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A Life in Song - 2020
Art of Now
Singer-songwriter Sean Cooney has written and performed many songs about real people with his award-winning folk band The Young'uns. Tackling such diverse and difficult subjects as religious homophobia, terrorism, the refugee crisis and The Troubles in Northern Ireland, where do the responsibilities of a songwriter lie? And what right do they have to broach such issues?
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mcgy

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Anne Martin and Dr Peter Mackay on Scottish Gaelic folk songs - 2018
Woman's Hour
Scottish Gaelic folk songs, the women who wrote and performed them and the bawdy references that have been lost over time. With folksinger Anne Martin and Dr Peter Mackay.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09pjghc
~10 minutes > skip to 8:00

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Ask the Fellows That Cut the Hay - 2010
Archive on 4
Alan Dein celebrates the centenary of his mentor George Ewart Evans, collector of Suffolk farming tales. Evans began by chatting to his neighbours over the fireside in the 1950's and transcribing stories about poaching shepherding, smuggling and ditching.
,,,Alan Dein talks to people who remember him in the village of Blaxhall and to his son Lord (Matthew) Evans and youngest daughter Susan as well as historian Owen Collins.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rv8yk
see
George Ewart Evans on mudcat

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The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff - 2022
Radio 3
Award-winning north east folk band The Young'uns - Sean Cooney and David Eagle with Jack Rutter (for Michael Hughes) present their production of The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff, recorded in front of a live audience in their hometown of Stockton-on-Tees.
It's the true story of one man's journey from unemployment, through the Hunger Marches of the 1930s, the mass trespass movement and the Battle of Cable Street, to fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. A touching and often hilarious musical adventure, its themes of war, hunger, poverty and displacement have a powerful resonance almost a hundred years on.
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016rh2
[related programme; no music
Mosley Must Fall - 2021
Drama on 4
It's 1936, and as political unrest sweeps across Europe, the spectre of fascism is looming over the East End.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011l0r]
& mudcat threads
2022
mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=171179
& 2021
mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=170608

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Beyoncé and the changing face of country music - 2024
BBC OS Conversations
The latest Beyoncé song, Texas Hold ‘Em, has topped the charts in the US and UK. More significantly, however, this is the first time a black woman has gone to No. 1 in the US country music charts, provoking several talking points about diversity within the country music genre.
Host James Reynolds brings together three African-American women in country music, including musician Rissi Palmer who first reached the country charts in 2007 and has had several hits since.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5b36
Guardian article & video
www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/27/black-artistry-is-woven-into-the-fabric-of-country-music-it-belongs-to-everyone-beyonce-texas-hold-em-rhiannon-giddens

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Charles Parker: Radio Pioneer - 2019
Archive on 4
Sean Street delves into the archive of one of the most innovative and controversial BBC radio producers, reviewing Charles Parker’s work from the Radio Ballads to his sacking in 1972.
Parker’s life was also a journey from poverty to Cambridge University, from a Conservative Christian to a Socialist, from a Submarine Commander to a Radio Producer. But throughout his career, two things remained constant - his dedication, often working for days without sleep, and most importantly his desire to tell the extraordinary stories of ordinary people in their own words.
Producer: Andy Cartwright
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00040r6

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Choral History of Britain - 2017
(1) Singing for Solidarity
From protest songs and football chants, to work choirs and national anthems choral singing has been used to galvanise people around ideas, emotions and causes.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0952str
(2) Singing for Pleasure
the long evolution of our amateur singing tradition, from borrowed songs crudely performed in our streets and taverns, to the rise of our great Victorian choral societies and the most recent choral sensation to sweep the nation: Rock Choir.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b095sy8j
(3) Singing for Praise and Profit
Roderick Williams shows how Britain has become a breeding ground for the world's best professional choirs and choristers, thanks to our historic cathedral choir tradition.   
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096j14n
(4) Singing for Everyone
Roderick Williams explores whether Britain has lost its singing culture and, if so, how it can be recovered.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0979f3z

