1×90’ for BBC2

A couple of generations ago, all children learnt poetry by heart at school. Now committing poetry to memory is unfashionable and not recommended as part of the national curriculum. This, of course, is one of the reasons that poetry is becoming moribund in this country. Learning poetry by heart is really the best way to experience a poem. You don’t have to understand every word of a poem to transformed by it. But learning poetry by heart has benefits way beyond absorbing what Coleridge called ‘the right words in the right order’ directly into the bloodstream. Kinaesthetic learning which involves movement and sound, is particularly effective with children who have dyslexia or dyspraxia. Holding a rhythm in the head can make it easier for children to learn to read.

OFF BY HEART is a documentary that follows a variety of children – aged 7-11 years old – as they compete in a national poetry recitation competition. Warm, funny and compelling the competition will test memory, performance and delivery. Along the way, we’ll see how the act of learning the most famous poems in the English language changes the children taking part and how the competition affects their confidence and ability to express themselves.

Director
Antonia Bird

Executive Producer
Daisy Goodwin

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