Charles Parker

Charles Parker (1919–1980) was a Bournemouth 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 and Peggy Seeger 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 a founder, writer, singer and actor with Banner Theatre 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, 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, Birmingham, or East Lancashire.