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Brad Mehldau, François-Xavier Roth, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month - 2023
Music Matters
As Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month gets under way, Music Matters learns about a new project to highlight the invaluable recorded collection of gypsy and traveller voices archived within the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. We speak to the University of East Anglia’s Dr. Hazel Marsh about the impetus to make collections, housed at the English Folk Dance and Song Society, more accessible to Gypsy and Traveller people seeking engagement with their cultural heritage, and hear from the Scottish Traveller Ian McGregor.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001md2f
7 minutes > skip to 22:50      
& EFDSS page
www.efdss.org/about-us/what-we-do/news/12665-gypsy-and-traveller-voices-in-archives

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Halsway Manor - 2020
Open Country
Helen Mark heads to the Quantock Hills to visit the national centre for folk arts and meet some of the people taking part in a 'Winter Warmer' celebration of music and dance.
She meets musician Becki Driscoll whose track 'Cold Light' was composed in the summer house at the Manor, and asks Chief Executive Crispian Cook about the history of this residential haven for folk arts.
Helen catches Moira Gutteridge for a chat just as she's about to lead a walk, and high on top of the Quantocks she speaks to Philip Comer, Chair of the 'Friends of the Quantocks' about the area, the grazing rights on common land and why it's not a good idea to feed the wild ponies.
Roger and Nanette Phipps tell Helen why the spot for the Maypole is currently taken up with flower bulbs, and how according to local legend dragons may still lurk in the surrounding hills.
There's also time for a spot of sword-dancing which is not as easy as it's made to look.
The music is performed by Becki Driscoll, Ted Morse, Peter and Moira Gutteridge and Mary Rhodes.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dxtk

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Johnny Cash of Easter Cash - 2010
A chance conversation on a transatlantic flight led him to trace his family roots to Easter Cash in Fife.
Sarfraz Manzoor goes in search of the Cash connection.   
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qll0x
mudcat thread
mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=127321

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Folk musician Martin Simpson; movie icon Anna May Wong; and classical music leaders criticise Arts Council England - 2024
Front Row
The English folk singer and guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson performs material from his new album - his 24th - Skydancers.
The title track, commissioned by naturalist Chris Packham, highlights the plight of the Hen harrier. Simpson talks about his love of birds, of traditional song, of writing his own, the influence on him of American music, and a lifetime playing the guitar and banjo.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y296
11 minutes > skip to 14:20

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Benjamin Britten, director Kaouther Ben Hania, music from Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell - 2024
Front Row
,,, live music from Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell, two young musicians who play with the idea of "English" folk. Their forthcoming EP, 102 Metres East, was recently recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in less than a day.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wq9j
> skip to 32:00 (11 minutes)

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Play an Instrument - 2024
Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
Michael explores the surprising benefits of learning to play a musical instrument. It can lower inflammation, lift your mood and strengthen your memory.   
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y8fr

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Paul Theroux on Orwell; Patsy Rodenburg on training actors; musician Sam Lee - 2024
Front Row
Sam Lee, Bernard Butler and James Keay perform live and talk about Sam's new album, Songdreaming. Sam draws on traditional songs to explore the richness and fragility of the natural world here in the UK.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001x53x
> skip to 29.20   12 minutes

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Sing - 2021
Just one more thing
,,,its unique mood-lifting ability and how singing can produce similar effects to cannabis. He speaks to Dr Daisy Fancourt to find out about her research on revealing how singing can boost your immune system and how it could help treat chronic pain.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00107bq
article
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2VZPZmq2pRSMT2YHWbQdW7
mudcat thread
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=170613

