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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