Welcome to my news page. I hope it gives you an idea of the range of projects I’ve been working on. I’ll be updating it regularly. Well, that was the plan…
Recent news
It must be time for my latest update. It has been about 2 years after all!
My only excuse is a good one I guess – I’ve been very busy. I can’t believe I’ve now completed four years as a lecturer in Multimedia Sports Journalism at UCFB.
The job is as rewarding as I hoped it would be when I decided to give it a try. At some point during the last couple of semesters, my “imposter syndrome” about teaching others finally disappeared (whether it should have done is another question!). I’m now confident in my ability to communicate ideas and encourage students to improve, and when they do make progress, it’s a great feeling.
That said, the job is also demanding and it’s a hard time for the whole higher education sector. I’m constantly impressed by the hard work and expertise of my colleagues at UCFB, but there aren’t that many of us!
As well as my work at UCFB, I’ve continued to run a couple of workshops on scriptwriting at the National Film and Television School. Working with a small group of slightly older students is always enjoyable.
In the past year, I’ve also done some freelance teaching at Bath Spa University. Once again, much smaller class sizes than I’m used to and a beautiful campus. I’m grateful to course leader Lizzie Powell for the opportunity.
I met Lizzie last summer when I worked for Olympic Broadcasting Services at Paris 2024. I was scripting and voicing highlights packages on a range of sports, mostly swimming and cycling. As well as the Games, I also worked on the Paralympics, which in some ways was more enjoyable. As well as describing the action, I also had to explain the sports and introduce the personalities involved.
Being in Paris was a great experience, and a bit of a contrast to my last trip for OBS, to a locked-down Tokyo in 2021. I hope to work on the next Games in Los Angeles of course, but I’m sure the industry will look very different three years from now.
It’s certainly changed a lot in the last three years. The kind of highlights show with voiceover that has been the staple of my career simply isn’t made anymore, at least not by some of my regular clients, such as ITV Sport and TNT Sports.
I’m grateful for the work I still get from IMG, both on World Cup qualifiers and EFL highlights, but it’s slim pickings otherwise. I posted recently on LinkedIn about a job advert I saw there, which asked for “4 years of experience, but not exceeding 8”. Is there now an upper limit on the experience you need to do a job properly? I know the skills required have changed, but that felt like a tipping point for someone like me.
Despite that, I’ll stick at it, because it’s always worth it when a great job comes along. There are no major events for me this summer, but there’s always the World Cup next year…
Anyway, thanks for reading this long overdue update. Just to prove that I am still working, here are a couple of features I’ve produced since I last posted here. The first is a review of the cycling at Paris 2024, and the second is a feature on England’s first game under Thomas Tuchel, for IMG.