The Untold

Selina Medford grew up in Port Talbot, South Wales, where people of West Indian heritage were in a minority. Now she takes her daughter back to relive her experiences. Touring around the town, they delve into the good, the bad and the ugly struggles that Selina and her family faced growing up during the 1960s. On the way, her daughter Sian, who was born and raised in Birmingham, begins to understand her mother’s experience and how the multi-cultural world she grew up in, and often took for granted, was denied to her mother. A Young Sel in a Small Town paints a retrospective picture that highlights the musical and cultural life of the time, navigating through Selina’s early years of growing up in a harsh household with her Jamaican father, step mother and four other siblings - yet trying to fit in with the everyday European white world around her. A trip down memory lane, meeting old friends and faces in a collage of sounds and music, bringing back hard memories and hope for the future. New Storytellers presents the work of radio and audio producers new to BBC Radio 4 and this first series features the five winners of this year's Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature. A Young Sel in a Small Town won the top award, the Gold Charles Parker Prize, for its producer Sian Medford in Parker's centenary year. Sian has just graduated from the University of West London and the Judges thought her colourfully creative feature was “such a lovely simple idea. An important piece of social history mixed with modern reaction as the family reunites – a rich, dynamic production, with its rich sense of hard lives lived to the full – a really worthy Gold Charles Parker winner.” Producer: Sian Medford A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4

Three survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire - Alison Moses, Emma O’Connor and Antonio Roncolato - recount the hardships they have endured since that fateful night in June 2017. Starting with memories of the disaster, the survivors then describe what has happened to them since - from being re-housed in temporary accommodation to their feelings about the immediate and long-term political responses to the fire. How do you cope with losing friends and family and still living in the charred shadow of Grenfell Tower itself? New Storytellers presents the work of radio and audio producers new to BBC Radio 4 and this first series features the five winners of this year's Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature. The award is presented every year in memory of pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. My Life After Grenfell was produced by Rhys Gunter who has just graduated from the University of Westminster. The Charles Parker Award judges said, “although Grenfell is a well-known story, this chilling retelling of the fire and its aftermath brings a new authentic perspective – a very high-level achievement.” Producer: Rhys Gunter A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4

Fran De’ath is a retired UN Election Organiser who now lives on a houseboat in Bristol, but the voyage of her life is extraordinary - a true story of an ordinary person rising to meet extraordinary circumstances. She was a peacekeeper in 1990s South Africa and, in the 2000s, she de facto wrote the election law in Afghanistan, despite a suicide bomber in her office. But the work Fran is most proud of is what she did in East Timor’s independence referendum. Along mountain passes and into a besieged UN-Compound, she tells the story of how she put herself in harm's way to help bring freedom to the region, the toll it took on her mental health and the road she walked back to wellness. New Storytellers presents the work of radio and audio producers new to BBC Radio 4 and this first series features the five winners of this year's Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature. The award is presented every year in memory of pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. Beyond the Ballot was produced by Rosa Eaton who is studying for a Masters in Radio Documentary at the University of the West of England. This winning feature was praised by the Charles Parker Award judges as a “beautifully layered, well told and edited story, with a great talker at its heart - a worthy winner.” Producer: Rosa Eaton A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4

This documentary-drama presents a binaural experience which follows two very different true stories of abduction - one without long-lasting consequences, the other, devastatingly fatal. The feature asks if we are we blind to the possible risks in our everyday lives as, through the power of binaural surround sound, Kidnapped places you in the victim’s place giving the listener the experience of being abducted. For the best listening experience - put your headphones on, close your eyes, and allow the 3D binaural audio to immerse you in a kidnapping. New Storytellers presents the work of radio and audio producers new to BBC Radio 4 and this first series features the five winners of this year's Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature. The award is presented every year in memory of pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. Kidnapped was produced by Harry Stokoe who has just graduated from the University of Salford. The Charles Parker Award judges were struck by the “great, direct interviews; it’s a well-crafted feature with interesting stories and is technically mature.” Producer: Harry Stokoe A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4

While Grace and The Untold team are busy prepping the next series, we’ve got a treat for you. Five fantastic short documentaries from five fantastic new audio producers. The story of one family told through one object - a memorial to a much-missed matriarch as her family celebrate the life and cookery of Audrie Guthrie, an idiosyncratic and creative mother. Malcolm Guthrie was 94 when his youngest son Bruce returned to live with him in their family home after 31 years away. This is the story of one of the untold heroes of domestic life - the daily use of something seemingly inconsequential but full of memory, meaning and symbolism to their family. Documenting the ways in which the spirits of people can so often be captured within domestic objects. New Storytellers presents the work of radio and audio producers new to BBC Radio 4 and this first series features the five winners of this year's Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature. The award is presented every year in memory of pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. The Flapper was produced by Bruce Guthrie, an MA student in Radio Documentary Production at the University of the West of England, who recorded his father and older siblings, Fiona and Tim, during the second Christmas after the death of their mother. It’s a celebration of what the Charles Parker Award judges called her “idiosyncratic, matriarchal ways – a radio feature which acts as a way of dealing with loss as well as containing quiet joy.” Producer: Bruce Guthrie A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4