For me television (and the 90’s) really started with Buddha of Suburbia, which had fully developed Indian characters that weren’t stereotypes to cringe at. Yes shopkeepers and arranged marriages were in there but it was done in a funny demented way that wasn’t patronising. I know there was My Beautiful Laundrette before it (from the same writer no less) but this was better. Add My Son the Fan...

It is no exageration to say this has been perhaps the toughest year I can remember. I lost my sister to cancer in April and a dear friend to depression a few weeks ago. In some ways it seems peverse to continue a normal my life of writing, social media updates and so on - indeed galivanting off to New York for conferences next week - but in some ways my only way to keep going personally is to f...

About eight years ago I sat in a cosy Islington pub with BECTU acting general secretary Martin Spence to discus his problems with Shooting People's posting of non-union (and non-NMW) jobs. Flickr CC image from tompagenet It was the first time I'd found myself conflicted with the pro-uinion leanings I'd been brought up with. My parents met in the Salford communist branch and as a teen I cut my...

When Avid and Lightworks systems came out in the dawn of the digital editing age there were specialist outlets that provided specific training courses to make the transition seamless. Equipment like that was expensive and you really had to be lucky to work for a company that invested in one (I was). Obviously the courses were aimed at those in the industry (with the tab usually picked up by th...

You have a camera, some editing equipment and a great idea and you want to get it out there, you can put it on youtube.com and tell everyone where it is but do you read the smallprint before uploading? You are, in fact, giving up the rights of your magic idea to them if they decide to sell it on for a profit of which you will not be in on. They don't actively try to steal your work and the upsi...