Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. This is a download from the BBC. For more information and our terms of use, go to BBC.co.uk slash radio three.

Poetry, said the irrepressible Dylan Thomas, is not the most important thing in life.

I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agav Agatha Christie and Sucking Sweets. But in this

programme, we won't be taking the poet at his word. This year marks a hundredth anniversary of his

birth, and today we're exploring his work and legacy with poet Gillian Clark and painter Peter Blake.

Gillian Clark is the National Poet of Wales and has been awarded the Queen's Gold Medal

for Poetry.

Sir Peter Blake was a founder of British pop art who designed the sleeve of the Beatles

album, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band.

One of his most recent projects, which has been on display at the National Museum of Cardiff,

is a series of illustrations inspired by Under Milkwood.

We're also joined on stage by the actor Tristan Gravelle,

whose roles include Victor Colliano in the TV series Mr. Selfridge.

Before I say any more, I'm going to ask Tristan to start us off

with a reading from Under Milkwood.

We're going to take Dylan Thomas's advice

about where to begin this evening.

To begin at the beginning.

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and Bible black.

The cobble street silent and the hunched quarters and rabbits wood limping invisible down to the slow black.

Slow black, crow black, fishing-boat bobbing sea. The houses are blind as malls, though malls see fine tonight in the snouting

velvet dingles, or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town

...