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Police officers often witness things outside the normal range of human experience – violence, brutality and traumatic death that many of us never see.

For most it is accepted as just part of the job and, although traditionally officers have not been encouraged to share their feelings, what is the emotional cost? How does dealing with trauma on a regular basis, change us as human beings? High profile atrocities like the murder of George Floyd in the US, and Sarah Everard's murder in the UK, have also led to scant understanding and sympathy for policemen and women dealing with the day-to-day realities of policing.

In “He wears a Mask, and his Face Grows to Fit it", retired policeman Guy Gardener reflects on the horrors he witnessed during his 30 year career in British policing and how he learnt to cope with the emotional fall-out of the job. Now 70, he recorded this candid interview with his son, also called Guy who was making a feature for his audio production course at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. Guy the son discovered a great deal about his father’s long policing career - stories and feelings that had never been shared before – and he contrasted the reality with an upbeat period recruitment film.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2022 for the Best Student Radio Feature. The judges praised Guy’s feature saying that it was ‘interesting to hear this perspective in a beautiful interview. The stories the policeman told were ‘very vivid’ and the programme was a ‘powerful listen – a bit gruesome but not in a bad way.’

Producer: Guy Gardener
A Soundscape production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4