A Work Year in Review - The Highlights of 2005

The year starts with 'High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman' and the comedy genius that is Marc Wootton. 'High Spirits' had started in October of 2004, and continued into the New Year with the filming of 'Spirit Academy' and Shirley's church readings.
A hugely enjoyable job, and one that makes you feel lucky to be a Designer. Having worked with Marc on 'Cyderdelic', it was a real treat and a privilege to be working with him again, and Liam Woodman.

Feb saw the ended of filming on 'High Spirits' and a few other bits and bobs.

In March I won a pitch to design a Pilot called 'Petrolheads'. It was a chance to be able to design a really unusual and different looking panel show.
March also saw the start of pre-production for the epic that was 'Green Wing' series 2. A huge part of 2005 for me.
It was such a mammoth task that it became almost everything in my life for the next 8 months.
Again, I feel so lucky to have worked with such great talent and on such a superb series.

June saw the third series of 'Q.i', one of my most favourites shows to work on, although due to the scale of 'Green Wing', I wasn't able to attend many of the recordings. I seem to get the most complimentary comments about that set, which is always very gratifying.
During my early conversations with John Lloyd the Producer, I had wanted to design a look that felt as worthy as the show itself. The actual concept came to me fairly quickly and easily, and I ended up designing all the key dimensions of the set around the Fibonacci sequence. Although elements of the Golden Section are visually obvious, I knew that nobody would ever know that fact. The important thing was that they were there, built into the set, and that seemed to be important, and in keeping with the whole ethic of the show. A little know and as yet unpublished 'quite interesting' fact.

July brought series 1 of 'Mock the Week' (again, due to Green Wing, I missed most of the recordings) followed by a much needed holiday for most of August. After catching the early part of Hurricane Katrina in Florida, I headed back to continue on 'Green Wing'.

A huge highlight was my trip to New York in September for a Borat Promo for MTV, as part of their trailers for the MTV Music Awards.
Following a call from MTV at Sacha's request, I was flown out for 3 days right in the middle of filming Green Wing, (nuff respek to VP for letting me disappear for 3 days) and had to oversee the studio set shoot, abley assisted by New York Art Director Ethan Tobman, who graciously took me prop buying and sorted out all the construction.
It was probably a career highlight rather than a year highlight, because it was so enjoyable and I was so well looked after.

October saw the final block of filming for 'Green Wing', with some exceptional stunts and locations that I cannot divulge prior to its release, but needless to say, it was very sad to finish such a great job, and I will always feel privileged that I was able to work on such a great project with so many talented people.

November was another great month. I was asked to work on a new Pilot called 'Star Stories'.
Having been in this business for nearly 20 years now, I can normally tell from a Pilot whether the show has potential or not, and this one seriously did.
I clearly remember the Pilot episode of 'Ready Steady Cook' in 1994. We all knew then that it was a cracking show (nobody would have guessed how long it would run for though)
Anyway, it was extremely funny and a joy to work on because of the team. watch out for it later in 2006 as a series!

Then I got asked to design the set for 'Children In Need' for BBC Scotland, which was most definitely a year highlight.
The set was built in London and then shipped up to Glasgow on a chilly November morning, and re-assembled by the great BBC Scotland set crew.
I really love working up there. Scotland is fab, Glasgow is a great city, and BBC Scotland is superb. The team were amazing, which always makes such a difference.

Finally December 2005, and a successful pitch to Optomen TV for their new series 'The Great British Menu', along with a Pilot chat show called 'Guilty Pleasures'.

I just hope 2006 works out as well........