Harvey Lilley is an award-winning Director, Series Producer and Executive Producer specialising in ambitious, high-end factual television where history, science, archaeology, discovery and strong human storytelling meet. He has originated, developed and delivered films and series for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, PBS, NBC, Discovery, Netflix and Nationa... Read More

Harvey Lilley is an award-winning Director, Series Producer and Executive Producer specialising in ambitious, high-end factual television where history, science, archaeology, discovery and strong human storytelling meet. He has originated, developed and delivered films and series for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, PBS, NBC, Discovery, Netflix and National Geographic, amongst others, working across both major talent-led productions and large-scale factual series.

His particular strength is turning complex or specialist subjects into compelling mainstream television. He has made films and series about history, archaeology, scientific discovery, war, the natural world and extraordinary human stories, often combining expert knowledge and new technology with strong characters who have infectious curiosity, access and cinematic storytelling. He is equally experienced in developing an idea from scratch, directing and series-producing at scale, and providing senior editorial leadership through production and post-production.

He has worked closely with major talent including Judi Dench, Ewan McGregor and Eddie Izzard. Recent highlights include Judi Dench: Shakespeare, My Family and Me (Channel 4), described by The Times as “Marvellous. Intensely moving”; The Real Peaky Blinders (BBC Two); Falklands War: The Untold Story (Channel 4); The Crown Jewels with Clive Myrie (BBC One); and Judi Dench’s Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One), which attracted six million viewers.

His history and archaeology work includes The RAF at 100 with Ewan McGregor (BBC One), The Vikings Uncovered (BBC One/PBS) and Egypt’s Lost Cities (BBC One), which used satellite archaeology to locate thousands of previously unknown archaeological sites and demonstrated that 99% of Egyptian archaeological sites have yet to be uncovered. He also originated and exec-produced The Unseen Queen (BBC One), a feature-length documentary built around Queen Elizabeth II’s extraordinary home movies, which was nominated for a Broadcast Award. He also directed The Coronation that featured the late Queen Elizabeth II. Both the above garnered 10 million viewers.

His wider series work includes Africa, an eight-part National Geographic/PBS series exploring the continent’s ecology through the lives of ordinary people; Bomber Boys (BBC One) with Ewan McGregor; Meet the Izzards (BBC One), in which Eddie Izzard investigated his and all our genetic inheritances through his own DNA; and Italy’s Invisible Cities with Alexander Armstrong.

Harvey has extensive experience managing complex productions and multiple edit teams, including fast-turnaround work and reshaping challenging series for BBC and Channel 4. He is also comfortable working across presenter-led, observational, specialist factual and hybrid forms, and with productions involving archive, dramatic reconstruction, visual effects and emerging technologies.

He began his career as a dubbing editor, most notably at Aardman Animations on the Oscar-winning The Wrong Trousers, before moving into documentary at BBC Bristol. He subsequently worked at Granada and Quickfire Media, where his credits included Rebels and Redcoats, The Last Tommy, Bobby Moore and In the Footsteps of Churchill, and later worked in Los Angeles for NBC on the first US series of Who Do You Think You Are?

He is particularly interested in ambitious factual projects with a strong sense of unfolding narrative and discovery - projects that can reveal new history, science or archaeology, uncover extraordinary stories and make complex subjects accessible to a broad audience. Read Less