Film, TV & Radio

Film and TV

Xanadu (BBC 2 Words On Film, 1992) – a thirty-minute film in verse, set on a housing estate in Lancashire. Written and presented by Simon Armitage. Director Kim Flitcroft.

Looking For Robinson (BBC2, 1993) – a fifty-minute film in prose and verse on the life and work of American poet Weldon Kees. Written and presented by Simon Armitage.

One Foot In The Past (BBC2, 1993) – a ten minute film in verse for BBC2’s heritage and landscape programme. Written and presented by Simon Armitage.

The Late Show (BBC2, 1993)

Building Sights (BBC2, 1995) – a ten minute film about Humber Bridge for BBC2’s contemporary architecture programme. Written and presented by Simon Armitage.

Words From Jerusalem (BBC1, 1995) – a commissioned poem for Easter. Written and presented by Simon Armitage.

Saturday Night (Century Films, BBC2, 1996) – a fifty minute poetic commentary to a documentary about night-life in Leeds. Written and narrated by Simon Armitage. Directed by Brian Hill.

Drinking for England (Century Films, BBC2, 1998) – a fifty minute documentary. Poetry and song lyrics written by Simon Armitage. Directed by Brian Hill.

Killing Time (Century Films, Channel 4) – 90 minute televised version of the millennium poem written by Simon Armitage. Performed by Christopher Eccleston. Broadcast on New Year’s Day 2000. Directed by Brian Hill.

The Tyre (Century Films, Channel 4 2001) – feature film based on poem of same name (published in Cloud Cuckooland) written by Simon Armitage. Directed by Brian Hill.

Feltham Sings (Century Films, Channel 4 2002) – docu-drama set in Feltham Young Offenders Institution. 2003 BAFTA winner, directed by Brian Hill. Poetry and song lyrics written by Simon Armitage. Winner of Ivor Novello award for best music for television.

Pornography: The Musical (Century Films, Channel 4 2003) – docu-drama about women working in the pornography industry. Poetry and song lyrics written by Simon Armitage. Directed by Brian Hill.

Late Review (BBC2 2002/2003) – contributor to BBC2’s late night arts review programme.

A Brief Period of Rejoicing – 30 minute commissioned film-poem for Chennel 5 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE Day. Performed by Sheila Hancock, directed by Ned Williams.

Songbirds (Century Films/Channel 4, 2005) – documentary set in Downview women’s prison. Poetry and song lyrics written by Simon Armitage. Directed by Brian Hill.

Out Of The Blue (Silver River/Channel 5) – specially commissioned film-poem written by Simon Armitage and performed by Rufus Sewell to commemorate the fifth anniversary of 9.11. Directed by Ned Williams.

The Not Dead (Century Films/Chanel 4, 2007) documentary featuring veterans of the Gulf, Bosnia and Malayan wars. Poetry written by Simon Armitage. Directed by Brian Hill.

Climate of Change (Century Films, 2008) – poetry commentary written by Simon Armitage for cinema-release documentary on the subject of environmentalism and conservation. Directed by Brian Hill. Narrated by Tilda Swinton.

Upgrade Me (BBC4, 2009) – one hour documentary on the subject of gadgets and new technology. Written and presented by Simon Armitage. Directed by Jeremy Monblat.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (BBC4, 2009) – one hour documentary on Sir Gawain’s journey from Camelot to the Green Chapel. Written and presented by Simon Armitage. Directed by Tim Dunn.

The Making of Arthur (BBC4, 2010) – one hour documentary following the Norman influence on Arthurian literature. Written and presented by Simon Armitage for the BBC’s Norman season. Directed by Matt Hill.

In Search of Odysseus (BBC4, 2010) – one hour documentary following Odysseus’s journey from Troy in Turkey to his island home of Ithaca in Greece. Written and presented by Simon Armitage. Directed by John Holdsworth.

The Great War: An Elegy – A Culture Show Special (BBC 2, 2014) – one hour documentary following seven WW1 stories and featuring the new poems they inspired. Written and presented by Simon Armitage. Directed by Zoe Silver.

Black Roses : The Killing of Sophie Lancaster (BBC 4, 2015) – film adaptation of radio drama commissioned by BBC Radio 4 in 2011. Written by Simon Armitage. Directed by Susan Roberts. The radio broadcast of Black Roses won the BBC Radio Best Speech Programme of 2011 and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry. The accompanying text was published by Pomona (2012). One-third of all profits from the sale of this book are donated to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Child in Mind (BBC 4, 2017) – commissioned documentary, featuring a groundbreaking new scheme in Hull called PAUSE, which aims to break the cycle of repeat care removals. Poetry written by Simon Armitage. Directed by Sam Benstead.

