Like many good things in life I fell into this when I wasn’t looking! Lisa Gilchrist, producer at the BBC was looking for advice on a Kidnap drama & her usual police advising sources were honest enough to admit that those who investigated this type of crime represented a small circle but remembered me & my experience (see About).
I have to concede I must have had some sort of lucky charm as I then worked first on Sir David Hare’s BBC/ Netflix state of the nation drama Collateral with a stellar cast including Carey Mulligan as the lead Police detective. During filming director S J Clarkson was one of the most supportive people I’ve ever had the privilege of working with
This led to Channel 4 drama Kiri written by multi BAFTA winner Jack Thorne and later, also work on his Covid drama Help (Ch 4, The Forge)
Similar fantastic cast (Kiri) Sarah Lancashire in the lead and our detective this time Wunmi Mosaku – I learnt a lot.
Great experiences both in the script advising phase and also later during filming and keen to do more.
I regularly advise on McDonald & Dodds (ITV/ Mammoth). Others include (Tin Star Sky/Kudos), Rules of the Game (BBC), Riches (ITV/ Greenacre)
I’ve also worked at development stage on Off the map (BBC Drama) and The Trial, A murder in the family (Channel4) and any number of books in development whether at manuscript stage or for T.V. This includes C.J. Tudor (The Other People, Burning Girls - I’d recommend both).
Equally keen to advise authors – as I make my way in a new area especially keen to assist new writers if I can whether procedural or plotting? As I say elsewhere what would happen in reality or how far is something from reality?
I’d also hope that many of the situations I experienced might help likewise re plotting, how do the police find a wanted man from his phone to surveillance? What is hostage negotiation really like as opposed to the 101 Hollywood depictions? In short how can I help and advise you?
If your enquiry is about a very specialised area of policing whilst I might not have experienced it personally after 30 years confident I’ll know someone who has performed that role or I’ll know someone who knows someone!
Please do contact me via the contact page or by phone and lets see if I can help?
