In the last few years I’ve been the creative director of an award-winning small indie called ClearStory, working in a hybrid role as an executive producer and programme director across the company’s diverse output, which includes prime time shows for BBC2 and Channel 4 like Art That Made Us, Sex Box, Africa Rising with Afua Hirsch and Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, among many other titles.
I’m currently looking for opportunities to return to freelance directing full time from late summer / autumn 2023, particularly on series covering history or recent-history stories, politics, arts and technology, which are my big interests and where I have strong experience to offer.
I have over 25 years of television experience as a director and executive producer, creating heavyweight history, arts and technology series, feature-length documentaries and daring new formats. Along the way, I’ve led large production teams, devised innovative and powerful visual approaches and shaped the storytelling of major landmark series, working closely with commissioning editors. I’ve also scripted and directed a wide range of presenters, including Niall Ferguson, Richard Dawkins, Mariella Frostrup, David Reynolds and Afua Hirsch.
ClearStory 2010 - now:
I co-founded ClearStory Ltd in 2010 and have been its creative director across 50+ hours of diverse, prime-time content for the major UK networks, which has also been successfully distributed worldwide. Productions include the gritty documentary feature Gypsy Blood and innovative and provocative formats Sex Box and Jimmy Carr Destroys Art for Channel 4; the immersive reality show Battlefield Recovery for Channel 5; prime time arts series including DanceWorks, Oceans Apart and Handmade in Africa for BBC4 and the eight-part history of British creativity Art That Made Us for BBC2. ClearStory’s latest cultural travelogue for BBC2, Africa Rising with Afua Hirsch, is due to be broadcast in autumn 2023.
Directing 1998 - now:
At ClearStory, I’ve directed episodes of our landmark series, including BBC programmes Art That Made Us, African Renaissance (Ethiopia), Utopia: In Search of the Dream and How to Go Viral. I also directed Harry Hill’s Passions film about Damien Hirst for Sky Arts. Before starting ClearStory, I produced BBC2’s four-part history of the World Wide Web, The Virtual Revolution, directed five feature-length BBC history films about the world wars of the 20th Century, including the Grierson-shortlisted Armistice and 1941 & the Man of Steel; made several science series with Richard Dawkins about evolution and religion, including Genius of Charles Darwin; and, earlier still, directed numerous Channel 4 history series and one-offs such as Empire, American Colossus, How the Victorians Wired the World, 1000AD, Classic Aircraft and Extinct!
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