People

THE COMPANY

Clan is run by Neil Cameron but each project has a team of producers, researchers, co-ordinators, editors and film crews involved, and we try to keep a core team occupied.

NEIL CAMERON has almost thirty years of experience of directing, producing, and executive producing films and series on network television, in history, arts, landmark and observational documentary, current affairs, education and features.

Neil joined the BBC in 1980. With a PhD in biology, his first programmes were for the Open University Production Centre. Then followed the highly successful nostalgia series Steam Days, presented by Miles Kington, about Britain’s railway mania. He then joined Timewatch, where his films included the drama Napoleon's Last Battle about Napoleon's exile on St Helena, Accounts of A Forgotten Army, an assessment of American war crimes against the German army at the end of WW2, and a biography of Charles Darwin about which one reviewer wrote "When people describe British TV as the best in the world they are talking about programmes like Charles Darwin".

After leaving the BBC in 1992, Neil was series editor of the multi-award-winning 13-part History's Turning Points for Discovery, also directing four of the films. He made two 5-part series on the former Soviet Union through BBC World Service, the first about agricultural reform, the second about indigenous Russian success stories. Neil produced two films, China and Vietnam for the Cold War series commissioned by Ted Turner of CNN through Jeremy Isaacs Productions and shown also on the BBC. He was series producer of CNN and BBC2’s 10 part Millennium - “1000 years of history in 10 hours of television”, also directing the 17th C and 18th C episodes. It was nominated for an “Indie” as Best Documentary Series.

Neil was series producer of Discovery’s landmark 2004 four part series Why Intelligence Fails, looking at the failures of miulitray intelligence throughout the 20th C and including 9/11 and the Iraq War.

Over its 12 year history, Takeaway Media sustained proud track record of thought provoking and award winning documentaries and features in the arts, history, science and current affairs.

Selected details below:

Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights BBC One 2008.

In one of biggest hits of the year on BBC One with an audience of 6.6 million viewers, actress Joanna Lumley (Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous) embarks on a journey of a lifetime to fulfil her childhood ambition to see the fabulous Northern Lights.
Joanna grew up in tropical Malaysia, yet dreamed of the winter wonderland she read about in books. Her epic journey across the Arctic Circle up through Norway takes her from dog-sleigh to snowmobile as she takes in the rugged natural beauty of her surroundings. She discovers the region’s rich and folklore of snow-queens, trolls and Vikings and meet reindeer herdsmen from Europe’s last indigenous people, the Sami.
Stunningly filmed in HD, viewers follow Joanna’s funny, touching and momentous expedition and share her delight as she finally realises her dream of seeing the mysterious and elusive Northern Lights.

“Highlight of the week, An enchanting journey”. ‘Like a glamorous version of Michael Palin, the equally likeable Lumley charms everyone she meets as she delights in the sights and sounds of her Arctic odyssey. … Terrific”. Daily Mail

Stunning documentary.” Daily Mirror

“the trip is gloriously scenic, Lumley charms all round her, and the payoff is worth the wait.” Daily Telegraph

a charming, idiosyncratic programme…The Northern Lights…can no more resist Lumley…than anyone else can.” Sunday Times

“The glacial sights are fairy-tale perfect… It’s spell-binding stuff.” Mail on Sunday

… she’s fabulous, dead glam, a bit mad, and very funny. …. The Guardian

Ian Hislop Goes Off The Rails BBC Four 2008

Writer and humourist Ian Hislop turns his customary wit and satire the notorious Beeching Report of 1963 which led to the closure of a third of the nation's railway lines and stations and forced tens of thousands of people into the car and onto the road.
Ian travels from Cornwall to the Scottish borders meeting those responsible and those affected and questioning whether such brutal measures can be justified. Knowing what we know now, with trains far more energy efficient and environmentally sound than cars, perhaps Beeching's plan was the biggest folly of the 1960s?
A mixture of incisive analysis and steam age nostalgia, the film achieved the largest ever factual viewing figures on BBC Four.

