Four Sides of Seamus Heaney: John Kelly to present first episode of BBC Radio 4 series

BBC Radio 4 will air a programme called 'Four Sides of Seamus Heaney' exploring the life of the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. Heaney was one of the most famous and accomplished English language poets of our time. He was a Nobel prize winner and his poems have had a far-reaching impact, even after his death in 2013.

The programme will have four episodes, each with a different presenter with personal knowledge of Heaney focusing on a separate aspect of his work.

The synopsis for the first two episodes has been revealed: the first, which airs this Sunday, features poet and RTE broadcaster John Kelly visiting Heaney's hometown of Bellaghy in County Derry. Heaney lived on a farm in Bellaghy until secondary school, and it is where he is now buried. Additionally, Kelly is joined by Dan Heaney, one of Seamus' brothers, who accompanies him around the village and shows him the lasting impact Heaney had on it.

The episode will also feature recordings from the archive of Heaney reading some of his work.

The second episode is helmed by Catherine Heaney, Seamus Heaney's daughter, as she explores love in her father's poems. He wrote many love poems about love of different kinds, and they became some of his best-known works. In the episode, his daughter visits Glanmore, his cottage in rural Wicklow, to talk to her brothers about the poems and how they came to be.

Details on the third and fourth episodes have yet to be released.

You can read more about the programme on the BBC website here. The first episode airs this Sunday 20th August at 16:30, and the following three episodes will continue weekly.