Paul Atherton

Paul Atherton, television producer with Simple (TV) Productions

Paul Atherton (born 20 March 1968) is managing director of Simple (TV) Productions[1] and its sister not-for-profit company, Q&D Productions Limited.[2] He is the first producer-director to have his work broadcast on the Coca-Cola billboard in Piccadilly Circus, London, with his film The Ballet of Change.[3] [4]

Early life

Atherton was three months old when he was abandoned in a tent at a disused airport in Cardiff and was eventually placed with a foster family.

He attended Cardiff Business School, and obtained a BSc Honours Degree in Business Administration as a mature student in 1994.[5]

While studying he set up a mail order company specialising in silk lingerie called "A Touch of Silk".[6][7]

Career

His television career began at Prospect Pictures,[8] working on their live five-day-a-week cookery programme Good Food Live[9] before setting up his production companies in 2004.[10]

In 2005 his first production Silent Voices, a docudrama about domestic violence, premiered on British television, based on the real-life accounts of children who had witnessed their parents being beaten.

In 2007 Atherton was the first and only producer-director to have had his work shown on the Piccadilly Circus Coca-Cola Billboard with The Ballet of Change, a ballet of film and music telling the histories of four of London's most historic landmarks.

In February 2009 he worked with Wil Johnson (BBC, star of Waking the Dead) and Robert Cavanah (Tomb Raider / Sahara) on a short film entitled Colour Blind, to bring attention to a UK audience, the dangers of seeing racism everywhere. He made up his White lead in Golliwog (black face) make-up to make the point.[11]

On 2 August 2009, Atherton started pre-production on "A Thousand Voices for a Broken System" a new format of documentary film that will originally take place on the Web and eventually be edited for cinema.

Prompted by his own experiences[12][13] the premise of the film is to interview 1,000 people from across the UK who have been failed by the Welfare, NHS or Social Services in the past 10 years, in order to highlight the issues of the most vulnerable people in society.

On 6 September 2010, Atherton announced that he had signed video games writer Rhianna Pratchett to write his first feature film. Vigilia (a working title) was due to shoot in 2013[14] [15]

Atherton began work on The 'Feminist Car Commercial' Film, a campaigning film designed to be a springboard for public debate about the objectification of women in advertising and marketing. Shooting was completed in July 2013.[16] [17]

Our London Lives opened in The Museum of London on Friday 8 January 2016 and closed on February 11th 2016. Atherton's personal but professionally recorded visits of his estranged son's visit to London over the past 16 years (1999 - 2015) was shown as part of Recording A Life exhibition in the Show Space gallery.[18] [19]

Personal life

Atherton appeared as a voluntary performer in the London 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony, dancing in both the Rush Hour and Street Party sections.[20][21][22]

His real life experiences of childhood abandonment helped inspire the character of Eric Parkhill in Wendy Perriam's novel Broken Places (2011)[23] and his interaction with a Renault car dealership, resulting in his buying a Skoda, is retold as one of the negotiation case studies in Clive Rich's The Yes Book (2013).[24]

He has been involved in many campaigns to prevent Historic buildings from demolition, including attempting to occupy the Art Deco Cinema in the Kensington Odeon, with fellow film-maker Paul Wiffen in September 2015 [25]

Works

References

  1. ↑ Simple (TV) Productions
  2. ↑ Q&D Productions Limited
  3. ↑ British Film Archive (2007). "The Ballet of Change at British Film Archive".
  4. ↑ British Film Archive (2007). "Paul Atherton at British Film Archive".
  5. ↑ Cardiff University Magazine (2008). "A Capital Achievement".
  6. ↑ Sun Newspaper (1994). "Charles Props Up Naughty Knickers".
  7. ↑ Vogue Magazine (1995). "The Perfect Valentines Gift".
  8. ↑ Prospect Pictures
  9. ↑ Industry News (31 May 2002). "Skillset Arrange a "Lucky Break" at Production Show".
  10. ↑ Broadcast Magazine (2007). "Capital Shouldn't Cause Offense".
  11. ↑ Colourful Radio (26 March 2009). "The Breakfast Show".
  12. ↑ Private Eye Magazine (2010). "Wheels of Misfortune".
  13. ↑ Private Eye Magazine (2010). "Hostel Takeover".
  14. ↑ Screen International (2010). "Gaming writer Rhianna Pratchett moves onto first feature film".
  15. ↑ IMDb (2012). "Viglia".
  16. ↑ Soho Rushes Short, Dana knight (August 2013). "How to Shoot a £1m Car Commercial on a Zero Budget.".
  17. ↑ IDEA, Dana knight (August 2013). "How to Shoot a £1m Car Commercial on a Zero Budget.".
  18. ↑ Paul Atherton, Q&D Productions (January 2016). "Our London Lives".
  19. ↑ LondonLive (2016). "News interview with Paul Atherton about Our London Lives at the Museum of London".
  20. ↑ Atherton, Paul (13 August 2012). "'What is the Olympic Legacy:A View from a Closing Ceremony Volunteer". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  21. ↑ "Inside a Truck in the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games" (Trailer). United Kingdom: Simple Productions. 2012. Event occurs at 0:09. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  22. ↑ LOCOG (2012). "A Symphony of British Music, London 2012 Closing Ceremony 12 August 2012 Programme" (PDF).
  23. ↑ Wendy Perriam (2011). "Broken Places".
  24. ↑ Clive Rich (2013). "The Yes Book".
  25. ↑ Mark Blunden (4 September 2015). "Evening Standard: Campaigners in last-ditch bid to save historic Odeon cinema".

External links

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