I’m a Senior Lecturer and Producer, with a background as factual documentary producer/director and television studio producer. Background in print journalism, BBC radio and television including BBC1, ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4, STV, History Channel, and Sky.
I started at 14 after pestering my local newspaper in Newcastle upon Tyne for weekend work where I was a copy runner before writing short stories. At 16 I joined the newspaper’s correspondent on work experience in the House of Commons in London where I really caught the buzz for reporting. I went on to study for a degree in history and politics followed by a post graduate in journalism. I started my career as a reporter in newspapers before moving to BBC radio as a Broadcast Journalist and then to television with BBC Crimewatch in London and after a few years onto various factual productions from live studio programmes and outside broadcasts to documentaries for ITV across the UK and in Europe including for my sins the first series of ITV’s Club Reps. My background is in factual and features production working on national and internationally distributed programmes and series as a producer and live studio producer and now as a development producer. Crime and history documentaries are probably my specialisms these days covering most of the major crimes in Britain from the likes of Dr Harold Shipman to The Great Train Robbery.
Professional memberships and activities
Royal Television Society
Women in Film and Television
Academic qualifications
BA Hons History and Politics
TRN Cert Journalism
Expertise
Research and practice into the methods of television, film and radio production.
Course development, industrial partnership development and work experience for staff and students.
Research interests
All aspects of the business and production of radio and television production from development to commissioning and distribution.
Research and publication work includes the development of over 30 televised one hour and half hour documentaries in the last five years for ITV, Sky and History Channel.
Recent research for European funding with Staffordshire University and collaboration with British and French historians for both a long form World War Two film documentary and a separate short film documentary for World War One commemorations for theatre release.
Research and implementation of new pedagogical methods for film and television requirements for enterprise, entrepreneurship and employability for future graduates gaining the Excellence in Cross University Working Team Award – Staffordshire Graduate Programme in October 2013.
Teaching
BSc Hons Film Production Technology
BSc Hons Television Production Technology
Publications
How Britain Bridged the World (History Channel) - documentary on British engineering including the Millau Viaduct in France with interviews form some of Britain’s top historians and engineers. (2011)
Britain’s Biggest Heists (series 1 & 2 ), (Sky Crime and Investigation Channel)) 12 one hour documentaries (2011) - drama and interview documentaries with police and families involved in cases including The Great Train Robbery, The Millennium Dome Robbery and Brinks Mat Robbery.
Crimes That Shook Britain (series 1 & 2) (Sky Crime and Investigation Channel) 12 one hour documentaries (2011) - drama and interview documentaries in cases including Dr Harold Shipman murders, the Hungerford Shootings and Dunblane Massacre.
Shannon Matthews – The Disappearance (Sky Crime and Investigation Channel) one hour documentary (2009) – the story of the missing schoolgirl from Dewsbury in Yorkshire.
Remembrance BBC radio – series of short World War One radio documentaries from historians, veteran organisations in France and Germany (2008)