National Adoption Service for Wales series recognised in the Parenting Award 

Bengo Media were among the winners at the 2023 British Podcast Awards, picking up silver for the series Truth Be Told: Adoption Stories. 

Truth Be Told hears adoptive parents and young people from across Wales talking to each other about their experiences.  

The series is produced by us and created by public relations agency, Cowshed for their client, the National Adoption Service for Wales. It was also filmed for YouTube with a full sister series recorded in Welsh. 

Award-winning Production

The first five episodes were recorded in the autumn of 2022. Bengo Media worked with Cowshed’s brief and casting. We then wrote questions for five-hour-long recording sessions with adoptive parents. The best bits of these recordings were then shaped into fortnightly-released episodes, narrated by Corienne Strange, the National Adoption Service’s Head of Policy. 

The sixth and final episode of the series was a first of its kind – a podcast produced and presented by adopted young people aged between 13 and 25. Presented by Ruth Letten from Connected,  Adoption UK’s Children and Young People Service, The Takeover challenged misconceptions and prejudices faced by adopted children.

This is the second series we’ve made for the National Adoption Service. You can find out all about the first series here.

British Podcast Awards

The British Podcast Awards ceremony was held at HERE at Outernet in London’s West End. The glitzy event which saw podcasting’s big stars all under one roof. 

Five other podcast series were also shortlisted for the Parenting Award, including Dadvengers, My First Five Years, and The SENDcast. Dad Still Standing – a series about baby loss – beat Truth Be Told to the gold with Dirty Mother Pukka, the podcast of YouTuber Mother Pukka, winning bronze. 

The night’s big British Podcast Award winners were fellow Welsh production company Overcoat Media who picked up two golds, including Podcast of the Year for A Positive Life: HIV From Terence Higgins to Today. True crime podcast Redhanded won Listeners Choice with the comedy pod My Dad Wrote A Porno inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame. 

Interested in working with Bengo Media on the full production of your podcast series? Read more about our production services here.