Charles Parker (1919–1980) was a

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

born, BBC Radio producer based in Birmingham from 1954-1972, who specialised in Documentary Radio and Theatre. In particular, he is remembered for his collaboration with

Ewan MacColl James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989), better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the ...

and Peggy Seeger on the 1958-1963 series of

Radio Ballads The radio ballad is an audio documentary format created by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and Charles Parker in 1958. It combines four elements of sound: songs, instrumental music, sound effects, and, most importantly, the recorded voices of those wh ...

, which won an

Italia Prize The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with th ...

for Radio Documentary in 1960 and is seen as a landmark of study in

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

. He came to believe passionately in the value of the testimony of working people and the creative importance of the oral tradition and its relationship to folk music. This became the key to his work in radio, theatre and in his extensive teaching activities. He was a founder, writer, singer and actor with

Banner Theatre {{primary sources, date=January 2012 Banner Theatre is a community theatre company based in Birmingham, England. The theatre was founded in 1974. History Founded in 1974, the theatre works with marginalized and disadvantaged communities using a c ...

in Birmingham from 1974-1980 and in 1966 established the Birmingham and Midland Folk Centre with Roy Palmer, Pam and Alan Bishop, Joan Smith, Olga Nicholls and other enthusiasts in the area. According to his frequent co-worker

Philip Donnellan Philip Donnellan (9 February 1924 – 15 February 1999) was an English documentary film-maker. Described in his ''Guardian'' obituary as "one of the greatest of all documentarists", Donnellan worked with the BBC for over four decades, producing ar ...

, Charles despised the fact he was born in Bournemouth, as he would have preferred to have been born somewhere he saw as more romantic like the backstreets of

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, Birmingham, or East Lancashire.

Legacy

The Charles Parker Archive is deposited in the Archives & Heritage Service at the

Library of Birmingham A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

and consists of tapes, production books, papers, correspondence and scripts for most of the programmes Charles Parker produced and the organisations in which he was active. It contains historical records for studying the culture of the 1950s-1970s in broadcasting, the folk revival, pop music, community arts - as well as contemporary social and political issues. Parker made programmes with blind people, Irish labourers, workers in China in 1972, Asian teenagers, protesters against the Vietnam War and other minorities traditionally denied a voice on the air. Parker collaborated on several occasions with documentaris
Philip Donnellan
notably on 'The Colony' (1963) and 'The Irishmen' (1965). The Charles Parker Archive Trust is active in promoting the Archive and in fundraising to disseminate its contents. Two Heritage Lottery grants have enabled cataloguing to take place within the City of Birmingham's Collecting Histories project.

Charles Parker Day

The annual Charles Parker Day was first organised by Professor

Seán Street Sean Street (born 2 June 1946, Waterlooville, Hampshire) is a writer, poet, broadcaster. and Britain's first Professor of Radio. He retired from full-time academic life in 2011 and was awarded an Emeritus Professorship by Bournemouth University. ...

of the Centre for Broadcasting History Research at Bournemouth University. This has been hosted at Bournemouth, at the School of Media in Birmingham City University, at the University of Sunderland and most recently at the

. The day takes the form of a conference celebrating Charles Parker's work, the radio feature in general, and other related topics. The Charles Parker Day is now organised by Andy Cartwright, of Soundscape Productions and the University of Sunderland, on behalf of the Charles Parker Trust and is now hosted by universities around the UK. From 2008 to 2014 the conference celebrated the 50th anniversaries of the Radio Ballads; 2008 - 'The Ballad of John Axon' (Bournemouth), 2009 - 'The Song of a Road' (Bradford Media Museum), 2010 - 'Singing the Fishing' (University of Sunderland), 2011 - 'The Big Hewer' (University of Sunderland at CastleGate Centre, Newcastle), 2012 - 'The Body Blow' (University of Westminster), 2013 - 'On the Edge' and 'The Fight Game' (Salford University) and 2014 - 'The Travelling People' (Library of Birmingham). Since then the days have been held at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts (2015), University of the West of England in Bristol (2016), Sheffield Hallam University Students Union (2017) and the British Library (2018).
The 2019 event
will take place at th
Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Media and Communication
on Friday 5 April 2019.

The Charles Parker Prize

The Charles Parker Prize is awarded each year for the Best Student Radio Feature. The prize was introduced in 2005 and is open to students of radio production in the UK. The feature should in some way reflect an essence of Parker’s own work – for example, story led documentaries (or short features) that bring life to the stories and concerns of ordinary people through creative radio production techniques.

References

Bibliography

Long, Paul (2004)
'British Radio and the Politics of Culture in Post-War Britain: The Work of Charles Parker’, The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, Vol. 2, No.3, pp. 131-52.

External links

Charles Parker DayCharles Parker ArchiveCharles Parker Archive TrustConnecting HistoriesThe Charles Parker Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Charles 1919 births 1980 deaths Mass media people from Bournemouth BBC radio producers British radio producers Prix Italia winners 20th-century British businesspeople