Iona Opie and the Secret World of Children's Play

A sonic portrait of childhood play, interweaving Iona Opie’s extraordinary field recordings with the sounds of the present day.

From the late 1960s, Iona Opie travelled playgrounds across the United Kingdom with a tape recorder, collecting the chants, rhymes and games of children at play. Her recordings capture a world that is anarchic, poetic, and startlingly alive — a language culture passed between children, out of adult earshot.

Threaded with modern recordings and reflections from those who’ve spent a lifetime listening to children at play, Under the Closed Flower listens in on a world adults so often forget how to hear. In the games of children — their rhymes, rituals, and secret codes — we glimpse a world both ancient and ever-changing, chaotic and precise, playful and profound.

Featuring recordings from the Iona and Peter Opie Archive at the British Library.
Produced by James Spinney
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3