To watch our short intro film about Parklife, click on the dog above.

A New Podcast Drama about the Climate Crisis
Parklife is a serial set in a fictional park that explores what it means to live in the climate crisis through the daily lives of the people who work and visit there.

The Concept
Our drama takes place in the fictional Strangers Park in the town of Northfield (modelled on Eaton Park, Norwich). Our characters embody the diversity of modern Britain, and the ways in which all of us are adapting to or confronting a rapidly changing world.

No podcast drama of this kind has ever been set in a park. Parklife’s unique identity comes from its meaningful depiction of the challenges of climate change and its desire to raise wider community awareness of the crisis facing us all.

Realising Parklife
We will initially make 6 episodes. If these are successful, we plan for Parklife to be a long-running, multi-episodic podcast serial. With our own carbon footprint in mind, we will use local Norfolk-based writers, actors, technicians, and studio facilities. Each episode will be approximately 15 minutes long including credits and original theme tune.

How will the episodes work?
The consequences of the climate crisis are at the heart of our stories, explored through the experiences of our central characters:
– a young park employee and a researcher who worry about the future they face;
– a park-keeper who finds change difficult;
– the family who run the café, struggling to balance the books whilst doing the “green thing”;
– and the ‘Dog Squad’, three older dog-walkers who use the park daily and comment on events online.
Through these characters we will explore some of the real-life challenges facing people today.

What is the Story?
It all starts when a massive storm fells part of the Strangers’ Oak, an ancient tree planted centuries ago by Dutch immigrants (Strangers) and now a symbol of the town of Northfield.

Resolving the tree’s future forces our characters to confront their own attitudes to climate change. Is individual action enough? Does direct action go too far? Or is it all just too late? These questions will divide our characters as they face up to the changing climate.

Why a Park?
Parks have always been at the heart of urban life: people from all backgrounds go there for a hundred different reasons. During lockdown they were vital to us, maintaining our physical and mental health. Now they are on the front line of the consequences of climate change but also threatened by budget cuts forced on struggling councils.