BBC Radio’s The Verb will be presenting a special programme looking back at this year’s Morecambe poetry festival at 9pm on Friday 3 January. The programme was recorded at the festival in September this year at Morecambe Winter Gardens, with presenter Ian McMillan and poets Pam Ayres, Raymond Antrobus and Henry Normal.

In the programme Pam Ayres recalls the first poem she ever performed live while working for the RAF, before her winning appearance on the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks. Raymond Antrobus reads from a long sequence of poems written after he learned he was going to be a father. One of his poems describes the sign language his hearing son - born in 2021 - communicated with before he could speak. Raymond's own deafness was diagnosed when he was six.

Henry Normal has a long association with the Morecambe poetry festival. He was involved in its creation and is almost its resident poet. More details