The Brink (2019) – specifically created for Art 50 to explore British identity and meditate on the relationship between Britain and Europe. Written and performed by Simon Armitage, produced by Jim Poyser, directed by Jason Wingard. 

Radio works

Including:

The Mark Radcliffe Show – contributer, BBC Radio 1, 1995 -1998, BBC Radio 2 2004 to present day.

Second Draft from Saga Land – six programmes for BBC Radio 3, retracing the footsteps of W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice during their visit to Iceland in 1936.

Eyes of a Demigod – forty-minute commissioned programme on politician Victor Grayson in prose and verse, BBC Radio 3.

The Amherst Myth – BBC Radio 4. Wrote and presented forty-minute documentary feature on Emily Dickinson.

Trading Places – A series of ten interviews with leading British, Irish and American poets.

Points of Reference – BBC Radio 4. Wrote and presented four thirty-minute programmes, in verse, on the history of navigation and orientation.

From Salford to Jericho – Ninety-minute verse drama for BBC Radio 4.

To Bahia and Beyond – with Glyn Maxwell. Five thirty-minute verse/travelogue features from Brazil and the Amazon for BBC Radio 3.

The Bayeux Tapestry – Six part dramatisation for BBC Radio 3, with Geoff Young. – Armitage and Moore’s Guide to Song – writer and co-presenter, BBC Radio 4

A Tree Full of Monkeys specially commissioned work in collaboration with Zoviet France for the opening of the Baltic in Newcastle. 45 minutes, soundscape and poetry, BBC Radio 3.

The Odyssey – three-part dramatisation, BBC Radio 4, 2004.

Writing the City – BBC Radio 3 Commission. 5 poems, recorded live at the West Yorkshire Playhouse 2005, with other northern writers.

Black Roses : The Killing of Sophie Lancaster – drama commissioned by BBC Radio 4 in 2011. Written by Simon Armitage with an interview with Sylvia Lancaster. Produced in Manchester by Susan Roberts. After unprecedented audience response, Simon Armitage adapted the radio drama for the stage. Black Roses played at Manchester’s Royal Exchange in 2012, co-directed by Royal Exchange Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom and BBC Radio Drama producer Susan Roberts. The stage play then transferred to the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre before becoming a BBC4 film in 2015, directed by Susan Roberts. The radio broadcast of Black Roses won the BBC Radio Best Speech Programme of 2011 and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry. The accompanying text was published by Pomona (2012). One-third of all profits from the sale of this book are donated to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Oblique Strategies – presenter of BBC Radio 4 documentary, which explores the Strategies cards devised in the early 1970s by artists Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno. Broadcast 2013.

Last Days of Troy – adaptation as playwright of the theatre play originally staged by Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre in association with Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s South Bank. Director Nick Bagnall. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.

In a Nutshell – presenter of BBC Radio 4 documentary, which explores deadly dolls’ houses, the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Broadcast 2014.

Marginalia – presenter of BBC Radio 4 documentary, which travels to the edge of the page to explore marginalia. Broadcast 2014.

The Raft of the Medusa – BBC Radio 4 drama written by Simon Armitage, inspired by Derek Jarman. Directed by Jeremy Mortimer. Broadcast 2015.

The Odyssey: Missing, Presumed Dead – adaptation as playwright of the theatre play originally staged as An English Touring Theatre and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse co-production. Director Nick Bagnall. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.

Eurydice and Orpheus. Her story... BBC Radio 4 drama written by Simon Armitage. Produced by Susan Roberts. Broadcast 2017.

Pearl: Two Fathers, Two Daughters — BBC Radio 4 programme weaving together two voices of grief – one from 600 years ago and one of the present day, in Gerry McCann. Simon Armitage dramatised his translation of Pearl, a medieval poem recounting a father’s grief from the loss of his daughter. Performed by Iain Glen and Grace Doherty, the poem is intercut with a new in-depth interview by McCann. Producer Susan Roberts. Broadcast 2018. 

The Poet Laureate has Gone to his Shed – BBC Radio 4 series in which the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage talks to guests about life, language and music in his shed. Broadcast, Spring 2020.