Representing new voices on television has been a hallmark of much of my broadcast work since the 1980's. Making programmes with and alongside others started with Interface Productions, staffed largely by people with disabilities, where I directed a series of documentaries for Channel 4 including the influential Paralympics 1984 before joining the BBC's Community Programmes Unit.

 

Here I produced for the BBC’s Emmy award-winning series Video Diaries and Teenage Diaries, with 'first-person' shooting at its heart using domestic camcorders and inspiring a new and authentic language for the documentary - the piece to camera, the self-shot intimacy, the lack of contrivance.

 

Some of these programmes were made with those who had not been seen much in the mainstream, capturing the unfolding stories in real time of individuals tackling, for example, their own eating disorder, gender reassignment, cancer or teenage angst.

 

Whilst at the BBC, I also conceived the Mass Observation-inspired series, Video Nation, a user-generated anthropology of everyday life, winning a European Prix Iris. The project ran throughout the 1990's with shorts shown frequently on BBC2 before becoming a long-running web project across the UK.

 

After a spell with Meridian TV where I created the long-running series, Three Minutes, I co-founded Maverick Television in Birmingham and extended the 'diary' documentary genre with Michelle's Story for BBC1 and various projects for Comic Relief, winning an RTS award. At Maverick I also created the long-running series Trade Secrets initially with Saul Dibb and reimagined the Daytime staple, Going for a Song, putting Michael Parkinson and the classic antiques parlour game back on television.

 

Headhunted by the BBC, I headed up their first New Media department, creating new digital and interactive programming for BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge (now BBC3 and BBC4), exploring ways that the internet and user interaction could shape television, working alongside several presenters including Jason Bradbury and Nick Knowles and launching the spin-offs Top Gear GTi and Real Rooms.

 

In 1999 I joined Endemol's Victoria Reel as their Head of Production and helped launch the web streaming of the first UK series of Big Brother on Channel 4. Taking everyone by surprise, this show attracted 27 million live streams, delivered to computers in offices and homes and thus was created a 24/7 viewing experience, establishing the genre of 'interactive reality television', mashing entertainment with factual.

 

In Brighton I launched another independent production company, The Bridge in 2001, producing arts and music documentary series for ITV and Five, including Artists in Residence and Brighton Beats before joining Southampton Solent University to teach BA and MA film and television production and post production in 2005.

 

At the university I created an in-house production company (Solent Productions) and web channel (Solent TV), making programmes and media content for clients and broadcasters, providing thousands of hours of professional work experience for students alongside their studies. Glastonbury Festivals, the BBC, Sony and the NHS remain as clients enabling students to 'cut their teeth' in media production.

 

Over the years I have maintained my collaboration with video artist Steve Hawley, including the seminal scratch video, The Science Mix (1983, Stedelijk, MoMA, NY), the acclaimed experimental documentary, Language Lessons (1995, Channel 4, frequent international screenings) and the super slow motion South Home Town installation (2015, New York Independent Film Festival).

 

I continue to make documentaries, both for broadcast and independently, alongside writing and consulting on media education and curricula. This work includes The Last Taboo (2014) made in Kenya, Island Pride UK (BBC, 2018), the autobiographical Love Beyond Borders (2019), Vectis Radio (BBC, 2020) and Inside the World of Tinnitus (BBC, 2020).

 

In 2021 I launched People Media Productions and have been making documentary shorts for the NHS and charities on the Isle of Wight where I live.