Travelling People 2017
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Through workshops and interviews we worked Gypsies and Travellers across the country to reflect and respond to the seminal work of BBC Radio Producer Charles Parker, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger and their production of the ‘Ballad of the Travelling people’ which was produced over 50 years ago.The interviews and oral testimonies were made into a 30 min documentary which you can watch here.
[The Radio Ballads] changed the course of broadcasting history. What makes them so important now is that, at their best, they tell you things you don’t forget. The Travelling People is even more powerful than it was in 1964”
The team travelled from Inverary in Scotland to talk to Jess Smith at the Tinker's Heart to Brighton to meet with young Irish Traveller Samson Rattigan via Oxford and London to interview Peggy Seeger & Charle's daughter, BBC producer Sara Parker. The documentary builds to the re-imagining and recording of a new modern Radio Ballad, scored and performed by Irish folk singer Thomas McCarthy with violin and female vocals from Charlotte Andrews, Charles Parker’s Granddaughter. The project brings this important body of work alive to a whole new generation of Gypsies and Travellers.
A booklet accompanies the DVD and the enhanced heritage website contains a heritage research tool kit, a media collection of the original radio ballads, full interviews with all participants, new and archive photography and an easy 'How to' guide to capturing your own oral history testimonies.
