WORK

As a teenager and aspiring comedian from a black working class community in Dudley, Lenny Henry had a deep-seated aversion to Shakespeare and his "gobble-de-gook" language.  Yet now he is one of the Bard's most passionate fans, starring in a new National Theatre production of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors", and wants the rest of us to "get" Shakespeare the way he now does.

BRITAIN'S WICCA MAN (1x60) tells the extraordinary story of Britain's fastest growing religious group - Wicca - and of its creator, an eccentric Englishman called Gerald Gardner.  Historian and leading expert in Pagan studies, Professor Ronald Hutton, explores the unlikely origins of modern pagan witchcraft and experiences first hand its growing influence throughout Britain today. Gardner's story and the story of Wicca itself is a bizarre one.  Born of a nudist colony in 1930s Dorset,  Wicca rapidly grew from a small new forest coven to a worldwide religion in the space of just 70 years.  Its a journey that takes in tales of naked witches casting spells to ward off Hitler, tabloid hysteria about human sacrifices and Gerald Gardner himself appearing on Panorama. The film tells of a peculiar man who saw that the world was ready for a new religion based on magic, sex nature and ritual - and gave it to us.  In doing so, he created in Wicca, the UK's first religion, one that has taken on a life of its own and is today counted amongst one of the fastest growing faith groups in the world. Through interviews and encounters with Wicca followers, experts and these who knew Gardner,  Professor Hutton delves into this unusual world and the story of how its eccentric founder created a religion that is today increasingly seen as a valid alternative to the more orthodox faith groups.   

View a trailer for Britain's Wicca Man on Vimeo.

Rory Stewart brings his expertise from his years as a soldier, diplomat and historian to the story of two centuries of foreign intervention in Afghanistan - from the British in the 19th Century through to the Soviet and US interventions of the 80s. In the 19th Century the British tried to add Afghanistan to the Empire and failed while in the 20th Century the Russians lost their empire fighting in Afghanistan. Today, the Afghan War is the central foreign policy challenge we face in the twenty-first century. So what, for Rory Stewart, are the lessons of history for those countries that have chosen to invade and occupy Afghanistan again today? His conclusions may not be what viewers expect.

View the trailer for the series on Vimeo.

See the profile for Iain Scollay - Producer/Director

In 2012, Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee year, Dr. Helen Castor, historian of medieval England and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, explores how a queen moved from being merely the wife of a king, to a monarch in her own right. In the Middle Ages royal power was inescapably male. Kings had to be warriors, winning and defending their power on the battlefield. Queens were just their wives. But in the 400 years before Elizabeth I six queens did challenge the presumption of male power, despite the obstacle of their sex. She Wolves (BBC Four, 3x60) tells the stories of these queens. The lives of Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou, Lady Jane Grey and Mary Tudor reveal a gripping tale of how power evolved in medieval England. But the prospect of powerful women still has the ability to unsettle and the unease with which these medieval queens were viewed, coalesced in their vilification as She Wolves - aberrations of the true nature of womanhood, sexual predators, who fight tooth and claw to defend their young. This series is the story of power and women's attempts to claim it. The challenges faced by these queens are more familiar to modern eyes than we might first assume.

View a trailer for the series on Vimeo.

Star of BBC3's hugely popular The Real Hustle, Alexis Conran is definitely someone you don't want to be playing cards with. An expert poker player and a man thoroughly at home in a casino and on a racecourse, Alexis enjoys the thrill that comes with gambling. But what for Alexis is a pleasurable past-time and part of a lucrative career, ruined his father. Alexis's Greek father was a gambling addict who committed fraud to get money for betting and went to prison for his crimes. He lost his wife and brought his family to the point of ruin. Because of his father's experience and because of a growing realization that his own gambling habits are different from his friends, Alexis has become increasingly interested in exploring the tipping point that turns the odd flutter into something darker and more dangerous. Why can most people place one bet and then walk away; when some men and women are compelled to lose their shirt, their house and their families on a losing streak?  The answer is important to Alexis - because it could identify both the differences between him and his father and the worrying similarities. In this documentary for BBC3, Alexis wants to explore what happens when gambling becomes an addiction.

