Charles Parker (producer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Parker (1919-1980) was a 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 on the 1958-1963 series of Radio Ballads, which won an Italia Prize for Radio Documentary in 1960 and is seen as a landmark of study in oral history.
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 also a founder, writer, singer and actor with Banner Theatre in Birmingham from 1974-1980
[edit] Legacy
The Charles Parker Archive is deposited in the City Archives on the Seventh Floor of the Birmingham Central Library 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.
The Charles Parker Archive Trust is active in promoting the Archive and in fundraising to disseminate its contents. Two recent Heritage Lottery grants have enabled cataloguing to take place within the City of Birmingham's Collecting Histories project.
