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Once Upon a Time...

From Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood to Bluebeard's Castle and Mother Goose plus modern fairy tale versions by Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson and Nikita Gill

As part of the BBC's 'Once Upon a Time...' week, we're meeting princesses, princes, wicked stepmothers... and a whole host of other characters in this fairy tale inspired edition of Words and Music. We're travelling back in time with readings from some of the earliest written versions of classic stories from fairy tale masters Hans Christian Anderson, The Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault; and we're also bang up to date with modern retellings from Nikita Gill and Jeanette Winterson There's music from Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty and Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. We're visiting Bluebeard's Castle with music from Bartok and Angela Carter, The Land of Nod in Robert Louis Stevenson's poem, and grandma with Little Red Riding Hood.

The readers are Pearce Quigley and Lydia Wilson
Producer: Jessica Treen

Readings:
Charles Perrault – Cinderella
AE Stallings – Fairy tale Logic
Giambattista Basile - How The Tale Came to Be Told
Clara Doty Bates – Little Red Riding Hood
William Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Ella McLeod – Rapunzella
Robert Louis Stevenson- The Land of Nod
Hans Christian Anderson – The Little Mermaid
Andrew Lang- Rumpelstiltkin
Angela Carter – The Bloody Chamber
Tom Hood – The Sleeping Beauty
Christina Rosetti – The Prince’s Progress
Angela Carter – The Frog Maiden
Evelyn Sharp – The Princess and the Poet
Ben Johnson – The Fairy Beam Upon You
Jeanette Winterson – Sexing the Cherry
Robert Browning – Pied Piper
Nikita Gill – The Miller’s Daughter

The BBC’s ‘Once Upon a Time…’ week celebrates fairytales and storytelling in partnership with the British Library. The British Library’s major new exhibition Fairy Tales runs from 27th March – 23rd August 2026.

1 hour, 14 minutes

On radio

Tomorrow19:45
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are the time of the day

  • 18:45

    Stephen Sondheim

    Prologue: Into The Woods

    Performer: Original Broadway Cast of Into the Woods.
    • Masterworks Broadway.
    • Tr1.
  • 18:46

    Eric Coates

    Cinderella - A Phantasy

    Performer: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • AVIE.
    • Tr9.

  • Charles Perrault

    Cinderella

  • 18:50

    Stephen Sondheim

    Prologue: Into The Woods

    Performer: Original Broadway Cast of Into the Woods.
    • Masterworks Broadway.
    • Tr1.

  • AE Stallings

    Fairy Tale Logic

  • 18:53

    Václav Trojan

    Fairytales for accordion and orchestra: 7th movement; The Acrobatic Fairytale

    Performer: Ksenija Sidorova.
    • CHAMPS HILL RECORDS.
    • Tr8.

  • Giambattista Basile

    How The Tale Came to Be Told

  • Clara Doty Bates

    Red Riding Hood

  • 18:57

    Sergey Rachmaninov

    4 Pieces Op.4 for piano no.4; Suggestion diabolique

    Performer: Andrei Gavrilov.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
    • Tr9.
  • 18:59

    Fairport Convention

    Tam Lin

    • UMC.
    • Tr6.

  • William Shakespeare

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream

  • 19:01

    Felix Mendelssohn

    A Midsummer night's dream - incidental music (Op.61): Overture (Op.21)

    Performer: Philippe Herreweghe.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • Tr1.

  • Ella McLeod

    Rapunzella

  • 19:06

    Ayanna Witter-Johnson

    Rise Up (Cello Concerto)

    Performer: Ayanna Witter-Johnson.
    • Hill and Gully Records.
    • Tr1.
  • 19:09

    Carl Nielsen

    Aladdin - suite........: Aladdin's dream and dance of the morning mists

    Performer: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
    • Sony Classical.
    • Tr7.

  • Robert Louis Stevenson

    The Land of Nod

  • 19:12

    Antonín Dvořák

    Rusalka

    Performer: Sheku Kanneh‐Mason.
    • Decca.
    • Tr9.

  • Hans Christian Anderson (Translated by MR James)

    The Little Mermaid

  • 19:14

    Pat Carroll

    Poor Unfortunate Souls (The Little Mermaid)

    • Walt Disney Records.
    • Tr6.

  • Andrew Lang

    Rumpelstiltskin

  • 19:16

    Leigh Harline

    The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (Main Title)

    Performer: Leigh Harline & His Orchestra.
    • Soundtrack Classics.
    • Tr3.
  • 19:18

    Béla Bartók

    Bluebeard's Castle, Op 11 (First Door: The Torture Chamber)

    Performer: Anne Sofie von Otter.
    • EMI.
    • Tr2.

  • Angela Carter

    The Bloody Chamber

  • 19:19

    Maurice Ravel

    Gaspard de la nuit for piano, no.1; Ondine

    Performer: Martha Argerich.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • Tr1.
  • 19:25

    Pyotr Tchaikovsky

    The Sleeping beauty - ballet Op.66: Act 1, no.9; Finale

    Performer: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • RPO.
    • Tr20.

  • Tom Hood

    The Sleeping Beauty

  • Christina Rosetti

    The Prince’s Progress

  • 19:31

    Taylor Swift

    White Horse

    Performer: Taylor Swift.
    • Taylor Swift.
    • Tr5.
  • 19:33

    John Dowland

    The Frogg Gailard

    Performer: Paul O’Dette.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • Tr3.

  • Angela Carter

    The Frog Maiden

  • 19:34

    Danny Kaye

    Thumbelina

    • Geffen.
    • Tr5.

  • Evelyn Sharp

    The Princess and The Poet

  • 19:36

    August Enna

    Den lille pige med svovlstikkerne (the Little Match Girl): Overture

    Performer: Ole Schmidt.
    • Dacapo.
    • Tr1.

  • Ben Johnson

    The Fairy Beam Upon You

  • 19:41

    Brian Easdale

    The Red Shoes Ballet

    Performer: Brian Easdale.
    • Sceen Classics.
    • Tr10.

  • Jeanette Winterson

    Sexing The Cherry

  • 19:46

    Artie Shaw

    Pied Piper Theme

    Performer: Artie Shaw.
    • Artie Shaw Music LLC.
    • Tr11.

  • Robert Browning

    Pied Piper

  • 19:49

    Georges Auric

    La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast):Main Title

    Performer: Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • Marco Polo.
    • Tr3.
  • 19:53

    Erich Wolfgang Korngold

    The Fairy Tale's Epilogue (Fairytales, Op.3)

    Performer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
    • VARESE SARABANDE.
    • Tr2.

  • Nikita Gill

    The Miller’s Daughter

Broadcast

  • Tomorrow19:45
    BBC Radio 3

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