Watch a trailer for Gambling Addiction on Vimeo.

Written and presented by Prof. Amanda Vickery. 

First broadcast December 23rd 2011, BBC Two at 9.00pm

See a trailer for The Many Lovers of Jane Austen.

Prof. Amanda Vickery returns to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's first novel Sense and Sensibility. When Jane Austen died her slight reputation appeared to die with her. Her books soon went out of print. Now, 200 years later, she sits at the summit of English literature and thanks to television and film adaptations, as well as the internet, she is an international cultural brand. What interests Amanda is how different periods and generations have looked for their own reflection in the characters and plots of the novels. She wants to work out what that says about them, as well the hold Jane Austen's fiction has on us now.

The Guardian: "Essential viewing here for fans of the author. Professor Amanda Vickery, a leading chronicler of matters Georgian, discusses why Austen has had such pan-generational appeal, and how each has sought to find reflections of themselves in her work. Academics, directors and even becostumed devotees provide the answers. Attending the auction of a rare, handwritten manuscript of an unfinished Austen novel provides its own insight into the enduring mania surrounding her." 

The Sunday Times, Culture: "… this excellent documentary … Vickery will not be short of admirers after this accomplished and enjoyable extension of her television career."

The Guardian Guide: "Amanda Vickery plunges forearm down history's breeches; tugs out fistful of literary loveliness."

Lisa Appignanesi, Saturday Review, Radio 4: "I loved this film … full of verve and brio…".  

Written and presented by John Humphrys

First broadcast October 27th 2011, BBC Two at 9.00pm

In February 2011 UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced a welfare reform bill he described as "the most fundamental, ambitious and radical reforms to the benefit system since it began."  The benefit bill, he said, had gone up by nearly sixty billion pounds in the last decade alone.  Its critics say that the Welfare State is in crisis.  And yet at the same time, there's resounding support among the British public for the idea of a safety net.  In an Ipsos MORI poll commissioned for this programme 92% of adults agreed with the statement "it is important to have a benefits system to provide a safety net for anyone that needs it. In The Future State of Welfare John Humphrys travels the country to talk to the people with the most to lose as the Government tries to reform the benefit system - people on incapacity benefit; the long-term unemployed; people on housing benefit; lone parents.  Are they prepared for the harsher future ahead?  Is Britain really ready for the future state of welfare?  John returns to the area where he was born - Splott in Cardiff - to show how attitudes to work and welfare have changed over his lifetime.  When he was growing up, the man on his street, who didn't work was regarded as a pariah; today one in four of the working aged population in Splott is on some form of benefit. John also visits America where fifteen years ago they embarked on what has been called a 'welfare revolution.' Is this more punitive model where we are heading?  And he looks at the specific reforms the Government have in mind, or are already underway.

The Daily Telegraph: "This was a serious programme about an important subject with a fundamental question at its heart: how did the great ambitions of William Beveridge to banish the Five Evils of Want, Ignorance, Squalor, Disease and Idleness produce a society in which hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, choose to live off their fellow taxpayers and consider that they are entitled to do so?  …  Humphrys brought his interrogative skills to bear on a subject that we too often tiptoe around in this country, though not in America where welfare recipients are expected to work for their assistance or lose it. … Humphrys postulated the existence of a new evil spawned by the welfare state - an age of entitlement that in some communities has seen two or even three generations of a single family spend their entire lives on benefits. The Coalition has set out a strategy for ending it; judging by this documentary it has a monumental task ahead."

First broadcast on Channel 5 for six weeks from 8pm on Wednesday 19th October, 2011.

Having battled to pass your test in the first place, what makes people give up on driving? Or become so terrified of negotiating a roundabout that they'll drive 10miles out of their way in order to avoid them? And once they've developed a phobia about driving, is there anything that they can do to reverse it?

The series peaked at 1.74million viewers and a share of 6.5% with a series average of 1.17million viewers and 4.8% share. For comparison the Channel 5 average share peak-time share was 4.07%.

View a trailer for the series on Vimeo.

