Earlier this year, the BBC broadcast some of the Radio Ballads from the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. These were radio programmes of roughly an hour each in length and created by producer Charles Parker and musicians Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. Their focus was on industrial life in Britain and the programmes, a collage of interviews, news reports and specially written music were highly original. There was also a very moving, but quite disturbing programme on the plight of travellers, or gypsies, a subject largely taboo at the time. Here’s the introduction to the series. I’ll put up some short snippets of the original programmes if this technology will allow! If you need some more information, or want to discuss, please drop a line.