The Essay

Five essays about one of the twentieth century's most fascinating playwrights, Samuel Beckett, recorded in front of an audience at the 2014 Happy Days International Beckett Festival in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. The authors include John Minihan, the photographer who captured some of the best known images of Beckett, the writer Fintan O'Toole and Mark Nixon, head of the Beckett International Foundation.In this edition, Irish actor Lisa Dwan describes the demands of performing Beckett and her encounters with some of the actors most closely associated with his work, including Billie Whitelaw.Producers - Conor Garrett & Stan Ferguson.

"Slate is our stone, from the quarries of Snowdonia", writes the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke in her Cornerstones essay, "just as the coal in the grate is ours, from the south Wales coalfield. We tread on slate every day." For her slate was inescapabable, ubiquitous: "In city, town, village and upland farm, we sleep under Welsh slate. Rain sings on it. It roofed every house I have ever lived in."Gillian's is the fourth and last of these essays in which writers and artists reflect on the way their bedrock geology - their cornerstones - have shaped their favourite landscapes. "To this day" she says, "the sight of slate-tips in rain never fails to fill me with awe, such an unbearable weight of angles and shards, of greys, purples, silvers, broken pieces of sky, so many deaths, so much lost life. So much geological and human history."In the other essays, Sue Clifford, co-founder of Common Ground reflects on her favourite limestone landscapes, the walker and geologist Ronald Turnbull addresses sandstone, and the sculptor Peter Randall-Page tells us what it's like working with something as unforgiving as Dartmoor's obdurate granite boulders.Producer: Mark Smalley.

For 25 years the sculptor Peter Randall-Page has worked Dartmoor's obdurate and unforgiving granite boulders. He reflects on what it's like trying to wrestle with it: "granite is stuff personified, quintessentially dumb matter, it is what the earth is made of, congealed magma, planetary and galactic, inert and unintelligible." Peter's is the third of four essays in which writers and artists reflect on the way their bedrock geology - their cornerstones - have shaped their favourite landscapes. Peter Randall-Page realises that he's worked his way back through geological time to work with granite: "beginning with the relatively young sedimentary limestone of Bath, through the metamorphic marble of Carrara to the most ancient material of granite."In the other essays, Sue Clifford, co-founder of Common Ground reflects on her favourite limestone landscapes, the walker and geologist Ronald Turnbull addresses sandstone and the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke addresses the human dimension of mining Snowdonia's slate.Producer: Mark Smalley.

The walker, writer and geologist Ronald Turnbull reflects on how some of his favourite landscapes across the UK are softly shaped by sandstone. The ease of carving it, he says, accounts for its attractions to mankind across time. This is the second of four essays in which writers reflect on the way their bedrock geology has shaped their favourite landscapes. The sandstone that characterises his home in Dumfries, Ronald Turnbull says, is similar to the sandstone of North America, Siberia and elsewhere, because it was all created as part of the same hot, desert landmass millions of years ago. In the other essays, Sue Clifford, co-founder of Common Ground reflects on limestone landscapes, the sculptor Peter Randall-Page describes what it's like working with Dartmoor's obdurate granite boulders, and the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke evokes the human stories shaped by Snowdonia's slate.Producer: Mark Smalley.

Sue Clifford, co-founder of the arts and environment organisation Common Ground, reflects on what England's limestone landscapes mean to her, the way water has carved out vast underground cave systems.This is the first of four essays in which writers reflect on the way their bedrock geology has shaped their favourite landscapes. Limestone, as Sue Clifford says, is not only the stone of choice for many of Britain's architectural landmarks, but in the wild it also supports a wealth of flowers, creating its own micro-climates in the klints and grykes that characterise karst scenery. Limestone, she acknowledges, rejoices in its own specific vocabulary.In the other essays, the walker and geologist Ronald Turnbull addresses sandstone, the sculptor Peter Randall-Page describes what it's like working with Dartmoor's obdurate granite boulders, and the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke writes about Snowdonia's slate.Producer: Mark Smalley.

Continuing the Sound of Cinema season, the Rev Richard Coles ponders heaven and hell in the classic 1946 Powell and Pressburger film A Matter of Life and Death, starring David Niven.Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, together known as The Archers, were one of the most influential and audacious film-makers of the 1930s and 40s. Their groundbreaking works include: 'The Red Shoes', 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp', 'A Matter of Life and Death' and 'Black Narcissus'.The Rev Richard Coles is a cleric and broadcaster. Producer: Justine Willett.

Continuing the Sound of Cinema season, ballerina, writer and broadcaster Deborah Bull gives a dancer's take on Powell and Pressburger's best-known film, the 1948 classic 'The Red Shoes', starring Moira Shearer, and based on the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, together known as The Archers, were one of the most influential and audacious film-makers of the 1930s and 40s. Their groundbreaking works include: 'The Red Shoes', 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp', 'A Matter of Life and Death' and 'Black Narcissus'.Writen and read by Deborah Bull. Bull joined The Royal Ballet in 1981 and became a Principal Ballerina in 1992. After her 20-year career in ballet, she went on to become Creative Director of the Royal Opera House, as well as an author and broadcaster. She is currently Director of Cultural Partnerships at King's College, London. Producer: Justine Willett.

Taking Robert Graves' phrase Goodbye to All That as their starting point, five writers from countries involved in the First World War reflect on a turning point moment in their own histories and interpret the phrase with the ambiguity that Graves intended.These five essays that have been curated by writer Lavinia Greenlaw to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One, as part of 14-18 Now, a major cultural programme across the United Kingdom.Tonight, Jeanette Winterson examines her own sense that recent years have seen a turning point in British attitudes to the importance of the arts.Written and read by Jeanette Winterson Produced by Emma Harding.

Taking Robert Graves' phrase Goodbye to All That as their starting point, five writers from countries involved in the First World War reflect on a turning point moment in their own histories and interpret the phrase with the ambiguity that Graves intended.These five essays that have been curated by writer Lavinia Greenlaw to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One, as part of 14-18 Now, a major cultural programme across the United Kingdom.Tonight, Chinese-born author, Xiaolu Guo, contemplates the role of Chinese 'coolies' on the battlefields of the First World War. Written and read by Xiaolu Guo Produced by Emma Harding.

Taking Robert Graves' phrase Goodbye to All That as their starting point, five writers from countries involved in the First World War reflect on a turning point moment in their own histories and interpret the phrase with the ambiguity that Graves intended.These five essays that have been curated by writer Lavinia Greenlaw to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One, as part of 14-18 Now, a major cultural programme across the United Kingdom.Episode Three: A Visit to the MagicianTonight, German writer Daniel Kehlmann reflects on recent German history through the prism of a hypnotism show taking place in a central Berlin theatre. Written and read by Daniel Kehlmann Translated by Carol Janeway Produced by Emma Harding.