email: james.walker@alice.it

Twenty years experience as field producer, researcher, location manager and fixer for high quality factual programming in history, arts, science, sports, current affairs and news. An Italy specialist, James has worked on numerous television documentary films for the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, Discovery Channel and other major broadcasters.
For ABC News he has worked as an assignment editor and news segment producer in the UK, and in Italy as a field producer, off-air reporter and news editor. He has also worked as a Broadcast Manager for NBC Olympics at the Atlanta Games, as a freelance producer for CNN in Italy, and as a stringer for UPI and Jane’s Defence Weekly.
James is British – an English mother-tongue speaker with fluent Italian, good French and basic Spanish.

Experienced with production issues all over Italy – from the Alps to Sicily – and at all the big locations and archeological sites, including surface and underground Rome as well as Venice, Florence, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Naples (Pompeii and Vesuvius), Sardinia, Sicily (Palermo, Siracusa, Trapani, Catania and Mount Etna).

SKILLS AND SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE
• Vatican specialist;
• Excellent access track record;
• Identifies and interviews local contributors;
• Expert on outflanking Italian red tape;
• Experienced in transmission rights issues and pertinent Italian regulations;
• Provides best cost US-UK standards camera and sound personnel in Italy;
• Provides best cost camera, sound, lighting, helicopter and grip equipment in Italy;
• Provides authorised spelunkers for underground filming in Rome;
• Location scout.

PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS

BAROQUE ! (working title) – ZCZ Films for BBC2 and BBC4 – Waldemar Januszczak gallops round the baroque art form and the Catholic Church’s Counter Reformation in a three part series: Italy, Spain and Northern Europe. 2008

THE REAL: MILAN – Uproar Films for BBC World News – Three Milanese names take the viewer to their favourite places in the fashion capital of Italy. 2008

JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME – September Films for BBC 1 - Alan Whicker goes over the tracks of his career (Venice). 2008

ANCIENT DISCOVERIES – WILD DREAM FILMS for The History Channel – Experimental archeology: how Hannibal got an army over the Alps, in winter. 2008

THE SECRETS OF THE TWELVE DISCIPLES –Carbon Media for Channel 4 – Controversial film which suggests the Catholic Church fabricated a connection with the apostle Peter to validate giving ultimate power to the papacy. 2008

VALENTINO – Farnsworth House Inc – An HD documentary film for theatrical release on the designer Valentino Garavani. Slated for the Sundance and Berlin film festivals. 2006-2007

SEX CRIMES AND THE VATICAN – Uproar for BBC1 Panorama - An investigation into the Vatican’s silencing of clerical sex abuse child victims, and its protection of clerical abusers. 2006

EARTH: POWER OF THE PLANET – BBC 2 – The ‘Oceans’ episode in a five-part series. Episodes include : volcanoes, oceans, the atmosphere and ice. 2006

ATLAS: ITALY – Atlantic Productions Ltd for Discovery Channel – A home Theatre HD profile of contemporary Italy. shot over eighteen months. Part of a series of character-driven profiles on different countries including China, India, Australia and France. 2005-2006

WHITE SMOKE – BBC News & Current Affairs special – Pope John Paul II’s funeral and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. 2005

OPUS DEI AND THE DA VINCI CODE – CTVC for Channel 4 – A one hour investigation into the closeted world of the Pope’s own prelature. 2005

THE STORY OF GOD – Dangerous Films for BBC 1 – Landmark documentary series presented by Lord Robert Winston on mankind’s quest, from prehistory to the present day, to understand the nature of God. 2005

JOURNEYS FROM THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH – BBC 4 & Open University – Six-part science series on how the rocks underfoot have influenced the history and the make-up of the Mediterranean. 2005
TO KILL A POPE – 3BM for Discovery Channel – For the ‘Zero Hour’ drama/doc series following the moments one hour before major events. The 1981 shooting of Pope John Paul II. Oscar-winning director Jon Blair. 2004

SEXUAL INTELLIGENCE – Fertile Ground Productions for HBO – Kim Cattrall attempts to explain why and how men and women feel sexual desire and how world culture and nature influence our impulses and attitudes toward sex. Naples and Pompeii. 2004

CARTHAGE: THE ROMAN HOLOCAUST – RDF Television for Channel 4 –
Documentary about the Roman destruction of Carthage and its lost culture. 2004

RAPHAEL: A MORTAL GOD – BBC 1 – Drama doc on the complexities of the contradictory life and work of this great master. 2003-2004

THE DIVINE MICHELANGELO – BBC1 – A two-part series on the artist's extraordinary life and works with dramatic reconstructions of Michelangelo's life. 2003-2004

JULIUS CAESAR - NERO - CALIGULA – Spire Films for Channel 4 – A series of three films on ancient Roman leaders, presented by Tony Robinson. 2003

