Thought that this might be of interest:-

THE 2006 RADIO BALLADS

The Radio Ballads of Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger were broadcast in the late 1950s and considered one of the most acclaimed documentary series in radio history.

Smooth Operations has been commissioned by Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas to make a new set of Radio Ballads adopting the programme-making principles of the historic originals. The eight programmes in the new series will explore issues of our time and the voices of communities that are rarely heard on the BBC. Shipbuilding, steel, hunting with hounds, HIV/AIDS, Northern Ireland and Britain's fairground workers are just some of the subjects tackled. The series is scheduled for transmission in February 2006.

The team making the Ballads has adopted the same principles used by MacColl, Seeger and Parker on the original ground-breaking series, carrying out in-depth interviews with many speakers on a particular subject and then commissioning songwriters to compose songs based on the interviewee's experiences, their use of dialect or the technicalities of the job or function they are talking about. It's a technique which led to the original Radio Ballads developing a seamless transition between speech, song and atmosphere, telling powerful stories without the intrusion of a narrator.

The first new Ballad in this series will be the Ballad of Steel, telling the inside story of the rise and demise of Sheffield's Don Valley as the steel capital of the world, centred around the memories of those who worked in the forges and the rolling mills... and in later life developed industrial illnesses for their efforts. Poignant ballads written by project musical director John Tams punctuate moments of drama as tales - of another death, another accident, another closure, another day of pounding hammers - paint pictures of the full effects the recession of the 1980s would bring. Brass arrangements by acclaimed musical arranger Goff Richards add to the melancholy air of the programme.

Series executive producer John Leonard says: "We're trying to take an original line on these issues and turn up voices that haven't been heard before, and that's involved a lot of thinking and a lot of listening. I believe our first programme - The Ballad of Steel - really matches the originals in the way the memories and anecdotes of steel workers lead organically into songs about aspects of steel and steel production ... and John Tams' songs work beautifully with Gough's arrangements. It's very close to the spirit of the originals, I think."