Erica Jenkin worked as my Assistant Producer on "Children of the Tsunami" (Renegade Pictures, TX BBC2 01.03.2012) from April 2011 to February 2012 with a gap from July to September 2011, during which she carried on working for Renegade Pictures on other projects whilst we waited for coproduction finance. The film told the story of the Japanese tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster through the eyes of 7-10 year-old children. We spent a total of 3 months on the ground in Japan. Erica was just superb, she delivered on every front and the film owes much of its success to the wonderful characters she found, befriended and interviewed. She combines sensitivity, flair and a subtle nose for documentary casting with hard work, capability and determination. In the most trying circumstances, bereaved parents and traumatised children trusted her and accepted to work with us because of the trusting relationships Erica had built with them. Erica single-handedly cast the children and their parents and teachers, secured access to them and interviewed them on camera, in addition to taking care of all the usual production and logistical tasks which were far from straightforward in the tsunami-hit and radiation- blighted areas we found ourselves working in. This was a truly challenging, complex piece of research, combined with desperately tricky access and further complicated by the young age of the children involved - a real test for any AP, and Erica came through with flying colours.

Dan Reed