| Address: | Oxfordshire, UK |
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| In 2015 I became the series producer of Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, delivering series 3 and 4 in summer 2015 and January 2016. As well as overseeing the series and its associated website (and occasionally self-shooting an item), I have been working to extend the reach of the brand across digital platforms to reach new audiences. This work has been rewarded with growing viewing figures, broader demographics and - most importantly - audience appreciation. We are currently in production on series 5. | |
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| In 2014/15 I was the lead producer of the BBC4 special Climate Change by Numbers. I was in charge of screentesting for presenters, overseeing other P/Ds and the team, and the editorial content of the show - which brought many challenges! I also developed the light painting technique that gave the show its 'look'. The programme won the European Public Awareness of Science Award for "Best Presentation of Science in an Environment Issue" and the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Gold Award. | |
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| I was again self-shooting P/D on the second series of Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, as well as starting to take over some Series Producing experience. As before, I self-shot two of the 'future medicine' items, self-edited video for the website and wrote to website articles. The series won the BANFF Rocky awad for Best Lifestyle Programme and was recommissioned. | |
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| In 2013 I helped develop the format for, and produced all three episodes of, BBC2's new health/medicine magazine series Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, with presenters Michael Mosley, Gabriel Weston, Chris van Tulleken and Saleyha Ahsan. I did the screentesting, directed several of the items, including the 'future medicine' items on ultrasound brain surgery and womb transplant surgery, which I self-shot. I also wrote, and cut extra films for, the website, at www.bbc.co.uk/trustme. The series gained record-breaking viewing figures and was recommissioned. | |
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| I was producer/director of the first programme in the series Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines for BBC4 which went out in October 2013. The programme told the story of painkillers, and included presenter Michael Mosley experiencing the effects of several drugs. The sequence of him under the influence of the infamous 'truth drug' and anaesthetic agent sodium thiopental was particularly popular. The programme won the 2014 'Learning on Screen' award. The website (bbc.co.uk/painpusandpoison) also features more clips which I cut especially for the site. | |
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| In the summer of 2012 I directed 4 of the BBC's 3D Olympic idents (Pole Vault, Long Jump, Taekwondo, Hurdling). This was a great project, in which we aimed to make the 3D as dramatic as possible, and really show off what it could do. The idents won an International 3D Society Award in 2013. The idents were filmed on 2 Phantom Flex cameras. The DoP was Ed Wild, and the stereographer Chris Parks. | |
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| On series 5 and 6 of Bang Goes the Theory, for BBC1, I worked mostly with presenter and engineer Jem Stansfield. Our biggest undertaking was building a human powered plane for series 6... | ...which I also made into an ident for BBC1 |
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| This item for Bang on transmitting power without using wires with Jem shows a slightly different approach to similar material - compare with the clip from BBC4's Story of Electricity below. | |
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| In 2011 I produced and directed the final episode of the series Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity for BBC4, with presenter Jim Al Khalili. Our aim was to use artificial and dramatic lighting as much as possible throughout, which created a distinctive look for the series. I was also greatly honoured to be able to film an interview with Dr Herbert Matare, who invented the transistor at the end of WWII, independently of the Bell Labs team who subsequently won the Nobel prize for it. I was incredibly sorry that he died before I was able to send him a finished copy of the film. Do visit the programme's website at bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kjqcv to see clips from this interview, as well as lots of extra material I created for the website - including Jim having half a million volts put through him... | |
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| In 2010 I produced and directed a one hour special for BBC4 with presenter Jem Stansfield called Explosions: How We Shook the World. It has continued to be very successful every time it is repeated - but then who can beat the combination of a bit of science, a bit of history and a lot of slow-motion footage of things blowing up?! As usual the programme's website includes some extra clips I made. | |
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Between 2005 and 2010 I worked in BBC Science and History, on series such as Climate Change: A Warning for Britain with David Attenborough, Kate Humble and Matt Allwright; The Making of Me (a BBC1 series with celebrities, looking at the nature/nurture debate); and BBC2 series such as How Earth Made Us with Prof Ian Stewart.
I also spend a lot of time developing ideas such as my own series Phenomena - a landmark for BBC1, and helping develop and make items for The One Show as it launched. This experience led to me being brought in to help format the new early evening BBC1 series Bang Goes the Theory, including casting (we screentested over 40 people!), and I worked as a director on the first two series, mainly directing new presenter Dr Yan Wong. This experience in turn helped when I worked on casting and developing the new BBC2 series, Trust Me, I'm a Doctor for BBC2 in 2013.
Between 2000 and 2005 I was a researcher on landmark BBC1 series, such as Walking with Beasts, the Walking with Dinosaurs Specials, and Life in the Undergrowth. During this time I also produced websites to accompany such series (my Life of Mammals website won a Prix Europa and my Walking with Beasts website an RTS award, and The Big Al game, became an early internet hit in 2000, boosting the BBC's page impressions at the time hugely!).
I designed the world's first SMS game (Battle of the Beasts, using game theory alongside the Walking with Beasts website) and won a BAFTA for my design for an interactive TV version of Walking with Beasts (featuring a 'scientific' alternative narration plus two extra video streams giving 'how do they know that?' and 'how did they do that?' information alongside the main broadcast). I also gained my first commission: Test Your Pet - a BBC1 Saturday evening show bringing the science of animal behaviour to a prime-time audience. Prior to 2000 I was a Supervising researcher for National Geographic Television, and a researcher at Oxford Scientific Films.
| 1995-1998 | Linacre College, Oxford | ||
| D.Phil in animal behaviour with Dr. T. Guilford | |||
| Avaliable online here | |||
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| 1992-1995 | New College, Oxford | ||
| MA degree in Zoology, with distinction in Supplementary Biological Anthropology. | |||
| Undergraduate project: "The morphology and behaviour of gorgonopsids and a new use for computers in palaeontology" available online here | |||
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| 1985-1991 | Cheltenham Ladies' College | ||
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