Radio and television references

 

  • Great Lives - Peggy Seeger on her husband Ewan MacColl. Peggy Seeger picks the man she was with for 30 years - Ewan MacColl, folk singer and labour activist, and was joined in discussion by Peter Cox, author of Set Into Song. The programme is heavily illustrated with MacColl's music and his voice. Produced by Miles Warde, the programme was broadcast on 10 September 2021.

  • Charles Parker: Radio Pioneer – Sean Street delves into the archive of one of the most innovative and controversial BBC radio producers, reviewing Parker’s work from the Radio Ballads to his sacking in 1972. Produced by Andy Cartwright, this Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4 was broadcast in the Archive Hour on Saturday 6 April 2019, to mark Parker’s 100th birthday.

  • The Spirit of Hessle Road – produced by Hana Walker-Brown, a winner of the Charles Parker Prize in 2013.

  • Tarpaulin – a biography, broadcast on 28 November 2016 on Radio 4, the story of a fabric. This was written by Dina Gusejnova and produced by Sara Parker, who drew some quotes from the Travelling People.

  • Earshot: Off Limits, broadcast on 6 April 2016 by the Australian Broadcasting Company. Producer Gary Bryson opens a fascinating window onto the politics of protest at one particular moment in British history. It carries with it the echoes of a world at war, but a war that was never simply black and white, country against country, right or wrong; because Charles Parker didn’t make Off Limits for the BBC. He made it for the Vietcong.

  • Racial Equality Enshrined: On the 50th anniversary of Britain’s first Race Relations Act, Ritula Shah considers the role of legislation in ending racial discrimination. Including material in the Charles Parker Archive, this programme was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 5 December 2015.

  • Freeborn Man: The Story of Ewan MacColl – a documentary celebrating the centenary of Ewan’s birth, presented by John Cooper Clark. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 22 January 2015.

  • Charles Parker Prize 2013 – Sara Parker meets the three student winners of the award dedicated to the memory of her father, and introduces their features. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 11 May 2013.

  • Charles Parker Prize 2012 – Sara Parker introduces the 3 winning radio features of the prize dedicated to her father’s memory, and meets the student winners. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 21 April 2012.

  • Never Again – a lament for the Titanic: part of the Radio Ballads series on BBC Radio 4 Extra, broadcast in April 2012.

  • How Folk Songs Should be Sung: Martin Carthy listens to some recordings of the “Critics Group” and assesses the legacy of MacColl’s controversial experiment. It includes an example of Charles Parker singing a song he wrote as part of a group meeting. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2012.

  • The Ballad Of Africa: to commemorate the 50th anniversary of almost 20 countries in Africa achieving independence, this brand new Radio Ballad explored the experiences of African people during the first 50 years of their longed-for, hard-fought and hard-won independent status. Broadcast on the BBC World Service in October 2010.

  • Ballad of the Miners’ Strike: In specially commissioned songs to mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the miners’ strike, this programme explored how lives were changed by the year-long dispute (1984-85). First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in March 2010.

  • Like Blackpool Went Through Rock: Sara Parker and Sean Street’s programme for The Archive Hour on BBC Radio 4 in 2008 was an anniversary programme dealing with The Ballad of John Axon and the Radio Ballad legacy.

  • The Ballad of the Radio Feature, by Falling Tree Productions, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 28 June 2008.

  • The Singing Englishman: A Portrait of A.L. Lloyd, a film by Barrie Gavin (1983)

 

Books and articles relating to Charles Parker and his colleagues

 
 

Organisations and Academic sites

 

  • Philip Donnellan was Parker’s colleague, friend and acclaimed film maker. His importance to the development of TV documentary and social understanding of post-war Britain cannot be underestimated. Here is an archive link to a website called Friends of Philip Donnellan which sadly is not currently maintained.

  • Banner Theatre, carrying on Parker’s documentary traditions. Parker was a founder member, and the Radio Ballads have been a major influence on Banner’s work.

  • Peggy Seeger’s own site

  • Ewan MacColl official site, created and curated by his family in his centenary year

  • English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) has acted for over 100 years to preserve and promote the traditional song and dance of England. 2013 saw the launch of a major digitisation and cataloguing project culminating in The Full English Guide. The Full English catalogue includes the six collections which comprised the Take 6 project, the Sabine Baring-Gould material catalogued by the Devon Tradition project, and the additional collections covered by The Full English project itself.

  • Topic Records – traditional and contemporary folk music, from English, Scottish & Irish folk singers & musicians. In their 60th anniversary year the company released a brand new CD set of all eight Radio Ballads.

  • Doc Rowe Archive and Collection – Doc was strongly influenced by Parker regarding the importance and potential of recording technology and an overall concern to document popular culture and the vernacular ‘folk arts’.

  • The Grierson Trust commemorates the pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson (1898 – 1972), famous for Drifters and Night Mail and the man widely regarded as the father of the documentary.

  • Musical Traditions – an excellent Internet magazine that includes reviews of the original Radio Ballads

  • The British Library Sound Archive includes a copy of the digitised Parker Archive. Search via their online using catalogue.

  • In USA the Smithsonian and the Alan Lomax collection contain many archive items relating to American and other traditions

  • The Working Class Movement Library is a collection of English language books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives and artefacts, concerned with the activities, expression and enquiries of the labour movement, its allies and its enemies, since the late 1700s. It references the work of Ewan MacColl.

  • Ruskin College Oxford‘s special collections include the MacColl/Seeger archive of folk-song and protest music plus associated literature and artifacts.

  • The Oral History Society is a national and international organisation dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral history. It encourages people of all ages to tape, video or write down their own and other people’s life stories.

  • Oral Tradition Journal – founded in 1986 to serve as an international and interdisciplinary forum for discussion of worldwide oral traditions and related forms. All back issues from 1986 to the present are now available online, open-access, and free of charge.

  • Swansea University Library contains the South Wales Coalfields Collection which includes a study project on the Big Hewer

  • Centre for Media History at Bournemouth University

  • Birmingham City University School of Media

  • Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture, encompassing the Survey of English Dialects, and the Archives of the Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies.

 

Events