Poet Lemn Sissay features the Liverpool Poets in the first episode of a radio series titled Poetry Rebels on Friday 3 December. He looks at how Roger McGough and Brian Patten pushed aside the poetry establishment and started performing live in bars and clubs in the 1960s, making a direct connection with audiences and opening up space for new voices to be heard.

In future episodes of the series he will be looking at political poets such as Attila the Stockbroker and Benjamin Zephaniah; poetry slams; how spoken word poets make the establishment sit up and take notice; and poets who came to fame via the internet. Each episode begins at 7pm on Fridays on Radio 4. More details

PHOTOGRAPH: BBC