Creative Industries Presents
Our Guests
Watch our interviews with professionals across the creative industries
John Yorke (Executive Consultant and screenwriter): John Yorke has run both BBC and Channel 4 drama (Head of Drama Ch. 4 2003 and Controller of Drama Series BBC 2005). Amongst other highly successful dramas, Yorke was Executive Producer on Wolf Hall, The Missing and Land Girls. His commissions include Shameless and Life on Mars, and overseeing other shows such as Holby City, Waterloo Road, Spooks and The Street. Recognised for his unique achievements with EastEnders as Executive Producer, he introduced storylines that saw the show’s ratings soar intermittently between the years 1999 and 2017. Outside of television production, Yorke also authored the bestseller: Into The Woods: How stories work and why we tell them. The book studies story and draws extensively from Yorke's own research and experience, using examples from projects such as EastEnders and Spooks.
Polly Higgins (Ecocide Law: The Fifth Crime Against Peace): Polly Higgins has been named by The Ecologist as “one of the world’s ten most influential thinkers”. She is a lawyer who has campaigned tirelessly to place the Law of Ecocide onto the global political agenda. This law would prohibit extensive damage, destruction or loss of ecosystems and the natural environment.
Phil Grabsky (documentary film-maker): His company, Seventh Art Productions, has produced documentaries for television and cinema. Phil’s cinema films include The Boy Mir –Ten Years in Afghanistan and his composer series which includes: In Search of…Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and, most recently, Chopin. He has also made major series such as Channel 4‘s Spain – in the Shadow of the Sun and The Great Commanders, BBC’s I Caesar, Five & Sky Arts’s Tim Marlow arts strand, and six award-winning history films with Monty Python’s Terry Jones. Phil is to discuss his career followed by a Q&A.
Ben Pugh (film producer): Discussed his work in the low budge hit Shifty and recent British action movie Welcome to the Punch (Mark Strong/James Macavoy/David Morrissey) with Michael Holley.
David Morrissey: David is best known for television roles in State of Play, Sense and Sensibility, Blackpool, Red Riding, The Deal, Doctor Who and most recently, Thorne. Highly respected as a theatre actor he has also featured in many films including Hilary and Jackie, Captain Correlli’s Mandolin, Stoned, Basic Instinct 2, The Reaping, Centurion, and Is Anybody There?. In addition to acting, David has his own production company Tubedale Films, directing and producing the 2009 film, Don’t Worry About Me.
Philip Glenister (actor): Best known for playing Gene Hunt in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, as well as Quinn Paterson in Mad Dogs.
Hilary Bevan Jones (award-winning TV and film producer): Hilary is best known for producing the TV classics Red Dwarf, Cracker and State of Play. Her most recent work saw her producing the Richard Curtis feature filmThe Boat That Rocked.
Brian Clemens (TV producer): Best known for the Avengers and Professionals, as well writing for many other popular television series including Danger Man, The Champions, The Persuaders, Thriller, Bergerac, Perry Mason and Remington Steele. Brian has also written screenplays for a number of feature films including Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (which he also directed), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The Watcher in the Woods and Highlander II: The Quickening.
Robert Watts (producer): Robert is the producer of many films, most notably Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (associate producer), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (co-producer), Raiders of the Lost Ark (associate producer), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (producer), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (producer), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (producer) and Alive (producer). In a highly distinguished career that has seen Robert work for Steven Spielberg five times and George Lucas six, he has also worked with Ken Russell, Stanley Kubrick, and Roman Polanski.
Tim Pope (Pop promo director): Tim Pope has made over 200 music videos with, amongst others, Fatboy Slim, The Kaiser Chiefs, David Bowie, Neil Young, Queen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Beautiful South, Paul McCartney, Style Council, Wham!, Iggy Pop, and The Cure. In 1991, Pope co-founded the production company Cowboy Films which went on to produce feature films such as the Oscar/BAFTA winner The Last King of Scotland (2006). In 2012 Tim was the subject of a Sky TV documentary, meeting up with friends such as Paul Weller, Marc Almond, Norman Cook and Robert Smith.
Hong Khaou (Writer and director): Hong Khaou discussed his 2014 feature film Lilting starring Ben Wishaw.
