HISTORY

As a teenager I forced my parents to take me to the D-Day beaches and First World war battlefields. I read Medieval and Modern History at Birmingham, had a turn at academic research but eventually moved to London to work in telly. For free.

My break came in 1998, with Jeremy Isaacs as a researcher on Millennium: A Thousand Years of History (CNN). Since then I've worked on and directed a number of stand-alone history singles, notably the award-winning War Horse: The Real Story (C4); Voices of the Great War (Discovery); The Lion King: A Royal Safari (C4); and Prince Harry's Story: Four Royal Weddings (ITV). Historical series I have produced and directed include Time Team (C4); Lost Worlds (History); Disappearing Britain (C5); Weapons that Made Britain (C4); Evacuation (CBBC); Turn Back Time: The High Street (BBC1); Secret Britain (BBC1); and The Supersizers Eat (BBC2). I have also spent time between productions working in TV development, and was a key member of the teams that landed Horrible Histories (CBBC), Days That Shook The World (BBC2), Lawrence of Arabia: An Arab Perspective (PBS/BBC2), The Crusades (History) and  The Real James Bond Gadgets (C5).

Over twenty years I've worked with some of the biggest and best history producers in the UK, including Wall to Wall, Darlow Smithson, Lion TV, Twenty Twenty, Fulcrum, Atlantic and Testimony. I've produced some of the most familiar names in popular and academic history: Tony Robinson, Dominic Sandbrook, Antony Beevor,  Suzannah Lipscombe, Bettany Hughes, Alice Roberts, Lucy Worsley and Alex Langlands. And the stories I've covered read like a history book in themselves... Bronze and Iron Age Britain, the Romans, Anglo Saxons and Normans; medieval hunting and warfare through to the Spanish Armada and Tudor England; the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Steam to Queen Victoria's wedding and Edwardian Music Hall; big-game hunting in Africa and the Pacific War through to fifties Britain, the assassination of Martin Luther King and the release of  Nelson Mandela.

Many of my history shows have been nominated for - and a handful have won - awards including BAFTA, RTS, National Television, FOCAL International Archive, CINE Golden Eagle and Televisual Bulldogs. 

I am also a magpie for anything interesting and old and my study at home is a cornucopia of antiques and curios from around the world.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: CHRIS KAMARA     ( 60 mins / five / Hungry Bear / 2023)
Edit Producer
Football player and pundit Chris Kamara returns to his home town of Middlesbrough and walks trhough his childhood, exploring his personal roots and hometown in a way he has never done before.  Local history in the style of WDYTYA? this show uncovers stories of immigration and racism; the River Tees and the origins of the iron and steel industries; local boy Captain Cook and his voyages to the other side of the world; the German Blitz; and the earliest days of women's football.
UNDERWORLD: SLOVENIA   (60 mins / Curioosity Stream / ZDF / Off The Fence 2022)
Producer / Director / Cameraman
Real time adventure following expert cavers and scientists into the heart of one of Europe's largest ice caves. As the team take scanning technology down perilous ice and rock faces in order to investigate the effects of climate change, the show opens up to tell stories from some of the other 12,000 known caves in Slovenia. We meet Valvasor, the father of Speleology or cave science; investigate folklore about witches and dragons; reveal the world's oldest instrument; discover the bones of extinct cave bears; and learn about some of the earliest cave tourism.
Camera: George Pagliero / Rob Franklin
Series Producer: Sophie Elwin Harris
DRAIN THE OCEANS: PACIFIC WRECKS    (60 mins / Nat Geo / Five / Mallinson Sadler / 2019)
Producer / Director
A history of the Pacific War, from Pearl Harbour to the Atom Bomb, told through the discovery of four giant deep water wrecks. The rusting remains of each vessel, lying up to two miles down in the Pacific ocean, take us back to the heart of pivotal naval battles in WWII. By unpacking the story of how and why each ship went down, we open a window into the wider story of the Pacific war. I wrote the script, conducted interviews and B-roll filming in the US and planned the CGI.
