Summary
"Jerusalem" has become a quintessentially middle-class and very English song, but it's also held in the hearts and memories of people from different backgrounds and cultures.
There is a bit of cricket - commentator Jonathan Agnew (Aggers) discusses England's stunning and unexpected victory in the 2005 Ashes. Jerusalem reminds him of that extraordinary summer.
Pamela Davenport is the daughter of a man who felt that the words of Jerusalem highlighted inequality in society; lack of money prevented him fulfilling his academic potential and he died in a care home that didn't care well enough for him.
For American poet, Ann Lauterbach, the unusual and little-known Paul Robeson version was the theme-tune to her escape from the difficult years of Nixon and Vietnam to 1960s London.
Singer, Janet Shell, recalls the burial of her Great Uncle who was killed during World War One, but whose body was only discovered in 2009.
Susanne Sklar - a scholar of William Blake - discusses the inspiration behind the words of the poem. Probably, she says, he wrote them while awaiting his trial for sedition; he was in trouble for fighting with a soldier who had urinated in his garden.
Composer and writer, Paul Spicer, plays, sings and talks through the tune which was composed by Sir Hubert Parry.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
Producer: Karen Gregor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2016.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Jonathan Agnew and I'm the BBC cricket correspondent. England hadn't won the |
| 0:04.4 | ashes for so long and I must say throughout the 1990s it looked as if we'd never win them again, |
| 0:10.0 | such as the Australian domination, but also England just seemed to have lagged a long way behind |
| 0:15.6 | as well. So I must admit, when the Australians arrived in 2005, I don't think many people gave England much of a chance of winning, and particularly after they lost the first test at Lord. |
| 0:28.1 | The last day at the Oval was extraordinary. The sun was shining. It was just one of those surreal days, really, when all your hopes and aspirations as an English cricket fan you just really |
| 0:39.3 | almost entirely believe we're going to come true as always there's that little temptation |
| 0:43.1 | that thing niggling away that maybe something might go wrong but it just seemed actually that |
| 0:47.3 | the odds were with England and this is going to be something very special it's what live |
| 0:50.8 | sports all about for me and we are lucky enough to be there, and we can convey it, |
| 0:55.0 | convey the excitement, the emotion, the drama and everything to people who are listening. |
| 0:59.0 | And Jerusalem has become the anthem of English cricket. |
| 1:07.0 | Sean Ruin, who sings the ECB version, if you like, he was only a few feet away from it. |
| 1:12.1 | We looked at each other and we gave each other a little nod. |
| 1:14.9 | And bang on cue, he started. |
| 1:16.8 | And in those feet in ancient time, |
| 1:24.5 | walk upon England's mountain tree. And I must admit my hair was on |
| 1:32.3 | it's passion rousing gets you going |
| 1:36.3 | Jerusalem is the cue for the umpires to come out first in their white coats, they walked out into the sunshine, it was a beautiful morning, followed by the players. |
| 1:54.0 | You could hear them coming down the concrete steps and out onto the grass. Thousands of people were leaning out of the windows of the flats that run all the way around the oval cricket ground, |
| 2:11.6 | but not just out of the windows, but clinging onto the chimney pots and leaning out of balconies |
| 2:17.7 | and flags flying and banners. |
| 2:20.7 | I think we probably all knew that England would win the ashes that day, |
... |
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