Sharon Needham worked for me as a researcher on a series of programmes for Channel 4 called ‘Coping’. Each ‘Coping’ was a half-hour documentary built around an in-depth interview or interviews with people who had experienced a life trauma, such as illness or bereavement, or a challenge such as a second marriage. Research for these required Sharon to trace and identify suitable subjects; establish contact; arrange meetings; put them at their ease; elicit with sensitivity a mass of detail about their lives that would provide the framework for the interview(s) and the documentary; and write up this research in a way that enabled me, as the producer, to get a good initial understanding of the person(s) concerned and on that basis make a judgment about their suitability as possible subjects for a documentary. In all of this, Sharon showed a good instinct for what would make a programme; great sensitivity in dealing with people who had usually been through traumatic experiences; and the ability to write up, discuss and explain her research notes in a clear, insightful way. She was all I could ask for as a researcher. Bob Duncan Producer of over 300 programmes for Channel 4, ITV and the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust (BSLBT)

Bob Duncan