The BBC's Poetry Season.

I cannot sleep profusely with the irritation of tinnitus so I switched the laptop onto re-watch a segement of the BBC's latest series on Poetic works of classical works and modernists. Finally, poetry has been elevated from the dusty library books to the flat screen television's across the UK which all started last week with the very passionate and over-excitedly giddy Griff Rhys Jones on BBC Two's Why Poetry Matters programme that showed many contributors especially liked to hear similar (I had to wear headphones of course) Yorkshire dialect of Simon Armitage who also writes wonderfully as he sounds .

But the one I've awaited until tonight which I watched keenly- Armando Iannucci in Milton's Heaven and Hell especially as I wrote an essay in the first semester on whether the poets Wyatt and Milton of such strong beliefs attempts to challenge the poetic conventions of the times. It seems according to Plashing Vole that I did not need to research, countlessly re-read and write such a exaggeratedly tedious essay in hope I showed my full understanding. But one thing I couldn't prove was, not that I understood it but that I was in complete awe that he could establish so many factors into the works of Paradise Lost and that is precisely what Iannucci does.

The programme is perhaps a tad simplistic at times especially for those who have read Paradise Lost more then a couple of times it also shows the wider picture linking the allusions to the inner thinking of perhaps the most learned poet I have encountered. Also the background work before the aforementioned epic was mentioned freely and I rather liked the part when Iannucci explained Milton's morality citing the works of Areopagitca saying it was 'the most perfect expression in English of defence and freedom of speech' therein lead to the belief that Milton saw books as having 'intrinsic merit.' It goes on to describe the passage leading to Milton's imprisonment and how he wrote, whilst blinded and assisted by a friend, Paradise Lost.

If you missed it, here is a chance to view it once again on that rather useful device BBC iPlayer which handily for me comes with subtitles so I shan't need the headphones I've packed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ksjzj/Armando_Iannucci_in_Miltons_Heaven_and_Hell/

I shall be tuning into the BBC Four showing of the Anglo-Saxon world – to reveal the origins of our literary heritage in Michael Wood On Beowulf. Hopefully, if you haven't already then so shall you.

Oh lord, it seems one must sleep now. Ciao.