Charles Parker Prize

The Charles Parker Prize is awarded each year for the best student audio feature. The prize is open to any student at UK Further or Higher Education establishments and also those who have attended an accredited media training course.

Entries are now open for the 2026 Prize. Deadline: 23 March 2026

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Celebrating the next generation of storytellers

The Charles Parker Prize celebrates the best student audio features in the UK. Named after one of radio’s great innovators, it honours powerful, creative storytelling that brings real voices and experiences to life. Each year, a panel of leading radio professionals selects the winning features, which are then broadcast across the country on BBC Radio 4’s New Storytellers, introducing audiences to the next generation of great audio producers.

The 2026 Charles Parker Prize is now open for entries. Please submit your audio feature by 23 March 2026.

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The Legacy of Charles Parker

Named in honour of one of radio’s greatest documentary pioneers, the Charles Parker Prize celebrates the spirit of originality that Parker brought to his work - especially his groundbreaking Radio Ballads created with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in the 1950s and 60s.

These programmes - including The Ballad of John Axon and Singing the Fishing - captured the language, songs and rhythms of working life, giving ordinary people a voice on national radio for the first time.

That legacy continues today as students across the UK use sound to tell stories that move, surprise and connect us.

Learn more

How to Enter

We are looking for programmes that innovatively capture the spirit of ordinary lives, their voices and their tunes, reinvented for the digital, multiplatform age. Your entry will have a sparklingly original idea, use the medium of audio feature to explore it to the full with humanity and imagination and, of course, make for a riveting audio presentation with storytelling at its heart.

Please refer to the steps outlined, the Terms and Conditions and the FAQs to help prepare your submission. You may also find it helpful to listen to previous winning features and to Charles Parker’s work as you shape your own entry.

Good luck!

Deadline for Entries: 23 March 2026 at 23:59

  • You can enter if you are:

    • Current students, 2025 graduates from UK Further or Higher Education, and anyone who has completed an accredited media training course within the eligible dates.

    • The sole creator of the feature (the prize is for individual work).

    • Able to provide tutor or lecturer verification confirming your eligibility

    You can read the full terms and conditions here

  • Make a 10–15 minute audio feature or documentary in English.
    Tell a real story with imagination, emotion and strong structure - something that makes listeners stop, think and feel.

    🎧 File format: .WAV, stereo mix
    📅 Produced between: 01 April 2025 - 22 March 2026

    💡 Think about pacing, atmosphere and authenticity - the human moments that make a story resonate.

    If you’d like to know more about what the judges listen for, read this short article by our Chair of Judges and listen to past winners on BBC Sounds.

    📰 A Bolt of (Audio) Lightning: What We are Listening For

    🎧BBC New Storytellers

  • Ask your tutor or lecturer to send an email to CharlesParkerPrize@hotmail.com confirming:

    • Your name

    • The title of your feature

    • Your college or university

    • That the feature is solely your work and produced within the eligible dates

    🪪 Entries without tutor verification cannot be accepted.

  • Upload your .WAV file and complete the online entry form before 23:59 on 23 March 2026.

    You’ll need to include:

    • Your name and contact details

    • The title of your feature

    • A short description (up to 150 words)

    • Your tutor’s contact details

    📝 Submit Your Feature

What the Judges Are Listening For

As you develop your feature, it may be helpful to understand what the judging panel is hoping to hear.

Chair of Judges Simon Elmes has written a short piece exploring the qualities that make an audio feature stand out: a distinctive idea, close attention to real voices and experiences, and a thoughtful use of sound and storytelling to draw the listener in.

We encourage entrants to read his reflections and consider how their own work can combine curiosity, imagination and a clear sense of purpose.

Read a Bolt of (Audio) Lightning

What Happens Next

1.

Listening and Shortlisting

April 2026

Once entries close, every feature is listened to in full by a panel of professional audio makers and reviewers, chaired by Simon Elmes, former BBC Creative Director.

The shortlist of nominees will be announced on the Charles Parker Prize website and shared directly with entrants.

2.

Final Judging

End of April 2026

These finalists are then auditioned by Hugh Levinson, BBC Radio 4 Commissioning Editor, who will select the five features for broadcast in the network’s New Storytellers series, to include the Charles Parker Gold Award for Student Feature as chosen by the judging panel

3.

Charles Parker Day & Awards

08 May 2026

All the nominees are invited to the annual Charles Parker Day at the University of Salford, MediaCityUK - a national celebration of the audio feature, past, present and future. The day includes listening sessions, guest speakers, networking and the announcement of the Gold Award winner and the four other features also commissioned by Radio 4.

4.

Broadcast & Mentorship

Summer 2026

The features selected for broadcast in BBC Radio 4’s New Storytellers and produced through Soundscape Productions. Each winner works alongside a professional mentor and studio engineer to refine their feature for national broadcast.

Get Inspiration from Previous Prize Winners

  • In Living Memory - Shadé Joseph - 2025 Gold Winner

    Listen

  • Ukraine to Scotland: A Musical Journey - Sofiia Fylypiv - 2025 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • The T-Shirt - Jenny Davies - 2025 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • Life in Numbers - Sarah Warren - 2025 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • My Toy Soldier - Kieran Callaghan - 2025 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • The Outcast Dead and Alive - Grace Reeve - 2024 Gold Winner

    Listen

  • Fight Fair - Libby Liburd - 2024 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • Friends of the Wall - Evan Green - 2024 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • Full Circle - Amy Bartlett - 2024 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • The National Language of Nowhere - Naomi Bloomstein - 2024 Prize Winner

    Click Here

  • Our Dad - Thea Rickard - 2023 Gold Winner

    Listen

  • The Final Fanfayre - Dom Brown - 2023 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • Disappearing Birds - Petra Robyn Jones - 2023 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • Harassment Architecture - George Ruskin - 2023 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • Out at Sea, Out of Mind - Lottie Steele - 2023 Prize Winner

    Listen

  • All Prize Winners

    Click Here