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The John Axon programme used the recorded voices of working people together with music from Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl and other musicians, many from the world of jazz or the music hall, to tell the story of the heroic death of train driver John Axon who died at the controls of a runaway train. Later ballads told the story of the lives of people working in the fishing industry and down the pits while my own favourite, The Travelling People, documented the lives of gypsies and travellers in Britain. They were revolutionary programmes in many ways: for the first time the voices of real people were heard on radio; for the first time folk music, speech and sound effects were blended to make a sound picture that took the listener deep into the world of the subject and for the first time two socialists and a former submarine commander, who would later become a socialist, were let loose with ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ airtime.

My old mate John TamsÌýwill be blogging at length about the second generation of Radio Ballads next week; meanwhile you have until Saturday on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iPlayer to check out a brilliant recent ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 Archive HourÌýon the Radio Ballads Like Blackpool Runs Through Rock.

And for those who want to delve further there is a splendid and most definitive book just out by Peter Cox, Ìýwhich tells the whole story beautifully.

By the way - here's a small puzzler: Ìýwhat do you know about Philip Donnellan? We know a lot about Parker, MacColl and Seeger but one of the finest documentary makers ever seems to have sunk into the quagmire of history - curious.