BBC Radio 4 is paying tribute to the late poet Tony Harrison by rebroadcasting his landmark poem v., alongside Blake Morrison’s 2013 documentary exploring its origins and impact.

Mohit Bakaya, Director of Speech and Controller, BBC Radio 4, said: “Tony Harrison was one of our most vital poetic voices, and v. remains a landmark work that speaks directly to the divisions and tensions that affect our society, both when it was published, exactly 40 years ago this month, as well as today.

In light of the announcement of Harrison’s recent death, and to mark this anniversary, we have taken the opportunity revisit this important work.

Some of the language is very challenging, but he used it deliberately to confront the realities of class, race, and identity in Britain, and that intention is crucial to our understanding of this powerful piece. Our responsibility at Radio 4 is not to sanitise history, but to provide context, clarity, and space for reflection.

However, we’ve taken great care to frame this broadcast with commentary from some important figures to ensure listeners understand the poem’s purpose and power.”

First published in the London Review of Books in November 1985, v. was written after Harrison discovered graffiti on his parents’ grave in Leeds. The poem confronts themes of class, race, politics and identity with unflinching honesty. Its use of raw, often shocking language sparked fierce cultural debates in the 1980s, and remains a defining moment in British literary history.

40 years on, the themes of inequality, prejudice and fractured communities explored in v. still resonate today.

The rebroadcast features Harrison’s own reading of v., recorded for Radio 4’s Year of Culture in 2013, alongside Blake Morrison’s documentary which includes contributions from Melvyn Bragg, Simon Armitage, Julie Bindel and Gerald Howarth MP. One of the poem’s most vocal critics, Howarth said at the time that Harrison was “Probably another bolshie poet wishing to impose his frustrations on the rest of us”. Harrison retorted that Howarth was “Probably another idiot MP wishing to impose his intellectual limitations on the rest of us”.

We also hear from the Leeds based poet Khadijah Ibrahiim, who found the strong language to be liberating; “These are the words of the people, this is how they speak. (Poets) promote the truth. So if you’re coming from a place where you need to express those truths, then express them… If he didn’t use those words, he would be dishonest.”

AM2

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