*Maritime Media Awards 2019: Best Television or Film Production
Camera: Tom Fitz / Stephen Greaves / Andrew Jernigan
Executive Producers: Phil Craig / Crispin Sadler
VICTORIA & ALBERT: THE ROYAL WEDDING     (90 mins / BBC2 / PBS / BBC Studios / 2018)
Cameraman
Lucy Worsley restages the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Every detail is carefully researched and brought to life - the food, the costumes, the music and etiquette. Supported by commentary and interview from a host of social historians and military and royal experts, Lucy reveals how this event saved the monarchy and invented the modern marriage. I joined the award winning camera team on the biggest event days where the cast of costumed extras ran to over 100.
Camera: Andrew Muggleton / Rob Goldie / Ian Salvage / George Pagliero
Producer / Director: Ian Denyer
Executive Producer: Jon Swain
PRINCE HARRY'S STORY: FOUR ROYAL WEDDINGS   (60 mins / ITV / Spun Gold / 2018)
Producer / Director
On the eve of his marriage to Meghan Markle, this archive / talking head show looks back over the life of Prince Harry through the prism of his father's two weddings and that of his brother. Historian Dominic Sandbrook and 'Diana' biographer Andrew Morton set the social background of the eighties, nineties and noughties to a nostalgic pop soundtrack. Meanwhile the butler, the cook, a royal press secretary,  the head of the British army, a handful of journalists and newsreaders, a Spice Girl and an Olympic gold medalist spill the beans on their own experiences with the prince.
Camera: Steve Robson
Executive Producer: Nick Bullen
GREAT CONTINENTAL RAILWAY JOURNEYS: SWITZERLAND   (60 mins / BBC2 / Boundless / 2016)
Producer / Director / Cameraman
Self-shot programme with Michael Portillo following his 1913 Bradshaw Guide on a five day railway journey through Switzerland. Starting out in Zermatt, Michael learns about the Victorian obsession with Alpinism before meeting the famous St Bernard rescue dogs; in Montreux, it's high culture with Stravinsky's revolutionary 'Rites of Spring' and Byron's 'Prisoner of Chillon'; in Bern, he turns his hand to traditional Swiss watchmaking before taking a  biplane flight over the Alps after Oskar Bider's historic achievement; and in Geneva Michael visits the Red Cross and a family-run bank.
Series Producer: Alison Kreps
Executive Producer: John Comerford
SECRET BRITAIN: KENT   (60 mins / BBC1 / BBC Bristol / 2015)
Producer / Director
Exploring the hidden secrets of the 'Garden of England', we uncover some stunning historical gems. Denise Lewis paddles the Royal Military Canal, built to keep Napoleon out; visits the ruins of a church struck by one of Hitler's lethal V1 rockets in 1944, and dangles off the white cliffs of Dover looking for a long-forgotten delicacy from Shakespeare's time. Meanwhile Chris Hollins heads underground to explore a medieval chalk mine and explore a secret wartime aircraft factory.
Camera: Will Edwards / Duncan Fairs / Bala Bailey
Series Producer: Hannah Corneck
Executive Producer: Bill Lyons
SECRET BRITAIN: NORTHERN IRELAND   (60 mins / BBC1 / BBC Bristol / 2015)
Producer / Director
Across the Irish Sea, the team sets out to discover some of the secrets of Northern Ireland. Going way back in time, Chris Hollins starts with a legend, climbing  some of the highest mountains in Ulster to get closer to the story of Finn McCool. After discovering eighth century carvings in a cave, Chris discovers a hidden RAF flying boat base that struck back at the German U-boat threat in WWII. Meawhile Ellie Harrison uncovers a forgotten network of First World War 'practice trenches' on an army base in County Down, while Denise Lewis learns of the construction workers who risked their lives building Silent Valley Dam in the Mourne Mountains in the 1920s. 
Camera:  Duncan Fairs
Series Producer: Hannah Corneck
Executive Producer: Bill Lyons
HIDDEN KILLERS OF THE TUDOR HOME   (60 mins / BBC4 / Modern TV / 2014)
Producer
Historian Susannah Lipscombe investigates the unseen dangers abounding in the Tudor home. With the help of Jelena Bekvalac, Curator of Human Osteology at the Museum of London, and Professor Steven Gunn, Professor of Early Modern History at Oxford University, Susannah discovers most unlikely death traps, including drowning while doing the laundry, the very real dangers of timber clad chimneys, the grim reality of  syphilis, and the fatal damage done to Tudor teeth by the arrival of sugar. 