If your body carried a deadly gene that increased your chances of getting breast cancer to 80% - would you want to know? 18-year-old Josie Bellerby is a gorgeous, fun-loving, typical teenager. Except for one thing, her Mum carries a hereditary gene that has cursed their family for generations, killing her grandmother and her mother. Now there's a test that tells you if you have the gene. Josie's Mum Julia was one of the first in the UK to take it. She proved positive, but to save her life she had to have drastic surgery -  to remove both her breasts.  Josie and her two sisters face the same heartbreaking choice. Big sister Lucy has decided she's ready to take the test and will soon receive life-changing news. Josie has a dilemma should she find out if she has it too? Her family think she's too young to know, she should be enjoying her young life not worrying about the risk of cancer and a double mastectomy.  Josie's an ordinary girl searching for the answer to an extraordinary question: is she old enough to cope with finding out if she carries the cancer curse?

Watch an extract from Josie: My Cancer Curse on Vimeo.

A Matchlight/BBC Scotland Co-Production.

Watch a trailer for See You in Court on Vimeo.

London is known as the "libel capital of the world" with people coming from all over to use the British legal system to sue or defend their reputation or right to privacy. In a major six part documentary series for BBC One, we gain extraordinary access to the top lawyers and firms operating in this field and, through a rich range of cases, we unpack this fascinating and timely subject.

First broadcast March/April/May 2011, BBC 1 at 10.35pm

The Independent: "The exciting thing is that last night also offered a real example of Magic Evidence, in See You in Court, a new series about our spavined legal system, which began by following Sheryl Gascoigne and Lembit Opik in two individual libel cases. Struggling to refute an accusation that she hadn't talked to her mother-in-law in eight years, Sheryl discovered footage of herself making a sympathetic phone call to Gazza's mum, after trailing through hours of raw footage from a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Gotcha, as they like to say in tabloid land. Lembit Opik wasn't quite as successful in his attempt to seek redress for a pugnacious Rod Liddle column that had represented him as a somewhat comical figure, and the deserving recipient of the last election's most surprising defeat ... His case might have been lousy, but his larger point was sound, though rather more convincingly backed up by Sheryl's experience. Thoroughly monstered by the tabloids, she actually had to put her house up for sale in order to cover the legal deposit should her wealthy opponents actually fight all the way to the courtroom. And if it went to court, even if she won and had costs awarded to her she would have ended up seriously out of pocket. In a game of chicken with a big newspaper, most individuals blink first, so it was rather heartening that Sheryl eventually extracted an apology and damages in all her cases. Unfortunately, the newspapers were probably still ahead on the deal, since they may have made more from the lies than the correction eventually cost them. It looks as if future episodes will demonstrate the unfitness of our libel laws with cases in which the positions of complainant and defendant are reversed, and journalists and commentators find themselves bullied into silence by the same threat of ruination."

The Guardian: "Lembit Opik, the comedian, is doing a standup gig in front of a rowdy audience. "I want to thank a group of people without whom it would have been effectively impossible for me to appear before you tonight," he says. "The voters!" shouts a heckler. Oh, yes, the heckler's right. That kind of ruins Opik's opening joke; his own punchline's been stolen from under his nose. So now all he can do is agree. "Yeah, 13,900 Conservatives in Montgomeryshire," he says, limping in a rather lame second, once again. To be fair, the heckler wasn't being specially smart, you could see the punchline coming a mile off. (When I say a mile off, I don't mean literally a mile off of course, it's a figure of speech that the reader will understand. The reader will also understand that this article is an opinion piece ...) The reason for my caution is that here in See You in Court (BBC1), the start of an interesting series on high- profile libel cases, the former MP issues a threat. "Woe betide the next person who libels me," he warns, ominously. He thinks he lost his seat because the press made him a figure of fun (obviously that has nothing to do with his behaviour); now the gloves are off. He wants to sue the Sunday Times for a particularly vicious column by Rod Liddle.  The other case the programme looks at is Sheryl Gascoigne's fight for her reputation after lurid headlines appear in various tabloids, accusing her of being, among other things, a liar. It's a battle she wins - she gets an unreserved apology and damages.  Opik isn't so lucky. He doesn't have the financial muscle to pick a fight with News International on his own, and no barrister is prepared to take the case on a no-win-no-fee basis, presumably because they fear no win at the end of it, and therefore no fee."

