blog
then
Louder than a thousand words
I’ve been gone, fishing for locations. Back in the day, a recce was closer to the military function it refers to. You’d go to see places, camouflaged as a tourist. People would look and comment and perhaps contact the authorities on spotting you crouched on a corner by the bins, or gazing up bedroom […]
Gone but not Forgotten
Dave Myers is dead. He’d looked so very brave for so very long battling his cancer that while the end was clearly neigh, it was still a surprise. Myers was an extremely accomplished presenter able to absorb script at speed and deliver it with light and shade. He understood the need for multiple […]
In the Family
23rd October 23
As a child, in the same way some are repelled by clowns, I had a horror of musicals. In adulthood I still preferred the action between the songs to the moment when characters I trusted suddenly took the disbelief I had suspended and bursting into song and dancing about, shredded it. In May came […]
Comes with territory
11th May 2022
People know this job involves lots of travel. I’m often asked if I need someone to help carry the bags. I do, thank you, but be careful what you wish for. The jet-age chic of Luton or Stanstead, at 3am, soon evaporates arrival at the departures board. Sensible travellers are bound for romantic destinations we’ve […]
Location Location
11th May 2022
The BBC 4 Handmade series is delivered, time to return, reluctantly, to the real world
Another At Home with David and Victoria
19th April 2000
In April 2000, just into a year’s worth of intimate access filming, David and Victoria host a pizza party to chew over defeat by Real Madrid.
A Remembrance of Times Past
23rd November 2001
Am in the early stages of a shoot for C4 documentary/adventure series To the Ends of the Earth. This one is about the search for remains of a 58,000 Persian army lost in the Sahara somewhere near what is now Libya, in 500BC. We have gone with two archaeologists to test maverick theory that the army may have died in sands in a different place from that where generations of historians have looked.
First the Spice Girls, then this
6th August 2002
In August 2002 Following WestLife in an observational fashion means going everywhere with them. On the sixth that meant Dublin Bay for a bit of dancin and romancin.
To Anghiari with Talent TV
17th June 2004
Day spent travelling to recce a job too good to refuse.
Summer of 2010: the thoughts of tyro star, Cosmo Jarvis
1st June 2010
BBC4 are slightly interested in a film about the efforts of his music management to tame Cosmo Jarvis and make him a star. I can’t even get him to sit still.
camera test for Pride and Prejudice
2nd January 2013
Shooting the most accurate television rendition of Pride and Prejudice calls for special measures.
open wide
17th June 2013
In Newcastle, young dentists learn their trade and the BBC wants a pilot.
Grieving with CS lewis
25th September 2013
A day spent chronicling the stories of the women CS Lewis loved in glorious autumnal Oxford.
looking up
29th November 2013
Shooting begins on a landmark project about a landmark project, for ITV. Then it stops again.
cold comfort in Connecticut
20th January 2014
Michael Grade arrives in New England for day one of filming on Tom Thumb in sub-zero temperatures. I’m already outside.
Extremely cold in New England
21st January 2014
Michael Grade most entertaining in New England as snow piles up on Tom Thumb’s grave
November effect makes slow TV slow going
10th December 2014
The Norwegians have pioneered a new kind of TV that moves at glacial speed. I’ve been making it this slow for thirty years.
Way Down in Dixie
1st June 2015
Passing through Memphis bound for Tupelo for ITV Perspectives aware of why young Elvis was so very hot.
Don’t use the C word
6th April 2016
A portrait of the artist as a young Turk. In Japan.
Victoria and Albert: The Wedding
After many months in dry dock, Victoria and Albert: The Wedding is finally setting sail
Handmade for dark times
20th March 2020
The FT advises that those climbing the walls at home take episodes of BBC 4’s Handmade, on the hour, every hour. Those looking for episodes not on the iplayer will find them here.