I love story telling, always have done, which is what first got me interested in drama. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be when I grew up (being The Little Mermaid or Cinderella was an option constantly vetoed by the family) so in my wisdom the best thing to do was to go for a career where I could play at being anything I wanted to be. I studied catching invisible balls, inventing stories around characters and inanimate object; and came across radio by accident. I decided to help out at the local hospital radio station, as a stress release from scanning cheques, and wanted more experience of editing, (I was getting far too upset on the ward rounds). I applied to the Ariel Trust Radio Production course in Liverpool; I got to spend three happy months playing with equipment, torturing shoppers in Liverpool city centre, making everything from adverts, dramas to mini features; and loved every minute of it. I was fortunate enough to have one of the pieces I’d made played at Halloween on a radio show my course tutor was presenting.
From there, I worked as part of the street pr team for WISH FM in Wigan and St Helens, and was allowed to drive their fantastic jeep, fabulous! We got to go out, meet competition winners, get vox pops for up and coming programmes, and encourage people to listen in the work place. I’d been busy hassling other radio stations for any other opportunities, and was eventually rewarded with a job at Northants 96 with GCap Media, writing adverts. I like to think they were at least interesting and fairly successful. I moved back to Liverpool to do a similar job for a freelance writer, but was able to be involved on the production side as well as the writing and attempting to please the exec side (which is an extremely rare occurrence). I had missed that aspect of radio, which was when I started to think seriously about taking the MA in Radio Production, I thought it would be a great opportunity to improve my production skills, and have the chance to write and produce drama and features for radio. Luckily I was accepted!! This time next year, I’d like to be employed with an independent production house, having the chance to pitch ideas for dramas and features to the BBC.