Presenter / Producer / Director / Journalist
Over the years I’ve always designed my own website. Starting in 2000, I used the Desktop Publishing package Serif PagePlus to design my original site. Then I progressed to learning HTML and making use of numerous other website designing packages. I’ve gone through versions which used ‘Flash’, though these days its not considered very secure, […]
During the first lockdown of the 2020 pandemic TiswasOnline – a group of dedicated Tiswas fans (including me!) – decided to re-run compilations of Tiswas clips on Saturday Mornings again, all to raise money for charity (see link below). In addition, we contacted as many members of the Tiswas Team as we could and asked […]
When I was little, I absolutely adored Tiswas. You need to know this. If not, nothing that follows will make any sense. A bit like Tiswas really. When the rest of the world had forgotten it, I just couldn’t shake off those happy memories. In 2004 TiswasOnline began as a loose collection of fans of […]
As I sit and write this, July 1989 is 30 years ago and yet it doesn’t seem 5 minutes ago to me. So why am I sitting here thinking about 30 years ago? Well, it’s the 30th anniversary of my first setting foot in the wonderful world of broadcasting and the media. Sounds very grand […]
During August I was informed by the new manager of Made in Birmingham that I was no longer required to work on the Birmingham News Weekend Magazine. Things change all the time, so you simply take it in your stride. I had effectively been producing the programme single-handedly for the best part of 2 years […]
And so in July 2017 Made In Birmingham moved… to Birmingham. It made sense. The only reason that Big Centre and then Made in Birmingham hadn’t been in Birmingham up until that point was down to cost. The original station which had won the West Midlands local television license had based itself in Birmingham and […]
During the Summer of 2016, Big Centre had been doing nicely. It had passed through the difficult times and emerged in really quite a good state. This made it attractive to other would-be owners. So it was that in October 2016, Big Centre was officially merged with Made Television, and was to be rebranded as […]
In April 2016 Big Centre TV re-branded to simply Big Centre. A subtle difference, but it was what everybody called it anyway, and the rebrand said goodbye to the colour swirl which had divided opinion in the early days of the station, and welcomed the stylized ‘BC’ icon. The company also now officially became Big […]
The Midland was the name of Big Centre’s original daily news programme. The main anchor was Bob Hall with a core team of Lois Swinnerton, Roshni Patel and Monika Plaha also presenting on a regular basis. In November 2015 Big Centre went through a rough patch. A number of people were made redundant and various […]
During the Summer of 2015, I was presenting Crossroads Check-in at the weekend on Big Centre. I was also helping Chanelle Shea-Calvin with Postbag which was a nice little half hour programme which highlighted stuff on the station, and allowed people to get in touch with their thoughts. Between us, we had the idea that we […]