Charles Parker Day
In its first year the Centre established an annual radio features conference based on the work of the producer, Charles Parker, who was born in Bournemouth. The Charles Parker Day Conference is now an event established in the national radio conference calendar.
Parker was born in Bournemouth on 5 April 1919 and went on to become a Senior Features Producer for the BBC in the Midlands.
It was during his time in Birmingham that he made the first of his famous Radio Ballads - The Ballad of John Axon - defining the style of music and direct speech, montage, narrator-less features which celebrated the working anti-establishment in British society.
"Charles Parker’s work has become legendary," said Professor Sean Street, Head of the Centre for Broadcasting History Research. "This day is an opportunity to celebrate his work, and to examine in broader terms the art of the radio feature, past, present and future."
Charles Parker Day 2008, 4 April, 2008, Miramar Hotel, Bournemouth
You can hear the presentations at Charles Parker Day 2008 via the links below. All talks are held as MP3 files in our Institutional Repository, with thanks to the speakers.
Introduction and Welcome
Gillian Reynolds
The award winning journalist and Chair of the Charles Parker Trust introduces the day.
Connecting Histories - the story so far
Sian Roberts
Connecting Histories is a project to make the archive stories and sources relating to the hidden histories of Birmingham's diverse communities more widely known. In so doing, it uses material from the Charles Parker Archive as a social, cultural and political resource.
Please note this talk used visual material we are unable to reproduce
The Radio Ballads on TV
Ken Hall
Ken discusses the origins of the Radio Ballads and their influence on TV documentary styles of the 1970s.
Please note this talk used visual material we are unable to reproduce.
The Ballad of John Axon
Andrew Johnston
The documentary film maker previewed a rough cut of his documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Ballad of John Axon and discusses the trials of the modern day freelancer.
Please note this talk used visual material we are unable to reproduce.
Composing Radio
Alan Hall
Noted radio producer Alan Hall of Falling Tree Productions considers the volatile combination of pure sound and music in the process of 'composing radio'.
Editing the Radio Ballads
Andy Cartwright
Academic and producer for Soundscape productions Andy Cartwright examines the editing techniques pioneered in the ballads and examines how they enhanced radio production.
Voices as Music - the work of Glenn Gould
Piers Plowright
The legendary radio producer Piers Plowright looks at the radio features of Canadian virtuoso Glenn Gould.
Choreographing Chaos: The US Producer David Isay, radio and oral history.
Sean Street
Broadcaster, academic and poet Sean Street looks at Isay's 1998 feature 'The Sunshine Hotel' on one of the last surviving flop houses to explore the relationship between radio and oral history.
Charles Parker Prize 2008
Since its inception Charles Parker Day has celebrated the spirit of the Radio Ballads by promoting the future of the radio feature. Each year we have awarded £500 and two weeks work experience in the documentary department of the BBC to the most innovative student work.
This year’s winner was Matthew Rogers of University College Falmouth for his piece "A long commute" telling the story of immigrant land-workers from Eastern Europe and their lives in the UK.
Judges were united in their praise of this sensitive and sophisticated programme saying "touching stories, beautifully translated", "a snapshot of lives we over-report but don’t really know".
You can listen to "A long commute" here and the prizegiving here.
Future Events
We will post exciting news about the future of Charles Parker Day and the Charles Parker Prize soon.
Past events
2007
Speakers included Ben Harker the official biographer of Ewan MacColl, Folk culture archivist Doc Rowe and documentary specialist Prof Bert Hogenkamp.
2006
Speakers included Sara Parker and John Tams, who talked through the making of the six new Radio Ballads, recently broadcast on Radio 2. And Graeme Mills who shared personal insights of working with Charles on in the fifties and sixties.
2005
Speakers included Nancy Thumim from the London School of Economics on 'Mediating ordinary people’s stories' and a keynote speech from Virginia Madsen of University of New South Wales on auter documentary making since 1968.
For more information on Charles Parker Day please contact
| Daniel Cox | |
| The Media School Bournemouth University Weymouth House Talbot Campus Poole Dorset, BH12 5BB |
Email: dcox@bournemouth.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)1202 966775 |
