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The Planners

I spent much of 2012 working on The Planners, an eight part series for BBC2 exploring how planning permission decisions are made in the UK, and the impact that those decisions have.

Time Out magazine calls it "Equal parts funny and fascinating".

Sam Wollaston has reviewed the programme for The Guardian, saying, "Who knew that planning could be so interesting though? And make such good television?"

It's currently on iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00tw84c/The_Planners_Episode_1/

It's been a while...

...since I wrote on this blog, sometimes life and work can get in the way of shameless self-promotion, but I've been working all over the place over the last year - including shooting in the US for a few of months on a couple of different projects for the National Geographic Channel and the BBC.  One of the most interesting projects was a development job for the BBC, filming with young people on the US-Mexico border about illegal border-crossing, and that is currently in production. 

Now I'm working on a series called "The Planners" for BBC2 - filming people's attempts to get planning permission - a subject which is more interesting than one might think!  Hopefully the series will be on telly in early 2013.

The Grierson Awards shortlist has just been announced, so I wanted to say congrats to Nic Blower - his documentary film "Transplant" has been shortlisted in the "Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme - Domestic" category.

Transplant

"Transplant" to be broadcast on BBC1 tonight at 10:35pm (UK).

  
I'm really looking forward to seeing this important film later tonight.   I was involved with the planning and early stages of production, but I haven't seen it yet.  I was "on call" as a shooting director for the film, but in the end, I had started another project by the time filming started.  There were quite a few people involved in the making of this film, and in the research period of the production I was lucky enough to witness a transplant operation in full.  The film features incredible, life-saving operations, which are only made possible thanks to the altruism of others.

The Guardian, The Mirror and The Evening Standard all have previews; and it will be available on iplayer after the broadcast.  The BBC news website has an accompanying in-depth article.

And of course, once you have seen this, you might want to consider signing up to be a donor...

Classroom Secrets - BBC One

Earlier this year, I filmed some of this documentary about a primary school class in Leicester.  The kids were great to film with - it's due to be broadcast on BBC1 at 10:35pm on Thursday 14th July.

"Neighbourhood Watched" on BBC1

The new series of social housing documentary "Neighbourhood Watched" will start on Tuesday March 1st (BBC1 at 10:35pm).  I filmed and directed some of the series, Raw Television are the producers.

UPDATE: Watch the most recent episode on iplayer.

True Stories: Britain's Supreme Court (More4)

Karen Hamilton's feature length documentary about the first year of Britain's Supreme Court was recently shown on More4 in the UK.

The Telegraph's Assistant Editor for Home News, Philip Johnston, wrote an interesting review of the film.

My vested interest here is that I shot a small amount of the footage in the film.  I filmed with one of the lawyers featured, and I was there for the official opening, which meant I set eyes on the Queen for the first time in my life.

I'm not really a royalist, and I don't get particularly star-struck, but there is something special about being at an event attended by her majesty - it was a great experience.

Being around the court, and talking to the men and women whose sharp legal minds determine the law, gave me a brief but fascinating insight into the running of the court.  Karen Hamilton's film allows us all that experience, and the level of access afforded to her from the Justices is remarkable.