Date of Birth:
1968
Place of Birth:
Liverpool, England
EDUCATION
Dinnington Comprehensive School
1980 -1986
Doe Quarry Lane, Dinnington, South Yorkshire
February 1980 to June 1986
'O' Levels, Grade B:
Art
English Language
English Literature
History
Latin and Classical Civilisations
'O' Levels, Grade C:
Chemistry
French
Mathematics
Physics
'A' Levels:
English Literature, Grade A
General Studies, Grade B
Classical Studies, Grade D
Shirecliffe College
1986-1987
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
September 1986 - June 1987
'O' Level Drama, Grade B
'A' Level Stage Craft, Grade D
Victoria University of Manchester
1987-1990 Victoria
University of Manchester, Oxford Road Manchester
BA Hons. in Drama, Grade 2:1
Dissertation title: 'Change and Continuity in the Long Running Television
Series'
EMPLOYMENT (most recent first)
Curator - TV Heaven
1993 – 2006 National Museum Of
Photography, Film And Television, Pictureville, Bradford, West
Yorkshire 13 years Curator
in charge of the acquisition, presentation and interpretation of material for
public access collection of British television. Initially a largely front of
house post with some curatorial input. My role went on to include gallery
scripting, design, research, clearance negotiations, budget management,
development of education resources, public speaking, programming of special
events and answering written and telephoned television enquiries, and I
was lucky enough to interview a number of my heroes for the Museum, amongst them
the comedy writers, Johnny Speight, Eric Sykes, Barry Cryer and David Nobbs.
In the Autumn of 1999 I reduced my role to a part time one to allow me to pursue
more freelance work, and left the museum entirely in the Autumn of 2006.
Researcher - Bond, James Bond October 2001 to January 2002 National
Museum Of Science and Industry, South Kensington, London 4 months
Researched and wrote displays for a major exhibition
at NMPFT, Bradford, and The Science Museum, London, through 2002 and touring
internationally thereafter. Also
developed and scripted an interactive adventure for the web site and created
special sound for the show.
Archive Researcher - Up Late June to August 2001 BBC
Entertainment, BBC Television Centre, London, W12 7RJ
3 months
Researched and acquired archive material for 40 x 30
minute nightly BBC Choice show. Required autonomous work and speedy problem
solving to get the show on screen, on budget.
Script Editor - Death Bang Zoo
Winter 2000 Fit2Fill Productions, Millennium Studios, Elstree
3 months
Wrote for, and co-ordinated, screened, and selected other
writers’ submissions to a 15 minute pilot comedy show intended for Channel 4.
Specialist Researcher - Trust Me, I'm a
Celebrity Autumn 2000
BBC Entertainment Features, 4th Floor, New Broadcasting House, Oxford
Road, Manchester 1 month Brought
in to assist with 2 x 45 minute episodes of BBC 1 Entertainment show based on
advertisements. Provided factual information, selected and accessed archive
material and assisted in the clearance of footage.
Associate Producer - Ads Infinitum (Series
B) Autumn 1999 -Spring 2000
Associated Rediffusion Television, Skellerah Farm, Corney, Nr
Millom, Cumbria 4 months Involved
in selection, location and transfer of archive material and the development of
themes and script for 8 x 10 minute episodes of Victor Lewis-Smith's BBC 2
archive based comedy series..
Carer/Key Worker
1990-1993 Victoria Villas,
Albert Road, Levenshulme, Manchester 3 and a half years Carer in a
residential home for mentally ill adults. Initially working four days a week as
junior member of team, I ultimately became a team leader, managed a group of
staff working with twenty eight clients, managing medication, providing domestic
and emotional support. The job involved regular liaison with Social Services and
Medical and Psychiatric services and additional close support given to three
clients, helping address their needs and concerns.
I left to take up a post at National
Museum of Photography, Film and Television which better reflected my long
term career goals.
Residential Social Worker
1988 Sheffield Social Services
2 Months Provided
care for older children and young adults with learning difficulties and
behavioural problems in a council respite care centre. Temporary post taken in
University holidays.
