Fifth birthday of the podcast about the Bay
A podcast I started as a post-pandemic experiment sharing stories of people from around Morecambe Bay is about to mark its’ fifth birthday.
The Morecambe Bay Podcast began in March 2021 with an initial series of six episodes featuring people with interests from all walks of life.
We all come into contact with people who have brilliant stories yet are not necessarily featured in the main news. These untold and often overlooked tales are inspiring and I’ve been fortunate enough to meet so many people who have shared their stories with me and the thousands who have listened to the podcast since it began.
The first six included an episode with the MALLOWS swimming group, the RSPB Leighton Moss former visitor manager Jon Carter and photographer Darren Andrews. Friends and listeners got in touch to suggest future interviewees and within a short space of time and with a growing guest list the podcast soon attracted an audience all over the world.
One of the first comments I was sent in the months after we launched was from a Lancastrian who now lives abroad who wrote that the podcast was ‘an absolute tonic in uncertain times’ and that the ‘accents and flat vowels’ reminded them of home. Another which sticks in my mind was from a Morecambrian who now runs a talking newspaper for the visually impaired in Surrey. She asked if I’d mind her sharing them with her ‘readers’ because the sounds of the Bay really capture the imagination – even though they are not from the bay!
The soundtrack used in each podcast is often the sound of the sea together with a melody which my eldest daughter Natalie composed. The voiceover is provided by Beverley Thompson a former BBC colleague. The distinctive logo – which features ‘Eric the oystercatcher’ - was created by graphic designer Jan Hancock.
There are now over 150 episodes and with listeners in 77 countries, the podcast that is ‘all about the Bay’ has an audience far beyond these shores.
The poet and author Lemn Sessay commented on the episode which featured work by Morecambe composer Pete Moser telling the story of the Chinese cockle pickers shared just before the 21st anniversary of the tragedy.
Writing on X he said: “Loved the way the story unspooled across the world but was always rooted in Morecambe.”
Guests have included Daragh Carville, the Lancaster-based writer of ITV’s The Bay, Morecambe-born designer Wayne Hemingway and former Morecambe Visitor editor Mike Whalley.
I record on location as much as possible, whenever my freelance journalism and media training work permits. As long as people want to talk and an audience is keen to listen, I hope to keep making them.