Tony Harrison's Controversial Poem 'V' To Be Broadcast On Radio 4

Poem To Be Broadcast 25 Years After Sparking 'Outrage'

A poem containing a torrent of swear words which sparked outrage 25 years ago is being broadcast on Radio 4.

Dramatist Tony Harrison penned V in 1985, after discovering that football hooligans had desecrated his parents' gravestones with obscene graffiti.

Channel 4 was criticised when it broadcast a film version, directed by Richard Eyre, in 1987.

Tony Harrison, author of V

Now BBC Radio 4 is broadcasting a new recording, made by the poet on location in Leeds and in a studio.

The 30-minute poem will air next month, following an introductory feature by the author and poet Blake Morrison.

Tony Phillips, Radio 4's arts commissioning editor, said V, which was written during the 1984-85 miners strike and tackles subjects such as racial and religious conflict, was a "seminal work" which had made an "impact on society".

"V did cause a little bit of a flurry of activity in the 1980s when it first went out," he said.

"We'll find a way to put it on air without compromising Harrison's poem at all. We'll have lots of signposting. Yes, it will present us with some challenges but I'm sure we'll be able to overcome them."

He added: "One of the interesting and most powerful things about the poem for me... is that the area where the graveyard was, where his parents are buried, is the Beeston area of Leeds.

"That area was also the area... where one of the 7/7 bombers is from. So it just strikes me as a really poignant and potentially really interesting revisit of this poem, knowing that one of the 7/7 bombers at that stage would have been a very young child."

He added: "It's a very interesting time to take Harrison back... Ultimately we will allow the poem itself to speak 25 years or so on."

He said of the swear words: "It's very important that, as much as we can, we air the poem as Harrison wrote it... There will be many, many warnings and explanations and it will be late at night."

Watch Part 1 of V below (contains strong language):

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