Camera: Tudor Evans
Series Producer: Jobim Sampson
THE LION KING: A ROYAL SAFARI   (60 mins / Channel 4 / Tigress Productions / 2013)
Producer / Director / 2nd Camera
The story of how a playboy prince, lured out to East Africa by wine, women and wild animals, became horrified by the senseless slaughter of big game and chose to champion conservation instead. Inspired by his aristocratic guide Denys Finch-Hatton, the real life star of 'Out of Africa', the future King Edward VIII was one of the first tourists to put down his rifle in favour of a film camera. The extraordinary royal home-movie footage - shown in this this film for the first time - is testament to Edward's bold and brave efforts to capture big game on camera. And not only was he one of the earliest wildlife cameramen, his was also the first truly powerful voice to join the international wildlife conservation lobby which helped set up Africa's national parks.
* FOCAL International Archive Awards: Best Natural History - Nominated
Camera: Mike Todd
Executive Producer: Dick Colthurst
WAR HORSE: THE REAL STORY  (60 mins / Channel 4 / Testimony Films / 2012)
Producer / Director / 2nd Camera
Coinciding with the release of Stephen Spielberg's epic movie, 'War Horse',  this documentary tells the true story of horses on the Western Front in WWI, from requisition and departure for the front to the roles they played and their appalling survival rate. Veterinarian Mark Evans gets up close and personal with the cavalry horses of today's British army; racing commentator Brough Scott recounts his family story of the most famous hosre of the war; and historian Richard Van Emden revisits the front line in Belgium and France, where horses played a vital role. With a wealth of veteran interview, archive film and photos, and reconstruction, this programme reveals the huge contribution  made in WWI by horses - and the dear price they ultimately paid.
* RTS West: Best History Film - Winner
Camera: Mike Todd
Executive Producer: Steve Humphries
THE HOUSE THE '50s BUILT: LIVING ROOM   (60 mins / Channel 4 / Wall to Wall / 2012)
Producer / Director
Experimental engineer Brendan Walker takes us through the very modern house of the 1950s and reveals how the application of science and technology in the home radically changed the way we lived. With the assistance of 'Science Bloke' Marty Jopson, the pair demonstrate how early furniture foam was made; they make a laminate chair using a giant home-made vacuum; and reveal how ice cream emulsifiers brightened up our front room. Talking heads include Kevin McCloud, Wayne Hemmingway, Honor Blackman, Gizzi Erskine, Maureen Lipman and Fay Weldon.
Camera: Will Fewkes / Mike Todd / Damian Eggs
Series Producer: Michael Douglas
LACONIA: SURVIVORS' STORIES  (30 mins / BBC2 / Talkback / 2011)
Producer / Director
Documentary featuring candid interviews with the last known survivors of the sinking of the Laconia. This most unlikely mix of sailors, airmen a young mother and a schoolgirl were all eye-witnesses to one of the most remarkable and bizarre stories of the war: they were rescued by the very same German U-boat commander who sank their ship. Accompanied by rarely seen photos and film taken on board the German submarine, this documentary was commissioned to accompany Alan Bleasdale's acclaimed BBC1 drama, 'The Sinking of the Laconia'. 
Camera: Steve Robson
Executive Producer: Jonathan Young
TONY ROBINSON'S GODS & MONSTERS: WITCHES   (60 mins / Channel 4 / Wildfire / 2011)
Producer / Director / 2nd Camera
As part of his Gods & Monsters series, exploring popular beliefs through time, Tony Robinson explores the world of witchcraft, going back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when fear of witches was at its peak. Joined by social historians, psychologists and doctors, Tony tries to work out why people believed in witches; how easy and dangerous it was for someone to be tarnished as a 'witch'; and why broader society let it happen. Tony even has a crack at being a witch, meting out gruesome punishments on volunteers and a tailor's dummy.
Camera: Mike Craven Todd
Executive Producer: Simon Raikes
TURN BACK TIME: THE HIGH STREET   (6 x 60 mins / BBC1 /  Wall to Wall / 2010)
Producer / Director / Cameraman
As High Streets around us fail,  we asked is it possible to 'turn back time' and re-invigorate local  shops again? This experiment, taking place over six weeks, did exactly that, opening five historic shops on a contemporary High Street in a small Somerset town. We followed the daily grind and emotional ups and downs of modern day shopkeepers - butchers, bakers, grocers, a blacksmith and a dressmaker - trying to ply their tade in the old fashioned way, from Victorian times through to the 1970s, and how their customers reacted. I was one of four shooting PDs who filmed the entire series through one very long summer.
