I would point out that MacColl made no pretence of being an academic

You are spot on as usual, Jim. MacColl was just an ordinary working class gigging folk musician...... (though if I were a cynic, I might add that) he was a gigging folk musician who just by a complete fluke was awarded a ten-part series of programmes on the BBC national radio to examine traditional song in minute and sometimes fascinating detail that are listed in the opening post...... an ordinary musician who was given huge budget over a number of years from the BBC Midlands Arts Funding allocation for his brilliant 'Radio Ballads' programmes. Many other broadcasters thought that the money spent on them was hugely disproportionate to the length of the programmes but they were probably just people who were jealous and vindictive because their projects were not funded as a result of this, (but I am not a cynic so I won't add this.)