on classic taboo-breaking British films which depicted a society changed profoundly by war.

As part of BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, historian and columnist Simon Heffer reflects on classic taboo-breaking British films which depicted a society changed profoundly by war.

As part of BBC Radio 3's Sound of Cinema, historian and columnist Simon Heffer reflects on classic taboo-breaking British films which depicted a society changed profoundly by war.