See the profile for Ross Wilson - Producer/Director

Written and presented by Alan Yentob. 

First broadcast March 27th and April 3rd 2011, BBC One at 10.35pm

Shortlisted in the Best Arts Documentary category at the Grierson 2011: British Documentary Awards 

The Guardian: "The success of War And Peace and Anna Karenina brought Tolstoy fame and riches. But this most restless of spirits wasn't content. Instead, as Alan Yentob explores in the second part of his excellent profile, the novelist became increasingly ascetic. And as he lay dying, the novelist's wife Sofya was turned away, a scene shown here in remarkable archive footage."

The Daily Telegraph: "Sometimes, Imagine hits the spot perfectly. This biograpghical look at Leo Tolstoy reveals what made him more than just a great novelist, but also one of Russia's most important moral thinkers, and a life-long anti-authoritarian ... Narcissism, the battle between his morality and his libertine instincts, and an obsession with the truth are the key themes in Tolstoy's life and Alan Yentob draws them out well. But this film shows more than just Tolstoy: it examines the Russian world he lived in, giving a sense of its extremes ("Compromise is not a positive word in Russian", says one talking head), its vastness and its stark beauty. It is hard to watch this without wanting to go back to your old copy of War and Peace and actually finish the damn thing this time."

The Times: "Alan Yentob travels across Russia to present this gripping two-part series about the colossus of world literature."

View a trailer for the series on Vimeo.

Written an presented by Prof. Amanda Vickery, Professor of Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London. 

Nominated RTS Programme Awards 2010, History.

First broadcast Nov/Dec 2010, BBC 2 at 9pm

DVD available now from Amazon and all good retailers.

The Guardian: "At Home with the Georgians: Another Snifter of Brilliance from Auntie's history cupboard."

The Sunday Telegraph: "Amanda Vickery is a naughty, clever, humourous eavesdropper on the past… She has the Georgians in her sights like no one since Jane Austen."

The Sunday Times: "Simon Schama possibly excepted, television has never before seen so exuberant a history presenter: Vickery enthuses about her Georgians like soap-opera characters and treats the viewer as a confidante; and when she says her Essex chatelaine combined Margaret Thatcher's bossiness and Nigella Lawson's flirtatiousness, there's a hint of self-description."

The Daily Mail:  "This fascinating three-parter… With a little discreet dramatisation, these people come vividly alive, often in surprising ways. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Georgian house-hunting was such an emotionally charged process, and driven less by women than by men."

Radio Times: "We've already seen that Professor Amanda Vickery can evoke an intimate picture of domestic life just from reading a set of 17th-century accounts. But she can also detect hubris or sorrow from a persons choice of wallpaper and a pitiful social life from a Georgian gents missing teapot. Neatness is what the Georgians called style and, with the new trend of visiting each other at home for tea and gossip, it was vital for your house to have it. But while we glimpse some splendidly elegant interiors, it wasnt all grand designs. In a desperately sad sequence, Vickery reveals how snippets of fabric were used to keep track of foundling children's parentage."

Amanda Vickery is Professor of Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London. She is the author of Behind Closed Doors: At Home with the Georgians (2009) and The Gentleman's Daughter:  Women's Lives in Georgian England (1998).  

See the profile for Iain Scollay - Producer/Director

UK Premiere: 20th September, 2010

The Financial Times: "Broadcaster John Humphys … mobilised his habitual controlled rage when unwinding a narrative of education failing those who might benefit from it most: a tale of the "pushy middle class" grabbing after feepaying schools or the best state schools, making sure that - as the education secretary Michael Gove put it - "thick rich kids" will do better than talented poor ones."

The Guardian: "This is a thorough look at how poor children in the UK are 25 times less likely to make it to a top university than their private school counterparts. Presented, pleasingly,by Humph, who doesn't pull his punches even when speaking to eager young graduate teachers, where other interviewers might be happy to nod enthusiastically."

The Times: "Before they even arrive at school … rich thick kids do better than poor clever children. And then when they arrive at school the situation they go through gets worse." It sounds like a startling statement, especially when you consider it was made by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. But research bears out that there's a huge attainment gap between pupils from rich and poor backgrounds and, despite the efforts of successive governments, it just doesn't seem to be shifting. Here the debate is in the thoughtful hands of John Humphrys, who scours the country for potential solutions."

