Salford community group create living history with Second World War radio drama

Salford has undergone a transformation over the last few years, with a wealth of new housing developments, community initiatives and regeneration projects making it a better place to live and work.

Lower Kersal Young People and Community Group (LKYPCG) are a vibrant and vital part of the community and do so much to encourage working together to make Kersal a place to be proud of.

Salford 80 years ago was a very different place. German planes wrought devastation across the city, residents were subjected to many nights of bombing, and thousands of homes were badly damaged during the onslaught. 

More than 200 people were killed and nearly a thousand injured in Salford, and 8,000 homes were damaged or destroyed – it was a very difficult and turbulent time for the city.

As part of their community engagement, Lower Kersal Young People and Community Group came together for a unique project, a radio play part-funded by housing association Salix Homes to mark the occasion when Salford was almost wiped off the map during the Second World War.

Members of the group signed up to perform ‘Keep calm and carry on’, a play by Joe O’Bryan written in 2012. The play depicts life during the war and how the community at the time rallied together as the threat of bombs came ever closer to eventually landing on their doorsteps.

Many of the cast have no acting or radio training, so it was a new adventure for all involved.

Thomas Lever MBE, who project manages LKYPCG, knew the play would be a great project for everyone to get involved. He said: 

“We’ve done the play before and performed it at The Lowry which was wonderful, but I knew there was another way to shine a light on Salford in those days, so we decided to do a radio play, and it’s worked out really well. It’s a really emotional piece and when the cast heard the finished thing with sound effects and everything, you could see they were upset as it really brought it home, how hard it was back then.”

The radio play centres around a typical terraced street and the community shelter where we hear the various characters come together for safety and support and the evenings spent in the shelter were often funny with banter and jokes flying like sarcastic shards of shrapnel. The radio play also depicts the fear everyone had as they could hear the crashes and bangs outside wondering if it was their house or anyone they knew caught in the waves of attacks.

Sean Massey project producer was really pleased with the reaction from the cast, adding: “It was quite tough originally because we started to record during lockdown, and obviously it was quite difficult and it took over a year to record it all, but it’s come out really well.”

The play has been picked up by Salford City Radio, a local community station. It will be broadcast on Thursday 22 December, Friday 23 December, Saturday 24 December, at 9 pm and Sunday 25 December and Monday 26 December at 10 pm.

Salix Homes part funded the radio play and donated £900 which went towards equipment and producing programmes for the play, the funding comes from the Salix Homes Springboard initiative, set up to support community projects in Salford.

Sue Sutton, chief executive at Salix Homes, said: “It’s great that we were able to give some funding for this piece of social history through our Springboard community grant programme. It was a challenging time in Salford and something we shouldn’t forget, that’s why community projects like the radio play are so important and knowing it will be heard by younger generations is brilliant. We’re really proud to support Lower Kersal Young People and Community Group with this amazing piece of work.”

 It is hoped the play will be released as a podcast in early 2023.

Salford City Radio can be found at 94.4 FM and online at 94.4FM Salford City Radio –

To find out more about Salix Homes’ Springboard fund and how to apply, visit www.salixhomes.co.uk/springboard