LEONARDO: THE SECRET LIFE OF THE MONA LISA – BBC 1 – Programme 3 in the three-part series presented by Alan Yentob. 2002

AGE OF TERROR – 3BM for Discovery Channel – The history of terrorism since 1945. The Red Brigades and the Baader Meinhof Gang. 2003 Broadcast Award for best multicultural programme. 2002

GREAT BRITONS – BBC 1 – Documentary investigation into Lord Horatio Nelson for the Great Britons competition won by Sir Winston Churchill. 2001

Transworld International – IMG for the IOC – A collection of new prints of the 1956 winter Olympics film ‘Vertigine Bianca’ and 1960 summer games film ‘La Grande Olimpiade’ for the International Olympic Committee’s television archive bureau and archive museum in Lausanne. 1999-2001
AMERICAN MASTERS: THE EDUCATION OF GORE VIDAL – THIRTEEN WNET
New York – An in depth portrait of one of America’s leading writers of historical fiction and a leading contemporary social satirist. 2000

JOHN PAUL II: THE MILLENNIAL POPE – WGBH Frontline – A comprehensive biography on world leader John Paul II. 1999

HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE – Sunstone Films for Channel 4 – Presented by Terry Jones. 1998

ABSOLUTE TRUTH – BBC 2 News & Current Affairs – A landmark four-part series on the modern Catholic Church. 1997-1998

THE SECRET HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION: PORNOGRAPHY – World of Wonder for Channel 4 – One of a six-part documentary series shot principally in Pompeii. 1998

THE REAL BENITO MUSSOLINI – 3BM for Channel 4 – The first film ever made for British television on the Italian dictator. 1997-1998

COLD WAR – Jeremy Isaacs Productions for Turner Broadcasting System/CNN – CNN’s landmark 24-episode Cold War series was the first major documentary on the subject. 1998 George Foster Peabody Award. 1997

THE REAL CLEOPATRA – BBC Documentaries – A one hour biography of Egypt’s best-known monarch, directed by Jonathan Lewis. 1997

HEAD TRAUMA – WGBH (NOVA) – Science film on crucial 24-hour watch and fluid intake controls in head trauma patient survival. 1997

THE NAZIS: A WARNING FROM HISTORY – BBC Documentaries – Italian segment of a six-part series on the Third Reich, directed by Lawrence Reese. 1997

FROM JESUS TO CHRIST – Invision Productions for WGBH – A three-part series on early Christianity. 1995

ROME SUMMER OLYMPICS 1960 – NBC Olympics – An hour long film that takes US athletes back to the stadiums they inspired in 1960. Aired in full at prime time during NBC’s 1996 Atlanta summer games coverage. 1995

PIUS XII: THE POPE, THE NAZIS AND THE JEWS – BBC 2 Reputations – The wartime record of Pope Pius XII. Nominated for the 1995 Grand Prix FIPA D’OR. 1994

ITALY ON TRIAL – Barraclough Carey for BBC Assignment – An Assignment film on the ‘clean hands’ (or ‘mani pulite’) corruption scandals that destroyed the Christian Democrat and Socialist parties in Italy. 1993

PEOPLE’S CENTURY – BBC Worldwide/WGBH – Six of the 26 episodes on the major events & developments of the 20th century. Landmark series nominated at BAFTA 1995, won Emmy, RTS and Peabody Awards. 1992-1993

HELPING OUR FRIENDS – BBC 1 Television Features – One of six films in a history of the CIA. Italy and Indonesia. 1990-1991

Broadcast and Print

SUMMER OLYMPICS – NBC Olympics – Broadcast Manager in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia. 1996

JANE’S DEFENCE WEEKLY – Freelance news writer in Italy – Reported on defence industry news stories. 1990-1993

UPI – Rome, Freelance news writer – Wrote copy for UPI client next-day newspaper stories. 1990-1991

CNN – Rome, Freelance producer, news desk editor – Supplied Atlanta with news packages, competitive news updates and footage on Italian stories. 1990-1992

ABC NEWS – London – Kept US East and West Coast news broadcasts supplied with competitive news updates and footage packages on daily developments in Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Africa. 1988-1989

ABC NEWS – Rome, Field production, news desk – Part of the editorial team dealing with news coverage and logistics in Italy, Lebanon and North Africa. 1984-1988

Referees

BILL CRAN - PALADIN INVISION PRODUCTIONS - bill@pitv.com
SARAH MACDONALD - UPROAR PRODUCTIONS - sarah@uproarproductions.com
MATTHEW GYVES - BBC SCIENCE - matt.gyves@bbc.co.uk
RUTH SESSIONS – ATLANTIC PRODUCTIONS - ruths@atlanticproductions.co.uk

Education

Leicester University B.A. (Hons.) History of Art, 1976
Bryanston School O and A levels, 1973

References and career details pre-1984 available on request.