Episode One

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects The Poetry Detective. What's the line of poetry that will live in your head forever? The writer Vanessa Kisuule explores the stories behind people's most treasured poems.

Vanessa speaks to people about the poems - and bits of poems - that mean the most to them. She finds out why the poems matter, and then unfolds the backstory of the poem itself - who wrote it, what was the context it came out of and how does it work on us.

In this programme, Vanessa explores poems that have been handed down through families.

For Juan Dickinson, there are lines of Louis MacNeice's poetry which will forever remind him of his late dad - who used MacNeice's verse to impart life lessons to his son. But he's never known much about MacNeice the man - can Glenn Patterson help fill in the blanks?

Eleanor Penny has a poem in her family that she's never been able to identify - found in her grandad's pocket after his death. Can Chris McCabe, Librarian at the National Poetry Library help Vanessa track down the source?

Produced in Bristol by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2021.