The Angel of the North
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2018
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A huge steel sculpture, that has become an icon for the north-east of England, was completed in February 1998. Designed by artist Antony Gormley, the Angel of the North was initially met with so much opposition that it was almost never built. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to arts curator Anna Pepperall who was involved in the plans to build the most ambitious piece of public art that Britain had ever seen.
Photo: The Angel of the North (Credit: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, and that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.4 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over |
| 1:11.1 | at BBC Sounds. |
| 1:12.3 | Hello, and thank you for downloading our history program Witness here on the BBC World Service. |
| 1:17.0 | I'm Louis Adaggo and today I'm taking you back to February 1998 and the completion of a huge iconic steel sculpture the Angel of the |
| 1:26.2 | North which stands on the site of a former coal mine in the northeast of England. |
| 1:30.9 | The Angel of the North is today one of the most popular landmarks in the UK. |
| 1:35.0 | But as I've been hearing, the idea was at first met with outright hostility and almost wasn't built at all. |
| 1:43.0 | That is a real mission, I suppose, for me. |
... |
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