PETE ATKIN
After a spell in the music business and then writing for radio, TV, and theatre, Pete joined BBC Radio Light Entertainment as a producer and worked on classic programmes such as MY WORD, MY MUSIC, JUST A MINUTE, and WEEK ENDING, and then went on to make many programmes which can now be heard again on BBC7 -- Simon Brett's award-winning AFTER HENRY (starring Prunella Scales), LEGAL DECENT HONEST AND TRUTHFUL, and the late great Peter Tinniswood's UNCLE MORT series, among many others. After moving to Bristol and then leaving the BBC to become freelance, he has continued to produce an ever wider range of features and dramas, as well as readings and comedies. Again among many others, he has been the producer of Martin Jarvis's renowned JUST WILLIAM readings for twenty years now, but his biggest project to date has been all 306 episodes of Radio 4's monumental history of Britain, THIS SCEPTRED ISLE. In amongst all of this he still manages to pursue his revived musical career (revived mainly through the internet), still writing songs with Clive James (yes, that Clive James), and occasionally touring the UK and Australia in their two-man show.
His work for Above the Title includes POTTERMANSHIP with Stephen Fry, THE WOMAN WHO INVENTED SITCOM, ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, Frederic Raphael’s THE GLITTERING PRIZES, SOMETHING IN THE AIR and JAM YESTERDAY by playwright Peter Nichols.
BRIAN KING
Brian is an award-winning pioneer of radio fly-on-the-wall documentaries. He began his career as a newspaper reporter before switching to radio. After several years producing documentaries for commercial radio he switched to the BBC and has produced hundreds of features, documentaries, plays and comedy programmes for Radio 4.
He was one of the pioneers of radio "observational" documentaries - THE DOCTORS, THE TEACHERS, THE HOSPITAL and THE UNIVERSITY among them. More recently he has made "fly-on-the-wall" programmes about vicars, rabbis and imams, the England and Wales Cricket Board and district nurses.
He has been nominated for seven Sony awards, winning Gold for THE TEACHERS. Among his other work - ON THE ROPES, with John Humphrys; several travel and language series with Bill Bryson, the sitcom ACROPOLIS NOW with Lynne Truss and a new comedy debate show, HERESY, with David Baddiel.
In his spare time (usually the small hours of the morning), he writes non-fiction. His first book, BEYOND COINCIDENCE, became an international best seller.
For Above The Title he produces radio 4's flagship legal programme UNRELIABLE EVIDENCE with Clive Anderson. He has made a two-part series THE LAST LORD CHANCELLOR, about the Constitutional Reform Bill and THE COURT OF LAST RESORT, a two-part series going behind the scenes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
DIRK MAGGS
Dirk Maggs writes and directs across all media but has won international awards and distinction by fusing Radio Drama with modern audio techniques, combining dynamic scripts, cinematic effects, evocative music and cutting edge technology (he pioneered the use of Dolby Surround in BBC Radio). He was among the first ever nominees for the Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Radio, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the University of Winchester for his work in the dramatic arts.
In radio, Dirk's work covers many genres; The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (author Douglas Adams chose Dirk to complete the saga), Ben-Hur, Batman, Agatha Christie Mysteries, Spider-Man, Horrible Histories, Superman, The 50th Anniversary Goon Show, An American Werewolf in London, Judge Dredd, and many others.
Dirk has directed many outstanding artists in award-winning productions, including Leslie Nielsen, Christian Slater, Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Pryce, Hugh Laurie, Juliet Stevenson, Jim Broadbent, Maureen Lipman, Johnny Vegas, Patricia Hodge, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Jasper Carrott, Alison Steadman, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan.
Dirk is currently occupied with various writing and directing projects in sound and vision, including Above The Title's productions of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books.
DAVID PERRY
David was a BBC Radio Producer for 15 years and Chief Producer for 6 years. He specialises in politics, foreign affairs, history, culture, the arts and jazz. He received a PRIX ITALIA nomination for HARLEM SPEAKS in 1983 and produced series about INDIA, SOUTH East Asia, French West Africa, THE HIMALAYAS, INDONESIA and THE PHILLIPINES. David turned freelance in 1990. He produced BBC Radio 3’s millennium series JAZZ CENTURY and wrote the feature JEAN TOOMER (Producer Piers Plowright), and JAZZ GREATS published by Phaidon in 1996. His films include LIVING MUSIC, a series for Channel 4 on the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and a documentary about transmigration in Indonesia for the Channel 4 series THE SAVAGE STRIKES BACK. He also wrote the script for the 2 part FRAGILE EARTH on the Camargue (C4, 1992), and for the follow up series, ENCOUNTER, about the Thames.
His work for Above the Title includes a three part JAZZ FILE about OSCAR PETERSON, the Radio 4 series INSIDE THE BAR, GEORGE ON GEORGE, a feature about George Formby, CHEKHOV’S THEATRE OF DREAMS, HILDE SPEER, THE SINS OF THE FATHERS, THE 100 CLUB, Courtney Pine’s JOY OF SAX, a programme featuring a VOODOU ceremony in Haiti and TINKER, TAILOR, COMPOSER, SPY for Radio 4.
NEIL ROSSER
Neil Rosser has produced around 80 series and one-offs for Radio 2 over the last 10 years, in a variety of genres, including drama, comedy and music documentary. He has worked with many, diverse artists such as Eartha Kitt, George Melly, Mel Brooks, Michael Ball, Steve Winwood, Barry Manilow, Punt and Dennis, Bob Newhart and Linda Ronstadt and interviewed literally hundreds of artists of all kinds, from Noel Gallagher to Peter Wyngarde. Neil has produced hundreds of hours of live programmes for Radio 2 and a few for Radio 3; he was editor for two years of the first independent strand on Radio 2, the Judi Spiers show. For Radio 4 he's produced comedy, documentaries and readings, including the award-winning Archy and Mehitabel with Eartha Kitt. For Channel 5 he was series editor of nearly 80 hours of travel and local history programming and worked on an Eclipse special for ITN.
His work for Above the Title includes THE ROUNDHOUSE, THE PARADE’S GONE BY featuring Kevin Brownlow’s archive of silent cinema, THE KINKS STORY, THE BYRDS LEGACY, CONKED OUT BUT NOT FORGOTTON about actor John le Mesurier, YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH - THE BILKO STORY, THE STORY OF SJ PERELMAN and MONOLOGISTS.