BBC Radio 3 Breakfast presenter Tom McKinney is to present a week of live broadcasts this June, taking listeners on a journey along the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk. The five morning programmes, from 15 to 19 June, will feature live music and conversations with people who live and work in the area.
Beginning at Blakeney Point, listeners will join McKinney near the Old Lifeboat House 'surrounded by the sounds of terns, oystercatchers and skylarks, and to meet the wardens who make this remote haven their home for the spring and summer'. The Monday 15 programme includes a boat crossing across the River Glaven estury and live songs from the Shackleton Trio.
On Tuesday 16 June, McKinney broadcasts from Cromer’s 125-year-old Grade II-listed pier, and boards the Tamar class lifeboat for a training exercise with members of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution; while on Wednesday 17 June, he visits Horsey Windpump on the edge of the Norfolk Broads and the city of Norwich, with live music by folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Olivia Chaney.
Broadcasting from Carlton Marshes on Thursday 18, the programme features songs of local fishermen sung by Rogue Shanty Buoys, and on Friday 19 June, the journey culminates in Aldeburgh, where McKinney explores the landscapes that inspired the music of Benjamin Britten. Pianist James Baillieu performs live on Britten’s own piano at The Red House, where the composer lived for many years, and McKinney then heads to his final location, Snape Maltings, the home of Aldeburgh Festival.
Radio 3 Breakfast presenter Tom McKinney says:
'I am looking forward to celebrating the beauty, as well as the cultural and historical significance, of one of the country’s most treasured areas. This coastal journey will be full of moments to savour, as we explore local wildlife, reflect on the importance of enduring seaside traditions, and discover the musical heritage that has emerged from these landscapes and which continues to be celebrated around the world.'
Previous BBC Radio 3 Breakfast Road trips
In previous years, Breakfast has traveled through Gloucestershire and Somerset and across the North East of England, lough-to-lough across Northern Ireland and coast-to-coast through the Scottish Highlands. The programme has followed the Rivers Ure and Ouse to the Humber in Yorkshire and has journeyed along the River Severn from Wales into England. Breakfast has also broadcast live from forests in Co. Down, Hampshire and Snowdonia.