The Independent: "The irascible Today presenter examines why the British education system is struggling to narrow the attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils. Visiting schools across the country, he hears from teachers committed to changing the status quo, and reflects on his own background to better understand the dilemmas faced by parents concerned about their children's academic success."

See the profile for Iain Scollay - Producer/Director

UK Premiere Dec 2010, BBC 3 

Watch an extract of My Boyfriend the War Hero.

In July last year, 17 year-old Vicky got engaged to her soldier boyfriend Craig, during his two week R&R from his tour of Afghanistan. Less than three weeks later, 18 year old Craig was hit by a roadside explosive. He lost both legs and an arm, becoming the youngest British serviceman to be injured in Afghanistan and one of only three British soldiers with a triple amputation to have survived his injuries. My Boyfriend the War Hero tells the story of this exceptional young couple.

The Daily Telegraph: "My Boyfriend the War Hero  (BBC Three) performed a truly impressive feat: it took a harrowing story, and told it with sensitivity and a lightness of touch. Vicky Swales was 16 when she learned that her 18-year-old fiancé, Craig Wood, had been blown up in Afghanistan. The handsome, 6' 4" soldier lost both his legs as well as one hand and suffered facial disfigurement, but Vicky decided to stay with him. The documentary followed the couple as they tried to build something like a normal life together. As well as the daily struggles - Vicky hoisting Craig up the stairs, the two of them counting out all the pain killers he had to take - we saw them shopping for tea towels for their new home and planning an engagement party. It was the details that were most affecting: the way Craig leant his head against his fiancée's cheek or stoically joked through his appalling injuries: "Ha! A cripple beat you!" he said, when he won at pool. Both handled their situation with grit and astonishing maturity."

See the profile for Anne-Claire Pilley - Producer/Director

View a trailer for Pre-Teen Proms on Vimeo.

This film follows the children at two Scottish schools as they prepare for and take part in the ritual of the prom/dance that marks the close of their lives at primary school.  Through preparations for and participation in the dance itself we see into the world of today's 11 year olds.  Most parents now believe that childhood is over by 11. Are they right?  And how does your background and home life affect the pressures of growing up?  It's 9pm, the sun still hasn't set, but the evening is drawing to a close. The kids cry, some wail.  It's time to say goodbye to primary school.

See the profile for Anne-Claire Pilley - Producer/Director

For the majority of pensioners, getting behind the wheel is an activity that maintains their sense of independence, while age conspires to rob them of it in so many other ways. But, according to the Department of Transport, drivers over the age of 80 have more accidents per mile than any other age group. Those over 75 are, according to one former Transport Minister, "as dangerous, on average, as newly qualified 17 year-old drivers". This film explores the dilemma faced by thousands of families every day - do they intervene to prevent an elderly relative, who they consider to be a danger, from driving or do they carry the risk? We see the dangers the drivers pose to themselves and others on the road and see, very clearly, why their families worry. We also hear why the elderly drivers are so insistent on keeping going, whether its pride, a desperate desire to retain independence, a love of driving or fear of the isolation that comes from being car-less.

Metro: "There must be one day in our lives when we are the best at everything we do, when all our talents come together and the world is a boundless swirl of possibilities. If today is one of those days for you then hang on to it because somewhere down the line someone will be Taking The Keys Away (BBC1). This film on the circle of life looked at the tricky moment when grown-up children face up to the fact their elderly parents are a menace every time they sit behind the wheel of their car. The parents don't see it like that, clinging on to the steering wheel as the last remaining symbol of their free will. It's a moment when generations uneasily switch roles, the child now turning into the one taking control."

See the profile for Andrew Abbott - Producer/Director

Peter Mitchell is a very normal married man who drives a four by four and lives in a Kent suburb. What's unusual about Peter is what he does for a living. He digs up bodies. As the UK's foremost Exhumation expert, Peter has been responsible for some of the biggest mass exhumations both in the UK and abroad.

See the trailer for The Exhumer's