Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Sports Business & Sports Broadcasting
Mick is an award-winning television producer and broadcast specialist whose high-profile credits include The Real Brian Clough for Channel 4, voted Broadcast Magazine’s Sports Programme of the Year in 2001, and Tyson: Baddest Man on the Planet, which was screened on Channel Five the night Mike Tyson fought Lennox Lewis in a bid to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world in 2002. Other sports programming includes an observational film about the England rugby union team for ITV1 that followed Brian Ashton’s team during the nine months leading up to 2007 Rugby World Cup, as well as a highly-acclaimed rugby skills series for BBC1 presented by Jonny Wilkinson. This was CBBC’s nomination for Digital Programme of the Year.
After completing the NCTJ diploma, Mick started in journalism as a reporter on local newspapers in west and east London before breaking into television when he joined LWT as a researcher. He then enjoyed a career in television that took him around the world: this ranged from interviewing football hooligans in Moscow, to being immersed in Tokyo’s unique football culture for a World Cup preview series. Beyond football and sport in general, Mick also crossed the USA to interview the greatest names in the history of soul music and produce an award-winning documentary about the most popular movies in British box-office history. Both of these productions were for Channel Four. Finally, realising a long-held ambition, Mick wrote a book about his beloved Queens Park Rangers FC in 2009.
Mick started to teach factual programming when he joined Harlow College to oversee the launch of new broadcasting curriculums on courses administered by the NCTJ and Anglia Ruskin University. He joined UCFB Wembley in 2015 to shape and oversee the launch of the newly-formed BA (Hons) Sports Business & Sports Broadcasting degree, which was developed using an active and experiential learning strategy that saw an official partnership being formed with QPR in 2017. He also oversaw the successful launch in 2017 of a project produced for BT Sport, in which UCFB students record and edit match packages of games from National League North/South every weekend for the sports broadcaster; both these projects enable students see their content shown on public platforms by respected external employers.
Mick is now Deputy Dean of Teaching and Learning and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Mick started teaching in June 2012 after 25 years working in journalism and broadcasting. During a successful professional career in television, He produced factual programmes for all the major broadcasters, including BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky Sports News. He developed a specialism in documentaries and was fortunate enough to win two industry awards:
- The Real Brian Clough (Channel 4 – Voted Broadcast Magazine’s Sports Programme of the Year 2001);
- The Ultimate Film (Channel 4 – Winner of Focal International’s Best Use of Archive in an Entertainment Production 2005).
Broadcasting is therefore a main area of expertise. His focus for research is how modern technology is impacting legacy media, which is of great interest to broadcasting students. He is also very interested in the mechanics of successful teaching and learning, active learning in particular, which he researches and develops within his role as Advanced Teaching Practitioner at UCFB.
- Sports broadcasting;
- Television documentaries;
- Impact of modern communication technologies on the media;
- Active and experiential learning strategies.
- Deputy of Dean Teaching and Learning
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Member of Directors UK, the professional association of UK screen directors.
- MA Social Media, Culture and Society, University of Westminster;
- Ascentis (Level 5) teacher training qualification;
- BA (Hons) Humanities, Brighton University.
- Author - Hooped Dreams (2009 – Pennant Books). This book documents the story of Queens Park Rangers FC under the high-profile billionaire owners Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, charting their first full season in control of a club that had teetered on the edge of financial ruin.
