Mark Burman thought he was going to make movies until he heard a classic Charles Parker radio ballad which stopped him in his tracks. Specializing in radio for his degree at the Polytechnic of Central London, he graduated in 1985. He then spent two years founding an oral history project with Alan Dein. From 1989 he was a freelance producer, reporter, and writer before joining the BBC features department in 1994. Burman still believes in the power of radio.