Tim Samuels

Tim Samuels (born 3 October 1975) is an award-winning British documentary filmmaker and television presenter. His work is characterised by approaching serious topics in innovative ways to produce engaging and hard-hitting documentaries. Samuels formed pensioner rock group The Zimmers for a BBC documentary and is a regular presenter on The Culture Show on BBC Two in the UK. He is frequently referred to as a younger British Michael Moore, but without the political agenda. Samuels has won three Royal Television Society awards in the last six years.

Biography

Tim Samuels was born in Manchester, the son of acclaimed photographer Sefton Samuels. He attended Manchester Grammar School and St Andrew's University. Samuels' first foray in journalism came at the age of 13 when he interviewed Morrissey, the former lead singer of The Smiths. At the University of St Andrews he launched a new student newspaper, The Saint, which won the Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year.

Samuels joined the BBC as a news trainee after university. He spent a number of years as an investigative correspondent for the programme Newsnight and the main evening news bulletin. Samuels reported from the USA and Northern Ireland to expose miscarriages of justice on death row and reveal new forms of racism in Northern Ireland, and became Young Journalist of the Year.

Documentaries

Tim Samuels moved from news to documentaries. In "A Dirty Weekend in Hospital" for the BBC's "Mischief" strand he led a hundred victims of the MRSA superbug on an impromptu clean up of ten of the worst hospitals in England. The programme won Best Current Affairs Documentary at the World Television Festival in Banff in 2006.

In 2007, Samuels' series "Power To The People" aired on BBC Two. The series saw him seizing Trafalgar Square with a platoon of abandoned soldiers, bringing a dying village from Cornwall to annex London's Islington and forming a rock group made up of lonely old people - The Zimmers - in "The Great Granny Chart Invasion". The popstar pensioners, with a 90-year-old lead singer, covered The Who song "My Generation" which then broke into the UK charts, received more than 4 million YouTube hits and saw the band appear on NBC's "The Jay Leno Show" alongside George Clooney. The Great Granny Chart Invasion" won Best Current Affairs documentary at the Royal Television Society awards in 2008.

Samuels has also fronted a five-part current affairs travelogue around Europe for the BBC and presented documentary programmes for BBC Radio Four.

Awards

* Royal Television Society: Best Current Affairs Documentary (2008)
* Royal Television Society: Best British News Story (2004)
* Royal Television Society: Young Journalist of the Year (2002)
* Banff World Television Festival: Best Current Affairs Documentary (2006)
* Race In Media Awards: TV Journalist of Year (2005)
* New York Festivals: World Medal (2004)
* Amnesty International commendation (2005)

References

*http://unitedagents.co.uk/film/tim-samuels/
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/power_to_the_people/presenter/6596011.stm
*http://www.morrissey-solo.com/content/interview/greenscene/samuels-ind.html
*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/24/bmzimmers124.xml
*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/15/nosplit/bvtv15last.xml
*http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article1921883.ece
*http://www.tvscoop.tv/2007/12/tv_scoops_telev.html
*http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=467870&in_page_id=1879
*http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jun/05/comment.comment1
*http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/01/19/btv19.xml&page=2