‘21st Century Folk’ sails again on the BBC
Fisherman’s Friends, Seth Lakeman and their inspiration: Al Kassim
7digital’s musical storytelling project, 21st Century Folk, has returned for 2024.
The award-winning series sees five Radio 2 listeners have their experiences turned into original songs.
In the year the RNLI turns 200, the five people all have lives connected to the sea.
Anna Heslop helms the lifeboat in Cullercoats bay. Jeff Allen turned to sea kayaking after serving in the army. Vicky Murphy was eight months pregnant when she and husband Marc were rescued from a flooding cave. Emma Neave-Webb is a conservationist who tries to prevent whale strandings in Orkney. Al Kassim volunteers with a lifeboat crew in central London.
Their songs have been written and performed by some of the UK’s finest songwriters and folk musicians: Boo Hewerdine with Lady Nade, Cara Dillon with Sam Lakeman, Martyn Joseph, Kris Drever, and Seth Lakeman with Fisherman’s Friends.
The story of each person and their song is told on Jeremy' Vine’s BBC Radio 2 afternoon show and in a 2-hour special on BBC Sounds.
BBC iPlayer and BBC Music’s YouTube channel are hosting emotional videos of the songs being performed for the first time.
21st Century Folk is produced in connection with Mark Radcliffe’s Radio 2 Folk Show, and uses true stories to help folk music reach new audiences.
The five songs have been playlisted across Radio 2’s daytime schedule in the weeks following the launch, and both Jeremy Vine and Mark Radcliffe presented special shows from the 70th annual Sidmouth Folk Festival, beside the sea in Devon.
The previous edition of 21st Century Folk won gold for Best Music Special at the 2024 ARIAS and Audio Production of the Year at the Prolific North Champions Awards. It also won silver for Best Music Special and bronze for Best Original Music at the 2023 New York Festivals Radio Awards.
7digital Creative specialises in telling stories that represent the whole UK. ‘Coming Out Out’ with James Barr and Dan Hudson (A Gay and a Non-Gay) presented 30 personal accounts of coming out. It was created for Kiss during Pride Month, in partnership with the Audio Content Fund.
The People’s Songs (Radio 2) was an epic 50-part series that weaved the memories of British pop fans with the social history of the Britain.
In November 2022, The Listeners’ Charts (Radio 2) celebrated the 70th birthday of the UK Singles Chart via the memories of listeners.