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A Singer's Guide to Britain - 2019
Singer Roderick Williams gets on the road to tell the stories of Britain through our songs and our singers, old and new.
(1) Song of Myself
,,,the power of song to express a sense of identity and belonging.
Featuring, Billy Bragg, Fay Hield, Cuthbert Noble, Lydia Noble, Eddi Reader and Georgia Ruth.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007bvt
(2) Songs of Love and Desire
,,,love songs from medieval times to the modern day ,,,how singing has, for centuries, helped Briton's through the murky waters of desire and romance.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007ksb
(3) Places to Sing
,,, the social history hidden in the places we make for singing.
,,,Mason’s Court, Stratford-upon-Avon, where songs might have been shared between family and friends in the 15th century.
,,,the life of a street balladeer in the Georgian era, and hear how our present-day buskers work the passing crowds.
,,,City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds, with Professor Derek Scott, to examine how the Victorians transformed songs and singers into mass-market commodities.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007qd1
(4) We Travel with Songs
,,,songs given voice by people who have come to these islands, as visitors, as refugees and as distinct communities.
Featuring, Laura Bradshaw, Billy Bragg, Alan Dein, Joseph Gnagbo, Marie, Angela Moran and Zarife.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007wd5

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Songs of the Civil Rights Movement - 2018
Soul Music
Actor Clarke Peters narrates this special edition to mark 50 years since the assassination of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King on April 4th 1968.
"If in doubt, pray and sing" an activist recalls how music was used as part of Dr King's non-violent resistance movement.
The stories of the songs behind the Civil Rights Movement include the spirituals and freedom songs that were integral to the struggle. In the 19th century, music became a tool for protest and resistance among the enslaved peoples of the American South.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09xk0tf
Mudcat thread
mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=163903

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Stitching souls - 2020
The Documentary - BBC World Service
Deep in Alabama’s Black Belt, the village of Gee’s Bend is almost an island, cut off by a loop in the Alabama River. The ferry that linked the Bend to Camden, the local county seat, was stopped by white segregationists in 1962, and not reinstated until 2006. Once enslaved plantation workers, then sharecroppers, then struggling New Deal farmers, the people of the Bend remained largely unnoticed by mainstream history, despite Martin Luther King’s visit in 1965 a few weeks before the civil rights march on Selma.
But the women of Gee’s Bend have held on to their creative traditions, passed down from mother to daughter: spine-tingling gospel singing, and a unique style of bold, improvised quilting. Made from old clothes out of necessity for generations, used for insulation and burned to keep off mosquitoes, the quilts brought Gee’s Bend fame after they were “discovered” by an art collector in the 1990s and shown in major museums in Houston and New York.
Maria Margaronis hears the voices of this small community and takes part with her daughter in a three-day quilting workshop led by two Gee’s Bend ladies—a space of radical trust where Black and white women of all backgrounds and all ages come together to sew, laugh, sing, tell their stories and confront their challenges and griefs.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct0x2h
If you're interested in the clip of the interview with Isom Moseley, here's more :
http://slaverystories.org/isom-moseley

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Somerset Wassail - 2019
Open Country
By 1990 wassailing in apple orchards had almost died out in Somerset, but over the last thirty years the tradition has undergone a remarkable revival. As Helen Mark finds out, it's now very much alive and well - and if nothing else, provides a good excuse for a party to brighten up the dark winter nights!
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002cg1
>skip to 15:30

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How to invent an apple[Wassail] - 2024
The Food Chain
Ruth Alexander also visits a wassail near Manchester in England to experience an ancient tradition involving cider, hanging toast on a tree and lots of singing to encourage a good apple harvest for the year ahead.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4v7y
> skip to 1:20 ,,,,, 6:50

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The Young'uns on Graeme Miles - 2017
My Muse - Series 2
"The terraced streets were my Grand Canyons, the shipyard cranes my redwood trees, those steelwork tips were my mountain ranges and the brickyard ponds were my seven seas".
Featuring interviews with Graeme's widow Annie, and discussion and performances from esteemed musicians from the folk world, including the critically-acclaimed band The Unthanks, this programme highlights some of Graeme's finest songs.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096h773