Justin Pollard

Justin David Pollard (born 1968) MA, BA is a British historian, television producer and writer.

Biography

Justin is a popular historian and screenwriter working in the field of feature films, television and print. He was born in Hertfordshire in 1968 and was educated at St Albans School and Downing College, Cambridge where he graduated with honours in Archaeology and Anthropology.

After college he worked for a year as an archaeologist at the Museum of London on the excavation of Thomas Becket’s old monastery of Merton Priory. During that time he also developed an educational programme for schools visiting the Surrey Heath Archaeological and Heritage Trust in Surrey for which the Trust was awarded the Graham Webster Laurels at the British Archaeology Awards for their contribution to education in archaeology.

Leaving the Museum of London in 1990, Justin moved into documentary production initially as a researcher, and then a writer and producer. His television credits include development and scripting for the BBC’s "QI", Channel Four’s "Time Team" including writing the Christmas special "Time Team’s History of Britain", script editing Bob Geldof’s "Geldof in Africa", and developing "Terry Jones' Barbarians". He has also written the 3x1 hour history of the Egyptian New Kingdom for the BBC and Lion Television, "Egypt’s Golden Empire", which was nominated for an Emmy Award. As well as these he has written and produced documentaries on everything from cannibalism amongst the Dongria Kondh in India to the career of Vlad the Impaler, for presenters including Terry Jones, Bettany Hughes, Alexei Sayle, Tony Robinson and Bob Geldof, and broadcasters including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, National Geographic, PBS, A&E, Discovery Channel, Canal+, ZDF, S4C, ITN and others.

Apart from producing documentaries, Justin runs a company that provides historical and script consultancy for historical feature films. He has a long association with Indian director Shekhar Kapur and was historical consultant on his features "Elizabeth" and "The Four Feathers", coaching cast (including Cate Blanchett, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, Fanny Ardant, Vincent Cassel, John Gielgud and Heath Ledger) and crew in the historical background to the stories. He has also worked closely in developing other history-based features for directors, including Gillies MacKinnon, Sam Mendes, Jan De Bont and Neil Jordan. He is the historical consultant on Shekhar Kapur's new movie for Working Title Films, "" and Joe Wright's new movie, "Atonement".

Feature films

* "" directed by Shekhar Kapur
* "Atonement" directed by Joe Wright
* "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" directed by Mark Herman
* "The Four Feathers" directed by Shekhar Kapur
* "Elizabeth" directed by Shekhar Kapur

Television series

* "QI" (Series 3 to 6). 12/13 part comedy panel show hosted by Stephen Fry for BBC2
* "The Tudors" (Series 1 & 2). Drama series starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers for Showtime
* "" for ITV4
* "Geldof in Africa" for BBC1
* "Terry Jones' Barbarians". Series for BBC
* "Seven Ages of Britain". 7 hour series for Channel 4 presented by Bettany Hughes
* "Ancient Discoveries". 3x1 hr history series for S4C/ A&E
* "$100 Ride". 13 part travel series narrated by Alexei Sayle for National Geographic.
* "Egypt's Golden Empire". 3 hr documentary series for BBC/PBS/DDE.
* "Time Team History of Britain" for Channel 4
* "Time Team Live from York" for Channel 4
* "Time Team series VII" for Channel 4
* "Time Team Live" for Channel 4
* "Royal Secrets" for TLC

Books

* "Charge! The Interesting Bits of Military History" (Hardcover), 2008. ISBN 0719523044.
* "" (Hardcover), 2007. ISBN 0719524202.
* "The Story of Archaeology" (Hardcover), 2007. ISBN 1847241832.
* "" (Hardcover), with Howard Reid 2006. ISBN 0-670-03797-4.
* "" (Hardcover), 2005. ISBN 0-7195-6665-7.
* "Seven Ages of Britain" (Paperback), 2003. ISBN 0-340-83040-9.

External links

* [http://www.visualartefact.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689482/ Internet Movie Database entry]
* [http://www.shekharkapur.com/goldenage/ "The Golden Age" production blog] on Shekhar Kapur's website
* [http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/newsArticle.php?newsID=130 "The Golden Age" production diary] on Working Title's website
* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=Justin%20Pollard Books in print]
* [http://www.qi.com/ "QI" website]