Authors
Reel History of Britain: Selecting the films
It's perhaps not surprising that I became a film curator. I come from a family who documented their lives through home movies over a period of almost 60 years. Every few years we hold a grand screening, projecting the films onto a sheet at the bottom of the garden. Melvyn Bragg insi...
Renaissance Revolution: Applying cutting edge techniques to art
When Renaissance Revolution was pitched to me, I was intrigued by the idea from the production company Blakeway Productions of using cutting edge graphic techniques to present classic artworks on television. Other television genres such as science and history programmes have made excellent use o...
Out Of The Frying Pan and into Sandhurst
We were only there to watch. It's standard procedure in an observational series, but a little less easy to pull off when your lens is trained on two rookie caterers who've just been told they must deliver a three-course banquet to nearly 300 newly commissioned officers. Every producer's inst...
Kangaroo Dundee: Sharing my life
'Having a TV crew with me at all times was only really difficult when we were filming Roger the alpha male.' Behind the scenes of the BBC Two documentary with a surrogate kangaroo mum.
The Silence: From classroom to film set
"Miss, where does beef come from?" one pupil asked me. "Cows," I replied, grateful that I knew the answer and that I wasn't being tested of my knowledge of the latest single by Alicia Keys. Ten minutes later, when we've settled into the year eight novel, Montmorency, another question pops...
Legacy: The score would have to deliver
"It was definitely going to set my hair on fire." Composer Ruth Barrett reveals the fast and furious pace behind writing music for the BBC Two Cold War spy thriller.
Hattie Jacques: How we filmed her bittersweet tale
The idea for a Hattie Jacques film was first hatched with Cheryl Taylor in BBC Comedy, following the excellent BBC Four dramas on Frankie Howerd, Tony Hancock and others. We all felt it was time to look at a woman in comedy and it would be interesting to portray a comic whose life was more ...
Inside Men: Armed robbery and the modern man
I could rob a bank. I could rob two banks, if I wanted. But I don't because the risk outweighs the reward. Prison seems grim and I'm not all that bothered about being rich. I can separate all the men I know into two categories: alphas and betas. Leaders and followers, if you will. Inside...
Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: It's not all sunshine
How filming the series saw Mary battling the elements, at home and abroad
Wonderland: The Trouble With Love And Sex
"So it's like Creature Comforts but with humans instead of animals?" is often what people ask when you say you've just made an animated documentary. It is and it isn't. Yes, animated characters lip-synch the words of real people. But there's more talk of sex problems and extra-marital affair...
Babies In The Office: Taking my baby to work
I was on maternity leave when I first heard about the Babies In The Office scheme.
Stolen: I work with trafficked children
For the past six years I have been the Director of ECPAT UK - End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking. We are a leading children's rights organisation campaigning against child exploitation. Over the years there has been a variety of films, TV programmes and books focusing on the ...
India: A Dangerous Place To Be A Woman
Inspired by the fighting spirit of the girls and young women she meets at an all-girls orphanage in India, presenter Radha Bedi tells the story of her visit while filming the BBC Three documentary.
Love On The Transplant List: Filming with Kirstie
Love On The Transplant List is really a love story about two extraordinary young people but it just so happens that one of them, 21-year-old Kirstie, has Cystic Fibrosis. At Special Edition Films, we got in touch with Kirstie after seeing her blog 2ndchance@life to approach her about making...
QI: A day in the life of a QI Elf
'I’ve spent the past nine lunar months leafing through large literary lexicons, learning long lost languages, lurking in lugubriously lit libraries, leering at lewd likenesses of Lucretius, lambasting loose logic' - Preparations for series L of BBC Two's quirky quiz hosted by Stephen Fry.
Hidden Kingdoms: Finding our real-life stars
'The search for small animals leading dramatic lives began in iconic locations.' Producer and director Simon Bell on how the animal stars were cast for BBC One's dramatised natural history series.
Modern Masters with Alastair Sooke: Do the walking tour
Just a few days to go until Warhol, the first of BBC One's Modern Masters series, is broadcast. It feels like we are paddling into uncharted territory - putting modern art and a new presenter Alastair Sooke into primetime BBC One. What are we trying to do? The history of western art more or l...
Watch a sneak preview of the BBC's Christmas shows
You will probably already have seen details of some of the great programmes we have coming up this Christmas across all of BBC television. This week we published our final schedules for Christmas and last night we gave a sneak preview of our festive highlights to the press, and I though it would...
Why Kay Mellor kept The Syndicate’s plot a mystery from the cast
Actress Elizabeth Berrington describes being kept in the dark about storyline twists, why her hard-working character Dawn is so relatable, and what she'd do if she won the lottery (it involves a BIG party!)
The Indian Doctor and its cracking 1960s soundtrack
Firstly a massive and humble thank you to all those who watched series one of The Indian Doctor. With just under two million viewers and a couple of awards, it far exceeded all our expectations and the reception enabled us to get together to make series two. I certainly read and appreciated ev...