Administrative Assistant
1986 Manpower Services Commission,
Sheffield 2 Months
Provided clerical and
administrative support during school holidays. Filing, telephone answering,
telephone request logging. Temporary post, taken between school and further
education
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Plays
Saint Francis of Fazakerley
- Crucible Studio, Sheffield, June 1987 (Young Playwright's Festival)
No Room 13 - Contact Theatre, Manchester, June 1994
(Young Playwright's Festival)
Jungle Jeremy and the Atomic Warrior Queen of the
Congo -
Received the Ken Hill Memorial Trust New Musical
Award's first funding in October 1997.
Made
in Sheffield
– 10 minute drama broadcast across BBC Greater Manchester Radio, BBC Radio
Lancashire, BBC Radio Leeds, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Sheffield and BBC
Radio North Yorkshire between June and August 2003.
Sketch and gag material featured on the Radio 4 series Week Ending from 1994 to 1997 and The Way It Is in 1998 and 1999, and for TV on TalkBack’s 11 O’Clock Show for Channel 4 TV in 2000.
Sole
writer on No
Tomatoes, a 6 x 15 minute comedy show for BBC7 for broadcast from
September 2007.
5 short stories for the Doctor Who - Short Trips book
series.
Still Lives -
5,000 words, December 2002 (Doctor Who – Short Trips : Zodiac
ISBN 1-84435-006-1)
Apocrypha
Bipedium
-
8,000 words, March 2003 (Doctor Who – Short Trips : Companions
ISBN 1-84435-007-X)
Confabula - 13,000 words, September
2003 (Doctor Who – Short Trips : The Muses ISBN
1-84435-009-6)
Present Tense -
1,000 words, December 2004 (Doctor Who – Short Trips : A Christmas
Treasury ISBN 1-84435-112-2)
The
Three Paths - 5,000 words, March 2006 (Doctor Who – Short Trips : Farewells ISBN 1-84435-151-3)
Non
Fiction
TV:
Telling and Selling Stories
- 1999 (Photography Film and Televison [Think Again] ISBN
1-90074-713-8)
The Filipino
Army’s Advance on Reykjavik – World-building in Studio D and its Legacy -October
2007 (Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on
Doctor Who ISBN
0-71907-682-X paperback,
0-71907-681-1 hardback)
I'm currently writing on a factual book on TV history for the publisher Guerila Books.
In
1998, my piece Living in Hope (Still
Life Passing) an audio artwork combining music, poetry and digitally
manipulated sound featured in an installation at the 1998 International
Symposium of Electronic Art and was issued on CD (ARECD01).
In 1999, a similar work, Giacometti
Soundscape, exhibited at the
Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, was also issued on CD (ARECD02).
I've
also handled the sound design, post-production and music on a number of
commercially released science fiction audio dramas
Doctor Who - Time of the Daleks
-122 min, 2002 ISBN 1-903654-61-0
Judge Dredd - Get Karter!
- 70 min, 2002 ISBN 1-903654-86-6
Doctor Who – The Wormery
- 134 min, 2003 ISBN 1-84435-033-9
Doctor
Who – Unregenerate!
108 min, 2005 ISBN 1-84435-158-0
I've also handled sound design, music and post-production on No Tomatoes - 6 x 15 min, 2007 BBC7
Miscellaneous
Several articles have been published relating to my TV history work, including pieces in The Guardian, The Observer and The Times. My discovery, during archive research, of footage from The Avengers, missing since 1966, resulting in the greatest media interest. I’ve also made many media appearances discussing television, including regular pieces for Radio 4's Front Row on television and film topics. Beyond the world of TV, I've also been credited with obscure and esoteric research for Ken Campbell's National Theatre shows, Violin Time and The History of Comedy - Part 1, been mentioned in dispatches in Nicholas Pegg’s book The Complete David Bowie, had short poetry featured in The Guardian in 2001 and on Radio 3’s The Verb in 2003 and written for the Yorkshire free LGBT paper Shout!.
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