2026 Charles Parker Day: Friday 8 May

The Charles Parker Day – the annual celebration of the audio feature, past, present and future – returns to the University of Salford’s Digital Media Performance Lab in MediaCityUK.   We are delighted that the event will once again be chaired by Kellie While.  The sessions will explore the importance of the creative audio feature in today’s busy media landscape. The day will examine the power and importance of listening – both to the voices of ordinary people telling extraordinary stories, and to creative audio features, those which cease to be background sound and actually stop the listener in their tracks.

Manchester – and now Salford – has played a defining role in the history of the creative audio feature, from the pioneering work of Olive Shapley in the 1930s through to landmark strands such as Between the Ears in the present day.   We will hear from historian Dr Kate Murphy, former Woman’s Hour producer, and from Peter Everett, a key figure behind the innovative BBC North series Actuality and Soundtrack in the 1980s and 1990s – programmes that played an important role in the development of the modern audio feature.  We will also hear from Matthew Dodd, the BBC commissioning editor responsible for Radio 3’s Between the Ears. 

We meet Olivia Swift, senior producer at Manchester-based Reform Radio, whose documentary The Door-to-Door Poet, made for BBC Radio 4, explores the work of the remarkable door-to-door poet Rowan McCabe.  We will also hear from Nija Dalal-Small about her feature Testament to Rose on Manchester’s almost forgotten Bard of Colour.  Both features echo the legacy of Charles Parker and the Radio Ballads, exploring how contemporary makers are reimagining that tradition through documentary, poetry and community storytelling.  Other speakers during the day include producers Jo Meek and Geoff Bird from the Manchester-based collective Naked Productions; BBC North feature producers Elizabeth Foster and Catherine Murray; and BBC commissioner Hugh Levinson. 

The winning features of the 2026 Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Audio Feature will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as part of the New Storytellers series during the summer.  The winners will be announced during the day.  The day will conclude with a choice of sessions: a listening masterclass designed specifically for students, and a separate session on the discovery of new material in the Charles Parker Archive for other attendees.

The Charles Parker Archive Trust is a charity and the conference is free to attend. If you are able to do so, a donation towards the running costs of the day would be greatly appreciated and can be made when booking your ticket.

Attendee Instructions:

Registration opens at 12:30pm in the Reception Area of the University of Salford in the Orange Tower, in MediaCityUK directly adjacent to BBC, and in the same building as ITV – directly opposite the side entrance to the Public House "The Salmon of Knowledge". There is a cafe in the reception area which will be open before and during the conference.

How to get there:- 

by public transport:
The easiest and most convenient way is by tram (Metrolink) with direct routes from Manchester Piccadilly Station or Piccadilly Gardens. For connections with other Metrolink routes (eg Victoria Station or Manchester Airport) change at Cornbrook. (MediaCityUK is in Zone 2) 
The Number 50 bus also runs regularly from Manchester City Centre.

by car
Located near Junctions 2 and 3 of the M602. Parking is available at Media City UK The Carpark or nearby surface-level car parks. The Pitch Car Park is the closest, opposite the University of Salford and the Holiday Inn / Co-op.