The Lifted Entertainment director of entertainment & formats on fancy dress, Easter eggs and Celebrity Love Island
Earliest memory
Winning a fancy-dress competition dressed as a clown while sailing to New York on the QE2 with my parents.
Born and bred
Born in London, bred in Devon. I love living in London but I’m a country boy at heart.
Growing up I…
Worked as a waiter and kitchen porter in various restaurants, and an usher at the Adelphi Theatre, watching more performances of Sunset Boulevard than anyone ever should.
My mentor
I’ve been lucky to work with many wonderfully talented people, but two deserve a special mention. Jim Allen, who gave me my first researcher job at LWT Factual, which was a fantastic training ground. And the late Gavin Weightman, the best interviewer I’ve ever worked with, and font of so many stories from an era of production when every lunch was a three-course meal and a bottle of red wine.
My big break
Working as a runner on a regional current affairs series called The Investigators. It gave me the bug for production and it’s never left me.
Passion outside TV
Cooking (and eating), especially Italian food. I love the idea of one day running my own restaurant by the Mediterranean sea.
Worst injury
Breaking my ribs in seven places while taking part in a family Easter egg race. To add insult to injury, my nephew filmed the whole thing on his phone and put it on YouTube.
Career ambition
I started out wanting to make history docs. When I ended up working on Celebrity Love Island in 2005, I realised that probably wasn’t the path I was on any more, but that it didn’t matter because I’d stumbled into a genre of TV I enjoyed making a lot more.
I’m happiest when I’m…
On a beach with my family, walking our dog.
Last time I cried
In the edit, viewing the campmates’ ‘Letters from Home VT’ on I’m A Celebrity (happens most years). It’s just tiredness by that stage of the series.
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