Authors
BBC Young Musician: A music prize like no other
There's often this moment backstage at BBC Young Musician when a competitor is about to walk on stage and I wish them luck and my voice cracks and suddenly we both realise, in that same instant, that I'm probably more nervous than they are. Clemency Burton-Hill on the set of BBC Young Musi...
Growing up around elephants opened my eyes to the magic of nature
This Wild Life's Saba Douglas-Hamilton and her family live with leopards, monkeys and hyenas on their doorstep
What I love about being in Outnumbered
The funniest moment of filming the third series of Outnumbered was when there was a rather confused pigeon flapping around the family kitchen. It was absolutely hilarious to watch the pigeon's trainer failing to maintain control and even funnier watching Dan squirm and yelp any time the pigeon c...
BBC Two: Your sneak preview of new programmes
If you're interested in a sneak preview of what will be hitting your screens on BBC Two later this year and in early 2011, here's a quick peek at some of our highlights. Watching it now, I don't think there's any other channel that would offer such a diverse picture of what intelligent T...
Public Enemy: Prophets Of Rage
If, like me, you grew up in the 80s, loved loud music and winding up your parents, there's a good chance you were into Public Enemy. At one point they were the biggest thing in hip hop and were hugely popular in the UK with both indie kids and rock fans alike. I was definitely one of the...
Last Night of the Proms: the best seat in the house?
OK, I admit it. I was a young, foolish, impressionable 16-year-old who spent a week sleeping rough on a street in South Kensington just so I could hang over the rail at the front of the arena on the Last Night of the Proms in 1982. Just don't tell anyone. But my abiding memory of that ...
What Remains: Creating a set as ominous as the crime
“I knew instinctively that the house itself was a pivotal character, as menacing and awkward as its inhabitants.” Ensuring the sets for BBC One crime drama What Remains reflected the shadowy atmosphere of the murder mystery was crucial for production designer Lisa Marie Hall.
Lisa Lynch longed for The C Word to be brought to life – it was an honour to be involved
Laughing, downing whiskey and toasting my friend’s memory: Kris Hallenga on having a cameo in the film about her friend, the blogger Lisa Lynch.
Long Live Britain: Good health rests with us
Dr Phil Hammond believes our health is in our own hands, not our doctors', and gives some tips for adding years to our lives in BBC One's Long Live Britain.
Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom
How to film some of the least studied forests in the world? "Without roads or helicopters, our only option was to walk."
Britain's Biggest Hoarders: Follow up series
I was amazed and humbled by the incredible response to the documentaries which I presented My Hoarder Mum And Me and Britain's Biggest Hoarders.
Henning Mankell's Wallander: I'm the screenwriter
By total coincidence, I live in Southern Sweden, about half an hour down the road from Ystad, the small coastal town where Wallander is filmed and set. I'm one of those jammy sods who managed to entice a Swedish girl into marriage and then paid the price by being made to emigrate to a well-m...
We ask Hinterland’s Mali Harries: What is it with the red parka?
DI Mared Rhys' bright red coat has become a national icon. But what's the story behind it?
Aurelio Zen: Michael Dibdin's Italian detective on TV
Years ago my Dad gave me a Michael Dibdin book and told me to read it. What I most enjoyed about it was the loving detail and description of life in Italy - it's almost as if Italy is a huge character in the novels. I tucked it away in my memory. The success of the first series of Wallander,...
What happened when this claustrophobic presenter went caving for Secret Britain?
What would you say if - like Countryfile's Ellie Harrison - your bosses sent you down Britain's deepest cave... when they knew you had a phobia of enclosed spaces?
The Great Climb: Sron Uladail looks impossible
Our decision to commission a live rock climb, on a dauntingly imposing crag, in a highly remote location with no road access, in high definition (HD), was always likely to provide its own unique set of challenges. However, receipt this week of the evacuation procedure and list of drugs to b...
Miranda: The making of a sitcom
So, hello blog readers. Does that make you blogees? I like that, I'm going with that whether it's a word or not. The peeps at the BBC website thought you might want to know what goes in the making of a sitcom, so here goes it - an insight in to how my year pans out when making Miranda. The wr...
South Riding and one of the greatest literary heroines
When, as a voracious teenage reader, I first read South Riding I took many of its themes for granted and thought it was a great story folded around a great love story. But re-reading it when I was wondering whether to develop it as a drama, I found the resonances go so much deeper. ...
37 Days: Changing my perspective of WWI
'I traced every conference, every telephone call, private letter and telegram swirling around Europe.' How the research and the writing process revealed a new side to the First World War.
Is Breast Best? Cherry Healey Investigates
Filming my most recent programme for BBC Three has been full of surprises. I hadn't realised quite how contentious the subject of breastfeeding is. After I had my daughter I tried to breastfeed and ended up with mastitis - a breast infection - and was admitted into hospital. I was quit...
