2024 Charles Parker Prizewinners
On Friday (22nd March) in the sumptuous surroundings of the Arts Library of the University of Liverpool, the winners of the 2024 Charles Parker Prize for Student Audio Feature were announced. Speaking in the context of Charles Parker Day 2024, Commissioning Editor for Speech Programmes at BBC Radio 4, Hugh Levinson, presented the Charles Parker Gold Award 2024 to Grace Reeve of Goldsmiths, University of London for The Outcast Dead and Alive.
Levinson also announced the four further programmes which, alongside the Gold Award, will form this year’s New Storytellers series to be broadcast on Radio 4 later in the year. They are:
Fight Fair - Libby Liburd (UCL)
Friends of the Wall - Evan Green (Goldsmiths)
Full Circle - Amy Bartlett (University of the West of England)
The National Language of Nowhere - Naomi Bloomstein (UCL)
Speaking at the ceremony, Chair of the judges Simon Elmes said it had been a fantastic year for high-quality productions. “The judging panel had a mesmerising range of features on offer,” Elmes commented, “and a massive task to pick their way amongst programmes of such a high quality”. The subjects, he said, had ranged widely, from the story of a little-known community of Sicilian immigrants in Hertfordshire who came to England after the war to grow cucumbers, to the life of an artist’s naked life model, recorded as it happened.
Grace Reeve’s Gold Award-winning programme features Crossbones cemetery in East London, where the bodies of sex-workers from centuries past are buried and which today has become a sort of alternative ecological spiritual garden. The citation of the judges said: The execution is beautiful, the actuality strong and the sound effects and music components exquisitely done. It is very moving, blending history with the politics and meaning behind what's going on today. It's very powerful to have both this space and this radio feature commemorating sex workers; I loved it!. Elmes commented that this year’s Gold Award was particularly appropriate as Reeve’s feature encapsulated the spirit of the work of Charles Parker (1919–1980), a legendary radio producer whose documentaries, and especially the celebrated Radio Ballads (1957-1964), gave an eloquent voice to the unheard, the unrepresented and the downtrodden.
Earlier, Elmes announced the names of the remaining nine shortlisted nominees, with the judges’ citations.
All Night Long - Darya Kalsi (Goldsmiths)
An enjoyable impressive entry with such a good balance of different moods, personalities and characters! A really well made, musical piece.
A Recipe for Recovery - Anna de Wolff Evans (UCL)
A beautifully told story, very gentle but hopeful, sonically interesting and easy on the ear.
Fight Fair - Libby Liburd (UCL)
This maker has real raw talent. It was very moving, and terrific to hear her determination. A marvellous programme, by a maker who knows absolutely what she’s doing.
Friends of the Wall - Evan Green (Goldsmiths)
A simple and yet riveting idea, told through marvellously articulate speakers. A powerful story with a lot of heart and a fantastic piece of work.
Full Circle - Amy Bartlett (UWE)
An impressive piece of work, highly personal, well-told with really powerful use of music to move along the storytelling. I was gripped and horrified.
RE:Connection - Chantal Romain (UCL)
Intriguing: it told a story that was both very personal and still relatable with lively scenes and a refreshing spontaneity and a vivid quality of recollection.
The National Language of Nowhere - Naomi Bloomstein (UCL)
Very, very accomplished with such a creative use of the medium, where the music really drove it. A beautifully made programme and definitely in the top bracket on so many levels.
The Slidey Rock - James Bonney (In the Dark)
I loved the sense of playfulness and fun, the sheer joy and childlike wonder of the subject, conveying the sense of wildness and speed, the sense of exhilaration. Joyous.
The Tale of the two Spoons - Irene Dani (In the Dark)
Absolutely charming and beautifully and musically put together: a real “audio delight”. Well made and unusual, it felt refreshingly light but without losing depth.
Charles Parker Day is the annual celebration of the work of radio producer Charles Parker whose innovative Radio Ballads, created jointly with Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, are landmarks of audio broadcasting history. The first Parker Day took place in 2004 and the first prize winner was Mark Williams in 2005. Mark discovered radio while serving a sentence at Wandsworth Prison and Inside Out was an audio diary of his last hours before release, and his first minutes as a free man. Twenty years on and now completing his Masters degree, Williams recorded a video message for this year’s winner that was played at Friday’s ceremony.