Recent Projects

Resurrecting Eden (varicam HD)

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 10:13:42 +0000

In production, more details on request, its under wraps at the moment

More Than Just a Game

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 10:25:25 +0000

Sunday Times Africa Correspondent, Dan McDougall, investigates the shocking crime levels fuelled by cheap drugs in The Western Cape. But how is soccer helping the gangsters escape the underworld of drug taking in the townships? The coming of the World Cup to Cape Town is not the answer, but what is?

More details here

Stalins Back!

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 12:31:42 +0000

Reporter John Sweeney travels more than 5000 miles through the old Soviet Union, from Stalin's birthplace in Georgia to a former labour camp in Russia, to find out if one of the twentieth century's most notorious mass-murderers is really being rehabilitated.

Britains Dirty Beaches

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:30:32 +0100

Decklan Lawn investigates the stste of Britains beaches. You would be surprised how dirty and sewage ridden a Blue Flag Beach can be!

Slumdogs and Millionaires

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 10:34:24 +0100

courtesy of the BBC:

It is a place in the sun for over a million of us who holiday there every year. It boasts a host of luxury apartments that has celebrities flocking. But behind the glitz and glamour of Dubai often lies a murky world of exploitation and an immigrant work force living on the breadline.
Hit by the credit crunch, Dubai's economy has taken a turn for the worse reliant as it is on tourism, financial services and real estate. For those labouring to make the Dubai dream a reality, building the homes for the rich and famous, are facing greater pressures than ever.
But despite the slump, the market in would-be buyers is still healthy as Panorama's Ben Anderson discovered. Posing as a potential buyer and kitted out with a secret camera, he met with a company endorsed by celebrities. Michael Owen is a paid ambassador along with Freddie Flintoff and golfer Sam Torrance.
Sales representatives from The First Group assured our reporter that now was a great time to buy property.
She also allayed any concerns about the wellbeing of the company's construction workers.
Offering a purchase that would see a £438,000 apartment rise to £1.33 million in just ten years, the sales reps also said they believed the workers were happy to be there. "It's much more difficult to earn some money in Pakistan or India, so people actually save by living for free in proper housing, eating for free in the canteen, using the transport and sending something to their families."

Land of opportunity
It is the promise of a land of opportunity that has brought an estimated one million migrant workers to Dubai. Most come from areas of extreme poverty in the Indian sub-continent where they are easy prey for recruitment agents. Paying up to £2,000 pounds to make the trip, the sum often has to be borrowed or family land sold in the belief that within 18 months the debt can be repaid.
Instead, on arriving in Dubai they are met with shanty town conditions hidden from public view. In a country that penalises journalists reporting stories which negatively reflect the economy or insult the government with massive fines and in the past even imprisonment, Panorama had to maintain a low profile.
In secret, Ben Anderson followed a group of workers home from work. Employed by The First Group's sub-contractors United Engineering Construction, they were working on a development due to be finished in June ready for Michael Owen to move in.
Back at the worker's camp Ben was soon rumbled and asked to leave. Returning over the next few days he finally managed to speak to some of the men living there on condition of anonymity.

"We suffer greatly"
They told a grim tale. None had been paid the money they were promised by the recruitment agencies and many could not afford to eat properly, living on a diet of mashed potatoes and lentils.
Average salaries are often no more than £120 a month. This for a six-day week, often working up to 12 hour shifts. One company paid approximately 30 pence an hour for overtime.
Cramped and living in sewage strewn conditions, the camp is a world away from the penthouses these construction workers were building. But this is not an isolated example.
One of Dubai's biggest new developments is The Jumeirah Golf Estates, which will host the climax of the European Golf championship in November. The main developer is Leisurecorp, which also owns the championship golf course at Turnberry in Scotland, and has a stake in Troon. Jumeirah Golf Estates has attracted an incredible array of celebrities who act as its ambassadors, including Jamie Oliver, Greg Norman, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcio.
Our reporter once again followed workers back to their accommodation. This time they were employed by one of Dubai's biggest construction firms Arabtec, but the picture was familiar.
After an hour-long journey back to their gated and guarded labour camp, the men agreed to speak to Panorama if their identities were kept secret for fear of retribution.
Armed with a secret camera Ben sneaked into the camp to be met with the smell of raw sewage. Sewage had leaked out all over the camp, and workers had to create a network stepping stones to cross it and get back to their accommodation blocks. One toilet block had no water supply and the latrines were filled with piles of raw faeces.