Ian Hislop Goes Off the Rails

- in which the Private Eye editor looked at the somewhat dry subject of the 1963 government Beeching report into the railways - picked up the biggest multichannel rating of the night attracting 1.3 million viewers and a share of 6.7% in the 9pm hour. The Hislop documentary was BBC4's highest-rated factual programme ever and the second most popular show since its launch. Guardian

Balderdash & Piffle - Series 2

Following the success of the first series, Balderdash & Piffle returned to BBC2 in June 2007. Once again the Oxford English Dictionary asked for public assistance to help them trace the history of 40 well-known words and phrases. Well versed in the art of wordhunting, the public’s response was vast and sophisticated. A wonderful range of actual evidence and anecdotal evidence was submitted to the OED three and the series succeeding in generating numerous amendments to the dictionary. Each episode focused on words relating to a theme – Suggs went in search of the dodgy words and the colourful characters whose bad behaviour we love to hate. Burlesque dancer Immodesty Blaze revealed why merkins were the must-have kit in the 17th century and in pursuit of the origin of various words relating to mental illness, Jo Brand attended ‘bonkersfest’.

The Times wrote that “Etymology enthusiasts will be in seventh heaven, which incidentally is a region of pure light above the other six heavens”

London Calling - Inside the BBC World Service

We were given unprecedented access to film BBC World Service’s journalists and managers around the world over 18 dramatic and often dangerous months.

The three observational, character-led films chronicle: the painful closures at the end of 2005 of most of BBC World Service’s Eastern European language services; the Arabic Service’s coverage of the Summer 2006 war in Israel and Lebanon, the gestation of forthcoming television services in Arabic and Farsi; and the service to Africa, home to half the World Service’s 160 million audience, including 15 million listeners to the Somali Service, the only reliable source of information for Somalia’s beleaguered citizens after 16 years of civil war.

Between December 2005 and May 2007 we filmed in Britain, Russia, Afghanistan, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Ascension Island, Nigeria, Ghana, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya.

“We thought long and hard about agreeing to let the cameras in. But we thought it worth the risk.” - Nigel Chapman, Director of BBC World Service.

Invaluable viewing… fascinating figures – The Observer
..fascinating documentary…a deft portrait of the challenges Bush House faces – The Guardian

Ian Hislop’s Scouting for Boys

In this entertaining and affectionate film, first broadcast in May 2007 on BBC4 and repeated on BBC2, Ian Hislop explores one of the best-selling and most influential books of all time- Robert Baden Powell’s ‘Scouting for Boys’. Ian discovers that the book is a rich and entertaining read and illuminates its fascinating history. Through talking with Culture Minister and former Cub Scout David Lammy, Baden Powell’s grandson and biographers, the aim of the book – encouraging good citizenship in an age of degeneration of society- Ian shows how the book’s message looks relevant a hundred years on.

A fascinating, charmingly told story… – The Telegraph
Warm chirpy profile. Features a startling array of insights…

Mortgaged to the Yanks

At midnight on 31st December 2006, Britain finally paid off the last tranche of its multi-billion dollar debt to the Americans from the end of the Second World War – after sixty years of hefty monthly payments. Former Washington ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer tells the story of how bankrupt Britain came to be Mortgaged to the Yanks, and looks at what the loan tells us about our so-called ‘special relationship’. The two sides saw it very differently and still do, as he finds by talking to with US President George W Bush’s former special advisor Karl Rove, legendary State Department bruiser Richard Armitage, former British Chancellors Kenneth Clark and Dennis Healey and veteran politician Tony Benn. First broadcast in Dec 2006 on BBC4 and repeated on BBC2.

Balderdash & Piffle

A ground-breaking phenomenon of a series, in which we demonstrated that you can make entertaining television about words. Presented by Victoria Coren and a host of celebrated word-lovers, this six-part series about word and their origins aired on BBC2 from January to March 2006. Balderdash & Piffle recruited the public to help solve some of the most intriguing word mysteries in the English language. The prize was to actually rewrite the Oxford English Dictionary, the custodian of all words in English. With investigations ranging from Jerry Hall on ‘cocktail’ to Ian Hislop on ‘Management Speak’, Lynne Truss on ‘set’ and Courtney Pine on ‘cool’, the series proved one of the factual hits of BBC2’s 2006 schedule, with audience figures reaching 3.5m.

The huge public response led to a special programme, Balderdash & Piffle – The Results Show, which used new evidence sent in by viewers after the programmes to rewrite dozens of entries in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Daily Mail wrote:“It was fun, instructive and will appeal to the scholarly in all of us. I see no earthly reason why it should not, as it used to say on theatre posters, run and run”.

