Illustration: Pete Fowler

There’s a good week of radio ahead for lovers of running water, Chris Watson and Cornish poetry.

“Can I direct the site’s attention to this: it has got water, albeit salt, and little auks, and sea beans, and singing and sadness in it….” so speaks Tim Dee who dropped us a line to tell us about A Sea Shanty for Charles Causley, a programme he has produced for BBC R4 which airs this afternoon (Sunday, 16:30). Now on BBC iPlayer.

Starting on Monday, again on BBC Radio 4, is a series called The River. Produced by the ever-excellent Sarah Blunt and featuring sound recording by Chris Watson, The River will be broadcast every day next week at 13:45. Monday’s programme, Sabrina and the Fish of no Return, presented by Paul Evans, focusses on the Severn. Sue Brooks, who wrote in to make sure we were aware of the series, says “Sabrina is the old name for the River Severn and she’s always portrayed round here as a ravishing Goddess, rather mermaid-like. What a story that will be.”

Also featured are the Thames, the North Tyne, and, on Thursday, in an episode which we are especially looking forward to, Kathleen Jamie talks about the Tay from a kayak: “You have a hawk’s eye view of the Tay as it makes its entrance, curving round the hills upstream, to accept the waters of the river Earn and at once becomes estuarial.”
Listen now on the BBC iPlayer