Overcrowded
Documents obtained by Panorama showed that a month previous to the programme's visit, the Dubai authorities described the sewage situation at the site critical. Arabtec had been fined 10,000 dirhams, approximately £2,000, for allowing sewage to overflow into workers' accommodation.
The authorities also reported that the camp was overcrowded with 7,500 labourers sharing 1,248 rooms with poor ventilation.
But with the downturn in the economy, the workers feel less able to complain.
One Arabtec worker who earns just £140 a month for a six day week, told our reporter that his family at home don't know about the reality of his situation. "We have not told them because if we do, our wives and our children will start crying, so we have told them we are doing well".
Panorama: Slumdogs and Millionaires is on BBC One, Monday 6 April at 8.30pm.

Moscow

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:32:23 +0100

After the Russian Invasion of Georgia, and with their wealth of minerals, oil and gas, should we be afraid of the the “new” threat to the west from Russia?

Sunday Times Moscow correspondent, Mark Franchetti investigates, and esxplains why we misunderstand the Russians - and why they misunderstand the West.

Underwater filming

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:37:18 +0100

Frank Pope, the Times Marine Corrsepondent looks at similar wrecks to those being investigate by the Port of London Authority, prior to their dredging of 20kms of the Thames Estuary.

I filmed all the underwater sequences with Frank, in the west country

A Widows War on Yobs

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 11:00:23 +0100

courtesy of Channel 4:

This powerful film follows Helen Newlove, widow of Garry Newlove who was kicked to death outside his home in Cheshire, in her search for answers to problem of youth crime in the UK and abroad.  As she meets police officers, politicians and young offenders, will it change her view that young people are now offered too much protection at the expense of the rest of society?  Or could Helen have a bigger impact? Is it just coincidence that the Government is now planning to introduce some of her changes?

Bafta nominated current affairs doc

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:22:47 +0000

Following gangs of people who engage in illegal dog-fighting. Shot in the North-west of UK, Finland and Northern Ireland.

Bafta nomination for best current affairs programme 2008, RTS journalism award

Immigration

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:19:43 +0000

2 Programmes looking at the plight of illegal immigrants who endanger their lives crossing the Mediterranean and the west coast of Africa, to reach the shores of Europe.

Shot in Libya, Senegal, Guinea Canakry, and Italy. TX November 07 and January 08

In at the Deep End

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:57:42 +0000

I got a phone call from Darlow Smithson who required a series of reconstruction sequences to illustrate contributors stories, and my advice on how best to achieve them. The stories came from the 1997 Yacht race which saw the fleet of boats sail straight into one of the most severe storms known to hit the Tasman Sea.

So we went off to a large offshore survival facility in an industrial estate in Middlesborough to recreate this event. Its amazing what you can do with a couple of fire hoses and a wave machine: voila MY perfect storm... shooting both underwater and on the surface using HDCAM and HDV cameras.

Panorama - Gas

Sun, 1 Oct 2006 14:09:58 +0100

Shooting at the moment - a study of the political implications of the metaphorical pipeline that starts in the North Sea and ends in Kazakhstan - or is it the other way round? As supplies of the UKs North Sea gas supplies dwindle, we are increasingly becoming dependent on gas from the former Soviet block - and all the politics that is involved.

Digi Beta, shot on location Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and UK

VAT Fraud

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 13:11:36 +0100

40 minute documentary for the BBC News and Current Affairs Department. An investigation into loopholes which allows criminals to rip millions of pounds out of the European VAT system

The Beautiful Bung - Corruption in World Football

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 13:11:39 +0100

A 40 minute Panorama by investigative reporter Andrew Jennings into corruption involving Fifa officials.

5 years of investigations culminate with new evidence suggesting corruption at the highest level within Fifa, the organisers of the World Cup.

Read more here

Saudi Arabia

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 09:36:48 +0000

This was a huge $400,000 project shooting in vast underground, man-made caverns.

Shot on the Sony HDW750 at 1080i, and ultimately to be shown projected onto a 50’ wide screen to an audience which will include Saudi Royals.

Sorry, no pictures available for reasons of commercial sensitivity, but the picture above shows some of the crew at work on the surface

The Mary Rose 2005

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:11:41 +0100

I have been following the excavations of the Bow Section of the Mary Rose for the past three years. Today was the culmination of that work with the recovery of a 5 metre long anchor (pictured), and the main bow timber.

Archive footage is available...

Apes in Danger

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:21:39 +0100

Filming the plight of Jane Goodalls Gombe Chimps, location Tanzania.