Hello
We are Overcoat
We tell stories in sound that
beguile, inform and intrigue.
From podcasts to live concerts, arts features to factual series, our content’s got a reputation for turning heads – blending the intimacy and rigour of documentary storytelling with narrative playfulness and sonic adventure.
Our work
A selection of our projects produced either in-house or for others
A Racist Music
BBC Radio 3
Tim Key and Gogol's Overcoat
BBC Radio 4
Detoxifying the Classics
BBC Radio 4
Professor Katherine Harloe asks why racist hate groups are so fond of the ancient world and explores the history of how Classics and white supremacy became entangled.
Produced by Nathan Gower. An Overcoat Media Production.
Archive on 4: Diana - A Life Backwards
BBC Radio 4
Marketing: Hacking The Unconscious
BBC Radio 4
Rory Sutherland explores the story and psychology behind the most influential marketing campaigns in history.
Steven Rajam & Michael Surcombe for BBC Wales
Black Sci-Fi: Stories from the End of the World
BBC Radio 4
Writer, activist and broadcaster Walidah Imarisha presents the untold story of black sci-fi and its vital role in redefining the present and imagining the future.
Produced by Tej Adeleye. An Overcoat Media Production.
Covering Edward Said: 40 years of Islam, Media and the West
BBC Radio 4
Author and columnist Nesrine Malik explores the legacy of Edward Said’s Covering Islam, published forty years ago – and his views on the relationship between Islam and the media.
Produced by Katherine Godfrey. An Overcoat Media Production.
From The Steppes To The Stage
BBC Radio 4
From Dadar to the Stars
BBC Radio 3
The Welsh Under Canvas
BBC Radio Wales
Gareth Gwynn rekindles his childhood camping experiences in a bid to understand Wales’s obsession with getting wet and cold.
An Overcoat Media Production
Between The Ears - Re:Union
BBC Radio 3
Thought Cages
BBC Radio 4
Rory Sutherland explores a selection of fresh, intriguing and iconoclastic ideas.
“Radio at its very best: informative, witty and entirely unpredictable.” – The Times
Steven Rajam & Michael Surcombe for BBC Wales
Do Pass Go
BBC Radio 4
Covering a Catastrophe
BBC Radio Wales
50 years after the Aberfan disaster, Felicity Evans tries to make sense of the sequence of media events which saw a nation put on the global stage as never before.
An Overcoat Media Production
The most important, least important thing
BBC World Service
Nature is What We See
BBC Radio 3
A slow radio escape, into the city and beyond into nature and paradise. Inspired by the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Produced by Melvin Rickarby. An Overcoat Media Production.
Classical Commonwealth
BBC Radio 3
Errollyn Wallen unravels how classical music fused with local musical traditions across the British Commonwealth, speaking to acclaimed conductor Zubin Mehta and others.
An Overcoat Media production, produced by Steven Rajam.
Iveta Apkalna's Pipe Dreams
BBC Radio 3
3 part Sunday Night series. Acclaimed virtuoso Iveta Apkalna takes us on a personal odyssey through organ music, exploding myths and cliches, and reinventing how we see this extraordinary musical machine.
Producer: Steven Rajam. An Overcoat Media production.
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and Wales: A Tribute
BBC Radio Wales
Our vision
A launchpad for new talent and new sounds
We are bespoke audio producers, dedicated to highly-crafted content for the radio, podcast and commercial worlds. And we’re determined to do things differently.
We hunt for new talent, new stories and new experiences on both sides of the microphone. And we’re passionate about giving expression to a fresh and diverse array of voices that matter.
Our home is Wales, and our language is international.
Steven Rajam, creative director
Bold, imaginative ideas that tease the mind
As a BBC documentaries and music producer for over a decade, Steven built a reputation for arts and factual programmes that combine captivating stories with fresh, playful and original approaches to narrative and form.
His feature “Tim Key and Gogol’s Overcoat” won the 2013 Prix Italia, and he’s made award-winning programmes on subjects from politics to sport, visual arts to history, comedy to poetry.
Steven’s also a vastly experienced creator of bespoke music content – having produced and managed more than 300 hours of live concerts, events and strand programmes for BBC Radio 3.
Michael Surcombe, managing director
We are at the heart of an audio revolution
Michael has a track record of being at the cutting edge of technological innovation, combining a content-maker’s creative flair with an eye for the latest digital ideas. A music specialist, he’s produced numerous key strands for the BBC – including Composer Of The Week, Radio 3 in Concert and Cardiff Singer Of The World – alongside documentaries for BBC Radio 4.
He’s also a respected technology professional and trainer, and led BBC Wales’s innovations programme in audio, video and digital from 2014 before setting up his own production company.
Amy Wheel, business manager
Attention to detail with a can-do attitude: Amy loves making things happen. She worked at BBC Wales for 13 years, coordinating a busy team making a vast array of network radio features before coming to work for Overcoat Media. She has also produced programmes for the BBC – including presenter/producing two documentaries for BBC Radio 4, editions of Radio 3's Composer Of The Week, and live Radio 3 concerts.
Our Team
We work with a wide range of freelance producers, editors and sound designers from across the world, with our core staff based near Cardiff, Wales.
You can find out more about some of our freelancers below.
If you would like to talk to us about making a documentary or podcast please drop us a line at sounds@overcoatmedia.com. Overcoat Media is a supporter and signatory of the Equality In Audio Pact. Find out more about the pact here.
Alia Cassam, producer
Alia is a freelance radio producer who has made documentaries for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, the World Service, Tate, and regularly features on BBC Radio 4's Short Cuts. She trained on the BBC's flagship Production Trainee Scheme where she focused on current affairs and arts broadcasting. She is interested in radio as a medium for "encounter culture", and for working with poetry in a prose-saturated world.
Melvin Rickarby, producer
Melvin is a freelance producer of podcasts, radio and music recordings. As an in-house documentary specialist at the BBC for 20 years, he authored features on everything from natural history to business takeovers and jazz to Nordic culture.
Recognised for a creative, crafted approach to audio, he now brings that expertise to radio and podcast projects for broadcasters and brands.
Katherine Godfrey, executive development producer
Katherine is a freelance executive producer who, most recently, was Head of Audio at the Guardian. Over a decade as an audio producer, she has created new strands for BBC Radio 4 that celebrate smart thinking across disciplines from history to social science and the arts and exec produced major BBC Radio strands.
She’s created podcasts for Art Fund and Glyndebourne Opera and documentaries across the spread of BBC Radio and loves location recording. But she has, honestly, never enjoyed a production more than the comedy podcasts she made for BBC Sounds.
Her work emphasises the long tail of ideas and the importance of emotion, and reverberates with her love of experimental music. She is interested in audio that challenges our perceptions, particularly about mental health, and helps us make informed decisions about the way we live.