* National Television Awards: Best Factual - Nominated
Series Producer: Cate Hall
THE SUPERSIZERS EAT: THE 1950s   (60 mins / BBC2 / Silver River / 2009)
Producer / Director
Giles and Sue venture back into our culinary past, this time to the 1950s when men were men, women did the cooking and cleaning, and rationing slowly came to an end. Ably assisted in their fifties new-build home by domestic goddess Mary Berry, the hapless pair head off to face the trials of a new decade. Giles takes full advantage, living the life of Riley as he explores an age of television, luxury motors, secret agents and holiday camps while quaffing champagne, eating lobster and great slabs of horse meat. Sue meanwhile rails against the mop and bucket, protests nuclear war, eats pizza, drinks espresso and dances to rock and roll with Bruce Welch of The Shadows.
Camera: Chris Keenan
Series Producer: Alannah Richardson
DECODED: DAN BROWN'S LOST SYMBOL   (60 mins / Channel 4 / Wildfire / 2009)
Producer / Director
Tony Robinson sets out to challenge Dan Brown's claim that his bestseller, 'The Lost Symbol,' is based on fact. In fact, much of Brown's masonic thriller turns out to be utter nonsense. But as Tony digs deeper he finds disturbing evidence that the United States was indeed founded by freemasons. There begins an alternative and irreverent history of freemasonry: from medieval England, when master masons mixed with kings, to present day Washington D.C. where you can take a Masonic Segway tour of the city with a Freemason in a Fez.
Camera: Mike Todd
Executive Producer: Philip Clarke
REVEALED: HITLER'S SECRET BUNKERS   (60 mins / Channel 5 / Fulcrum / 2008)
Producer / Director
Military historian Antony Beevor, author of bestselling book 'Berlin: The Downfall, 1945', returns to a city he thought he knew well, to discover a world lost under the streets. While taking the viewer through the harrowing story of the German capital under Nazi rule, Beevor discovers a labyrinthine world of tunnels and bunkers designed to keep Hitler and Berliners safe from air attack. But whilst 'Flak Towers' were able to inflict heavy damage on the British and American air forces overhead, these bunkers could do nothing to stop the advance of the Red Army in 1945, and it was all the city's inhabitants could do to huddle underground as the Nazi regime fell around them.
Camera: Mike Todd
Executive Producer: Richard Belfield
HORRIBLE HISTORY   (CBBC / Lion TV / 2002-07)
Development Producer
I was responsible for initiating the relationship between Lion TV and Horrible History author Terry Deary, and with his publishers Scholastic in the UK / US, collaborating on the approach and working up treatments. Over a period of five years, Terry, Lion TV and I presented (and revised) countless versions of the show to unconvinced BBC commissioners, who eventually stuck their necks out and commissioned it - dropping all the silly names and coming full-circle to simply call it, 'Horrible Histories'. The rest, as they say, is history. 77 episodes and counting.
* Winner of countless BAFTA, RTS, Emmy, Broadcast, and British Comedy Awards
Executive Producer: Richard Bradley
Commissioner: Kim Shillinglaw
EDWARDIAN FAMILY ALBUM  (60 mins / BBC4 / Lion TV / 2007)
Director / Cameraman
For the BBC's Edwardian season we produced this as-live show from Manderston Country House in Scotland, presented by Peter Snow. With an Antiques Roadshow meets Upstairs Downstairs feel, I produced and filmed the standalone VTs on Black Edwardians, Music Hall and the Electric Tram.
Producer: Julia Shannon
Executive Producer: Colin Cameron
DISAPPEARING BRITAIN: WHEN COAL WAS KING  (60 mins / C5 / Lion TV / 2006)
Producer / Director
Ricky Tomlinson travels through the British landscape exploring the legacy of one hundred years of coal mining - both the physical remains and social memory. Ricky travels from his childhood home in Liverpool through the abandoned coal fields and neglected mining villages of North West England, every journey and conversation kickstarted by wonderful archive film from the BFI collections. He ends up in South Wales where he discovers not only that the choirs are still singing, but one defiant coal mine remains in operation despite the best attentions of Thatcher and the Tory Party.