Motherland - A Genetic Journey

A moving, feature-length documentary shot on three continents, was amongst the most ambitious factual programmes in recent times. First transmitted in Spring 2003 on BBC2, it was three years in the making, involving scientific testing, casting and detailed research. Motherland used genetics to enable members of the African diaspora to trace their detailed African ancestry. Three Black Britons became the first people ever to uncover what Alex Haley, author of Roots, could only dream of - to "go back" to Africa and reconnect with the precise population groups from which their ancestors were separated by slavery.
Then BBC Director-General Greg Dyke said of Motherland: “I was astounded by the programme. It is one of the most remarkable programmes I have seen in recent years. It is revelatory, it is emotional, there are moments of complete surprise…I sat there with tears in my eyes in parts. I would say this to the producers…you should be incredibly proud of what you produced. It is something special.”
Motherland won the coveted Royal Television Society Programme Award in 2004 for Best Science/ Natural History programme/series. It also won the One World Media Award in 2003 for Best TV Documentary - cited for its "outstanding contribution to greater world understanding" – and the New York Festivals UNESCO Gold Plaque in 2004. Motherland has now been seen in festivals, cinema screens and on television around the world. A sequel, Motherland – Moving On, looking at the consequences of genetic testing, followed on BBC2 in autumn 2004.

An Indian Affair

A landmark, three-part series about Britain’s relationship with India, Presented by Oxford historian Maria Misra, the series was the centre-piece of C4’s Untold season, their contribution to Black History month. The series, and an accompanying book by Archie Baron, charted the little-known story of Britain's early infatuation with India's wealth, culture and people, what many Britons acknowledged as India's superior civilisation. It examined how this deep, largely harmonious relationship then degenerated into the territory-hungry contempt and racism of the Raj.
Broadcast on Channel 4 in 2001.

UK Confidential

First aired on New Year's Day 1999. For the first time, television producers were given advance sight of the secret documents closed until 1st January each year under the 30-year rule. The programme’s exclusive revelations led that day’s news – especially Jim Callaghan’s admission and on-screen apology for insisting in 1968 that the Police should be exempt from the Race Relations Act.

The first day of the new Millennium featured Back To The Future on BBC2, an innovative, fast-moving and entertaining treat for the new century, juxtaposing the predictions made in 1900 for the year 2000, and those of some of today's experts and visionaries for the year 2100.

UK Confidential returned on January 1st 2001 with disclosures about why the British government surrendered to Palestinian terrorist demands in the first international hostage crisis of "Black September" 1970. In 2002 UK Confidential saw the most respected chronicler of “the Troubles”, Peter Taylor, shocked by what he found in the files about the introduction of Internment in Northern Ireland in 1971, the beginning of the road to Bloody Sunday and Direct Rule. That story continued in 2003 in Northern Ireland, with explosive revelations about a secret British contingency plan to implement ethnic cleansing in Northern Ireland. In 2004 we told the inside story of the road to Sunningdale - the 1973 peace deal whose terms were near identical to the Good Friday Agreement - and at the start of 2005 we revisited the loyalist UWC strike of 1974 that destroyed the prospects for power-sharing for a generation. In 2006 the new year began with no fewer than three Confidential programmes: Cabinet Confidential looked at the secret channels in 1975 between the British Government and the IRA to end the Troubles, Churchill Confidential on Radio 4 told the inside story of the War Cabinet with exclusive access to the Cabinet Secretary’s unpublished diaries from 1944 and 1945, while UK Confidential looked at Wilson’s last full year as Premier in 1975.

Leviathan

The series from which UK Confidential had originally sprung, and for which Takeaway Media was originally set up. Leviathan examined the history behind the headlines. First commissioned by Radio 4 in 1994, it had two eight week runs before transferring to television. There it had 3 series of 8 programmes in a midweek primetime slot on BBC2. Highlights included Michael Portillo’s films on Disraeli and on Cromwell, Ian Buruma on why the Japanese can't say sorry for wartime atrocities, Nicky Campbell on why the Scots hate the English, Edwina Currie on love potions before Viagra, Jo Brand on World Debt, Chris Eubank running the original marathon, and Steve Jones' warning from history on GM foods.

Leviathan generated a number of specials including Lie Back and Think of England, a re-branding exercise for England with St Luke’s advertising agency, and The Serbs and the Nazis which exposed the myth of Serb resistance in World War II.