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On a visit to
Manchester
Central Library, I looked through copies of the BBC TV listings
magazine – “The Radio Times” – for details of “Ballad of the
Northwest”. As this was a North West region only
broadcast I required copies of the regional version of the magazine.
I was given a load of microfilms to look through but unfortunately
these were copies of the
London
edition of the “Radio Times”. Further enquiries at the desk produced
actual paper copies of the
Manchester
editions and searching through the relevant issues yielded the
information set out below.
It is interesting to note
how the BBC treated their regional listings. The first series of
“Ballad of the Northwest” is fairly detailed but as you will see,
the amount of information diminishes with each series until by the
third series in 1975, there is only a brief mention of the programme
and the title along with other regions programmes for that slot.
SERIES ONE
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 3rd July 1973 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
The Wreckers
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This is the story told in song music and
drama of the wreckers along the north Wirral coast who, in the early
1800’s lived by the grisly trade of wrecking vessels bound in to and
out of the Mersey
Music by The
Pennines
Script by Ken Campbell
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 10th July 1973 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
Trouble and Strife
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This programme uses the songs and music of
the times to tell the story of ordinary working folk caught up in
the turmoil of the industrial revolution and its aftermath.
Narrator Harry Boardman
Script Ken Campbell
Music
Oldham Tinkers
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 17th July 1973 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
Narras and Flats
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This is the story of the region’s waterways
over the centuries from the illiterate genius of James Brindley to
the last of the barge folk still living on their painted boats at
Preston Brook.
Script Chris Cheetham
Music The Boatmen
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
(Ballad of the
Northwest missed a week because of the Royal International Horse
Show being broadcast on the 24th July 1973)
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 31st July 1973 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
Cape
Famine
History has been handed down by
folk singers. The North West
of England
is particularly rich in folk song.
Sunderland Point today is a row of quiet
fisherman’s cottages yet between 1689 and 1800 it was a thriving
major port. Overnight its prosperity vanished to gain this eerie
nickname.
Script Alan Bell
Music The Taverners
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 7th August 1973 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
The Great Lead Rush
The Story in music and song of
fortunes made and lost, miners brawling in the streets, battles
underground not in the
Yukon
but Derbyshire during the boom years of lead mining in the 18th
century.
Narrator Harry Boardman
Music Bullock Smithy
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 14th August 1973 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
One Man and His Mule
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This is the story in song and music of
Samuel Crompton, inventor of the revolutionary spinning mule – a
simple genius who died in poverty while others made fortunes from
his idea.
Narrator Harry Boardman
Music Bernard Wrigley, Gary and Vera
Script Alan Bell
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 21st August 1973 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
The Lancashire
Fusiliers
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This programme uses the songs and music of
the soldiers and their women to tell the story of the Lancashire
Lads who marched away to fight for King and country – with
particular attention to Bury’s famous Lancashire fusiliers.
Narrator Harry Boardman
Script Alan Bell
Music Bluewater Folk
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
SERIES TWO
(Note: The listings
for this second series fail to give Narrator, Script Writer and
Musician details)
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 14th May 1974 BBC1 10:15pm Colour New
Series
The Way of the Witch
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This programme tells the story – in songs
and – spells of local magic and the superstition that surrounds it
as exposed by witch hunters like King James I and the witches
themselves.
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Monday 20th May 1974 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
The Owler Lads
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song.
The smuggler has always been a romantic
figure and the smugglers of the Furness peninsula with names like
Lanty Slee and “Whisky” Walker were no exception. Not surprisingly
folk songs abound which tell of the daring deeds of these “Owler
Lads”
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
(Note: This programme was
broadcast on the Monday due to Sportsnight broadcasting highlights
of a cup football match on the Tuesday)
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 28th May 1974 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
Th’ Owd Songster
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers.
Sam Laycock was perhaps the first working
class poet. An unpretentious weaver born in 1826 in Marsden, he
wrote many of the verses which were later set to music to form the
basis of the region’s native folk music.
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 4th June 1974 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
Ol’ King Coal
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This programme takes as its heroes the men
women and children who worked “down the pit” and tells their story
of what life was like in the South Lancashire
coalfield.
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC
North West
Ballad of the Northwest
Tuesday 11th June 1974 BBC1 10:15pm Colour
The Alabama Incident
History has been handed down
from one generation to the next by folk singers. The North West of England is particularly rich in
native song recounting the rumbustious past of the region.
This programme tells how a swashbuckling
confederate secret agent came to Merseyside at the outbreak of the
American civil war to build a gunboat in
Birkenhead under the noses of Yankee spies and a hostile
British government.
Producer Douglas Boyd
BBC North West
(Note: there
were two more programmes in this second series:
Panic in Lancashire on 18th
June
A Noose for Ned on 25th June
The copies of Radio Times for
these weeks were missing from the library folders)
SERIES THREE
Ballad of the
North West
– Series 3
At this time, The Radio Times
listed a series of regional programmes giving only programme title
and name of programme for the various regions in the 10:15 to 10:45
slot. The listings for Ballad of the Northwest are as given below.
There are only four programmes listed.
10th June 1975 – Private McCaffery’s Revenge
17th June 1975 – The Privateer
24th June 1975 – The Hero Of
Flodden
1st
July 1975 - The Big
Ditch
Looking through the listings
for a few weeks either side of these dates did not reveal any more
broadcasts of the programme although regional programmes did
continue to be broadcast.
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