Brian Vaughton was born in Birmingham and worked alongside two of the BBC's most significant documentary producers — Charles Parker and Philip Donnellan. His production credits include:

  • The Bull Ring, Moments of Truth

  • Cry from the Cut

  • The Jewellery

  • Life As It Was

  • The Weavers' Tale

Birmingham folk musician Ian Campbell provided musical accompaniment for Cry from the Cut and The Jewellery — documents that together offer a vivid audio portrait of the city as it was more than fifty years ago. That Vaughton achieved recordings of such quality using an EMI L2 portable reel-to-reel recorder — spliced together in his own time on a Brunell editor at home, as an independent producer who held down other work alongside his BBC commitments — makes the archive all the more remarkable.

In 2014, Coley presented research into Vaughton's work at the Charles Parker Society's Annual General Meeting, and attended Charles Parker Day with students and staff from the School of Media at the new Library of Birmingham — home of the Charles Parker Archive, and an appropriate setting for an event celebrating the city that gave birth to Parker's iconic Radio Ballads.

Later that year, Coley visited Vaughton at his home in Devon, accompanied by BCU’s Dr. Vanessa Jackson — to record an extended interview about his career and to document his original equipment in use. The resulting footage has been edited into a series of video clips, available below.

Specially recorded video with retired radio producer and editor, Brian Vaughton, demonstrating the STC 4032 microphone.

Specially recorded video of retired radio producer and editor, Brian Vaughton, demonstrating how the EMI L2 tape recorder worked. This was a heavy piece of kit, weighing around 14 pounds. It dates from the late 1950s.

Specially recorded video with retired radio producer/editor, Brian Vaughton, demonstrating how the Brenell tape editing deck of the 1950/60s worked.

Birmingham City University has honoured Vaughton's contribution to British radio documentary, and to the Birmingham Ballads in particular, by establishing the Brian Vaughton Award for Excellence in Radio Production. It was fitting that the inaugural winner, Sophie Sparham, received a special commendation from the judges of the Charles Parker Prize for her documentary Addicted Philosophy, which was also featured in the Radio 4 Extra programme documenting Charles Parker Day.