* FOCAL International Archive Awards: - Nominated
* Televisual Bulldog Awards: Best Series - Runner -Up
Camera: Paul Lang
Executive Producer: Steve Humphries / Richard Bradley
EVACUATION   (10 x 30 mins / CBBC / Twenty Twenty / 2006)
Producer / Director (5 eps) / Location Director (5 eps)
Taking twelve modern city kids  back in time as evacuees, this reality-history romp presented by Matt Baker helps today's youngsters discover what life was like for many children in World War Two. Living on a 'wartime' farm for three weeks - for many of them the first time they've left their parents - these city kids muck out the pigs, make rabbit pie and write letters home, gaining real empathy for those on the Home Front between 1939 - 45. I scripted and took the lead PD role on five of the ten episodes, and location directed on the other five.
* BAFTA Children's Awards: Best Factual Programme - Nominated
* RTS Educational Awards: Best Factual Series - Nominated
Camera: Dave Wickham / Will Pugh / Will Millner
Series Producer: Helen Soden
LOST WORLDS: CHURCHILL'S SECRET BUNKERS    (60 mins / History Channel / Atlantic Productions / 2005)
Producer / Director
An overview of the bunkers that kept Churchill, his military and his government safe from German bombing during the war. Locations include Paddock where he conducted emergency meetings at the start of WWII; RAF Uxbridge where he witnessed some of the most crucial hours of the Battle of Britain; the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall, from where he communicated in secret with President Roosevelt; and Eisenhower's secret communications bunker near Soho. As Hitler's bombs got bigger, the bunkers got deeper and more complex. I directed this episode on location in and around London; located historic archive; conducted interviews with Dr Piers Brendon, Prof Scott Lucas and others; taking the show through edit; commissioning 2D / 3D GFX, maps and  fly-throughs.
Camera: Vaughan Matthews
Series Producer: Lucy Van Beek
VOICES OF THE GREAT WAR   (60 mins / Discovery / Lion TV / 2005)
Producer / Director / 2nd Camera
A potted history of the First World War, told through first-hand audio recordings of British, German and American veterans held at the Imperial War Museum. With unrestricted access to IWM photo and film archives, we also filmed GVs on the battlefields and in the cemeteries in France and Belgium, and set up a rostrum where we filmed macro detail and tableaux of iconic artefacts from the Great War, from both the vaults of the IWM and the director's private collection.
Camera: Neil Robertson / George Pagliero
Executive Producer: Richard Bradley
WEAPONS THAT MADE BRITAIN: THE LANCE    (60 mins / Channel 4 / Lion TV / 2003)
Producer / Director
Having developed the series and produced the episode on the 'Shield', I cut my teeth as a director on this episode, covering the development of the foot soldier's spear into the lance, a formidable cavalry weapon.  Arms and armour expert and fight-arranger Mike Loades takes a hands-on approach to the weapon, demonstrating the revolutionary power of the Norman mounted spear. He then charts the rise of the fabled knight on horseback; his training with the lance in the tilt yard; the development of chivalric culture; the domination of the battlefield by the lance; the turbulent times of Henry III and the Baronial wars; and Edward II's wars against Scotland.
Camera: Pat Duval / Jim Ashcroft / Alan Doyle
Executive Producers: Bill Locke / Richard Bradley
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: AN ARAB PERSPECTIVE     (2 x 60 mins / PBS / BBC2 / Lion TV / 2002)
Associate Producer / BTS Camera / T.E Lawrence
This biopic docu-drama charts the life of T.E.Lawrence: from boyhood in Oxford, his time as an archaeologist and soldier in the Middle East, his struggle with celebrity and his untimely death in Dorset. A host of biographers re-tell the major stories from his life, with British, Arabic and Jewish scholars taking an Arab perspective on his achievements and consider his impact on the Arab Revolt and the birth of the modern Middle East. Researching and producing this show, and shooting the 'behind the scenes' was not enough. I also dressed up and played the part of Lawrence in the desert, on location in Jordan and Syria, winning a review in the New York Times for my 'mute and evasive' performance. Yalla!
* CINE Golden Eagle Awards - Winner
Director: James Hawes
Camera: James Aspinal
Executive Producer: Richard Bradley
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