Radio Times, April 2013
By Jane Anderson

Rufus Sewell and Gemma Arterton do not work for Radio 3 for the money, so it must be for their love of literature. They sweep us along on a buoyant wave of beautiful music and tumbling words linked by the topic of time.

One moment it’s the Mad Hatter’s tea party; then there’s a sane, sobering piece on friction-free clocks from Dava Sobel’s Longitude; but HG Wells and Oscar Wilde are waiting to pounce with terrifying time-travelling machines and withered, wrinkled, loathsome visages.

Each carefully chosen piece of literature segues into music as varied and as different as the words that precede them: Richard Strauss, Pink Floyd, Chopin and Dave Brubeck all have their time to shine.

About this programme:
Gemma Arterton and Rufus Sewell read extracts on the subject of time, a theme that has always been popular with authors, poets and composers. Including words by Shakespeare, DH Lawrence, John Milton, Lewis Carroll, Kurt Vonnegut, Martin Amis and HG Wells, accompanied by the music of Haydn, Messiaen, Ligeti and Pink Floyd.