'Way of Life: New Wine into Old Bottles'

Copyright: BBC

For related papers, see MS 4000/2/100.

A personal assessment by Charles Parker of some aspects of the church's search for new forms of expression. This included interviews with five men with experience of these 'contemporary forms'. These were Canon Stanley Evans, the Principal of Southwark College; Clive Barker, actor and director; Donald 'Titler', the vicar of St Marks, Smethwick; George Miles, organ tutor at Birmingham School of Music, and organist of Harborne Parish Church, who had previously worked with Parker on liturgical drama; and Ewan MacColl because of his 'deep engagement with genuine popular forms'.

The programme discusses how the church should use its folk and liturgical heritage, the church's separation from the people, and how the techniques used in the Radio Ballads - such as writing songs in the folk tradition based on ordinary speech - might enable it to reconnect, giving examples from the Radio Ballads and from other drama or radio programmes inspired by them. It considers some aspects of the history of carols, and gives examples of different kinds of music used in church, such as 'negro spirituals' and hymns based on beat music and light music, and discusses their merits.

The programme also includes Parker talking about his views on documentary radio technique and Ewan MacColl discussing how to perform folk songs.

The tapes contain two copies of the programme - these may be identical or slightly different versions. According to the recording reports with the reels, both tapes required further editing.