but have not had a chance to see it yet. Looking forward to it very much.

I had a a similar encounter with his work at University and it has not left me since.

I often think his remarks about the nature of poetry - the thoughts on the necessity of an objective correlative, the requirement for complexity to be imagined with precision and the dialogue between a poet and all the poetry that has gone before has resonance for all sorts of fields away from the literary. Not least our own eminent discussions.

I did see the opening credits and the one thing that annoyed me was the use of Dylan's "Desolation Row". It seems to me that that song in particular and Dylan in general would not have met with Eliot's approval representing an almost perfect opposite of all he stood for

Thanks for this post, Mikhail, as it articulated my own response in way I don't think I could manage. I caught the last few minutes of the show and found Webb's recitation very moving. Your observation about the elegiac quality of the poem and the way in which its meaning seems to shift with age was right on the money. Whereas my young self looked upon Prufrock as a conundrum to be solved, perhaps even the portrait of a life that was somehow appealing in a rather melancholy way, hearing it read the other night it felt much more reflective and sorrowful. We grow old, we grow old, yet sometimes these words return to us as measure of our lives more satisfying than those tarnished coffee spoons.

I'll take a look at the show on iPlayer but I'll also dig out the old collected poems.

The Arena show was let down by the awful modern tendency to play music under/around everything. Apparently Eliot's words can't stand up on their own and need the assistance of Portishead to see them through. Really poor.

I enjoyed the very moving programme with Sheila Hancock talking about the poetry that helped her after the death of her husband, John Thaw. She explored the poetry's connection with landscape and memory.
Hancock is such a wonderful personality - so open, warm and witty. I hope she doesn't just become known as John Thaw's widow.

hullo trees...

sorry

Thought it was the most excellent and moving piece of television I've seen all year. And he's also provided one of the funniest moments with his Flashdance routine.

When i was bookselling I knew a Faber rep who had been with the company so long that he remembered when TS Eliot had an office in their Russell Square headquarters. He told me that the sign on his door simply read 'Thomas Stearns'; I suggested that it had read 'TSEliot' until that unfortunate incident with the dislexic proof reader.

I've been put off most of the "poetry season" by the fact that some of the programmes seemed to involve celebrities - I don't need the presence of Robert Webb (although I like him as a comic actor) to validate a discussion of poetry. Next week - God help us - it's Cerys Matthews on Dylan Thomas and no doubt it can't be long before we get Susan Boyle on Robbie Burns.

....that the Eliot film was cut and then somebody suggested that the audience might need its hand holding at the beginning. That's why it started with that entirely spurious quote from Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" as if to say, 'don't run away, this links with popular culture, wait a moment, you'll see.'

It was half an hour too long, as is nearly everything on TV. I can't stop thinking about the fact that he wrote "The Waste Land" while working every day at Lloyd's Bank. So much for going professional.

Re: the Robert Webb programme. I couldn't help thinking when he was interviewing Clive James that the latter would have made a better presenter because he would have started by knowing a lot about the subject.

But enjoyed the Robert Webb programme. I also feel that Clive James would have been a fabulous presenter - perhaps on a programme of his own. A great poet - i was hoping for a little more of this in the recent issue.