What’s your role at MultiStory?
As Head of Archive I am responsible for sourcing and clearing both ITV and third-party owned footage and stills required for our productions. Depending on the size of the show or how many productions we have running at one time, I’ll have a team of people to manage the archive as I can’t do it all. As well as exploiting archives, I also feed into how we manage and archive our own production material after a closedown.
What made you want to get into TV and how did you make that a reality?
Growing up, like most of us, I loved film and TV. After my degree I enrolled in a part-time MA in Documentary Research. It wasn’t much of a genre in the 90s but I was inspired by classic sports docs like When We Were Kings and set out to make sport my field. After that I got an interview at TWI (now IMG) for one of their sports magazine shows, Futbol Mundial, which was the dream. I didn’t get that job, but they did offer me something working in their library helping to sell the archive. And the rest is history! It’s been screeners and masters and licensing agreements ever since, as a seller and now buyer.
What’s the biggest hurdle you’ve had to overcome to get to where you are?
There are honestly not that many hurdles to a career in archive other than curiosity, relatively good organisation, aptitude for technology and formats, buckets of patience, and good people to learn from. Aspiring Archive Researchers and Producers please come and talk to me, there won’t be a stampede.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Working on the production that exposed Jimmy Savile is definitely the highlight in terms of impact. My children’s enjoyment of Unbelievable Moments Caught on Camera has been satisfying more recently.
Are there any big learning curves or disaster moments you can look back and laugh about now?
I don’t think you can publish the Colonel Gadaffi incident (it wasn’t me).
What are your favourite TV shows?
Too many! So the all-time-greats, Match of the Day and The Sopranos.