MacColl was first discovered busking to cinema queue, and taken 'to the bosom of the BBC in the 1930s' as an actor
In those balmy days there were BBC producers such as Douglas Clevedon, Olive Shaply and Lawrence Gilligham (some mat remember his neice Clare, from when she worked at the BBC) - who were interested in representing the working peoples lives (if not their voices) to a wider audience.
"(1931) MacColl had been out busking for pennies by the Manchester theatres and cinemas. The songs he sang were unusual, Scots songs, Gaelic songs he had learnt from his mother, border ballads and folk-songs. One night while queueing up for the three-and- sixpennies, Kenneth Adam had heard him singing outside the Manchester Paramount. He was suitably impressed. Not only did he give MacColl a handout; he also advised him to go and audition for Archie Harding at the BBC studios in Manchester's Piccadilly. This MacColl duly did. May Day in England was being cast at the time, and though it had no part for a singer, it certainly had for a good, tough, angry Voice of the People. Ewan MacColl became the Voice, a role which he has continued to fill on stage, on the air, and on a couple of hundred L.P. discs ever since."
Prospero and Ariel, D. G Bridson, Victor Gollantz 1971
Both he and Bert, along with Alan Lomax, got the Beeb interested in folk song - Bert did radio programmes from all over Europe, Ewan did a few projects such as St Cecilia With a Shovel, Landscape With Chimneys, Pit Stop, The Ballad Hunters and The Song Carriers.
The Radio Ballads started when Charles Parker was commissioned to collect material for a programme on a railwayman who died attempting to stop his tran from ploughing into a station.
They idea was that he should record railwaymen, bring the recordings in to write into a script and give to actors to read - Ewan and Peggy were to write the music.
MacColl came to the conclusion that the talk stood up by itself and did not need actors, but stood up on its own merits.
I once stayed with Charles when he lived in Birmingham, and prised him for "his" Radio Ballads - I recieved a sharp rap on the knuckles - "they weren't mine, they were Ewan's"
Contrary to rumour, they did not cease because they were too expensive; the Beeb found the final one too hot to handle, especially the penultimate section, which featured Midlands Justice of the Peace, Harry Watton declaring that all Gypsies who refused to conform should be exterminated - the powers-that-be wanted it removed, Parker refused, it went in as recorded and the rest is history - there were no more Radio Ballads and eventually the Features Department was was run down and Parker was dismissed.
Ewan did very little work for the Beeb after that and he and Peggy made a living as well as they could by touring - then along came 'First Time Ever'...
The Radio Ballads were prize material (2 Italia entries - 1 winner) and difficult to get rid of without an excuse - they were more or less the first programmes to feature the working mans' voice to any great extent.
Jim Carroll