Alison Ramsay
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BROADCAST CREDITS: PRODUCER / DIRECTOR

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After Grenfell: How Safe are We? 
Hardcash Productions for Channel 4
tx: 7.30pm 8 June 2018

The Grenfell Tower fire of June 2017 was Britain's worst such disaster in living memory, claiming 72 people's lives.  A year on, Ed Howker finds that despite the Government's "never again" promise, Britain's tower blocks are still not safe.

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Conviction: Murder in Suburbia
Raw for BBC2

19 & 20 June 2018
​A legally complex and compliance-sensitive second series examining a potential miscarriage of justice.  I was called in during the edit to rework the storytelling and apply my journalistic rigour to ensure balance and fairness.

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Prince Harry and Meghan: Truly, Madly, Deeply 
ITN Productions for ITV
tx 9pm, 6 Nov 2017

Working as Edit Producer of this quick-turnaround telling the story of the royal romance through first-hand accounts & archive. Received 3.7m viewers & subsequent sales in over 100 territories.

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Abortion on Trial
Raw for BBC2
tx 16 Oct 2017 
Fifty years after the Abortion Act was passed, Anne Robinson invites a group of nine people with conflicting views on abortion, to her country home to ask if the law is fit for purpose in 2017. Anne's guests all have strong views but in every case, their personal experience of abortion has directly informed their view. Underpinning their often impassioned discussions are the results of one of the most comprehensive polls of UK attitudes towards abortion.

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Dispatches: Undercover: Britain's Cheap Clothes
ITN Productions for Channel 4
tx 30 Jan 2017
A courageous whistleblower and secret filming reveal the poor working conditions in warehouses servicing online retailers, and we identify a pattern of behaviour by companies across industry that has led to millions of British workers being stuck in precarious jobs.  Rated well and trended on Twitter during transmission.


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Slum Britain: 50 Years On
ITN Productions for Channel 5
tx 06 December 2016

Working with Oscar-nominated director Marcel Mettelsiefen to mark Shelter’s 50th anniversary, this feature-doc contrasts the experience of living in the slums of the 1960s with today’s housing crisis. The material poverty may have changed but the psychological toll of poverty – shame – has not.  

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Dispatches: Britain's Pensioner Care Scandal
ITN Productions for Channel 4
tx 04 April 2016
Dispatches goes undercover to examine the level of care that some of Britain's most vulnerable pensioners receive from a home care industry under pressure from huge budget cuts. Hidden cameras in one woman's home reveal she is left unwashed for days and a reporter undercover as a care worker is paid less than minimum wage.

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How The Rich Live Longer
ITN Productions for Channel 4
tx 22 December 2015

Dr Christian Jessen investigates the world of elite healthcare that claims to help the super-rich live longer. Filming included exclusive access to one of the world’s most lavish medi-spas, the millionaires’ medical concierge service and one of the world's largest storage facilities for the cryonically frozen, waiting to be brought back to life. 

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Eat Well For Less?
RDF Television for BBC1
tx weekly from 03 September 2015

Presented by Gregg Wallace & Chris Bavin, this series helps families save money on groceries whilst maintaining a healthy diet. I produced & directed Gregg & Chris’ investigation segments in each episode of the series.


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How Safe Are Our Planes?
ITN Productions for Channel 4

tx 01 April 2015
A 6-day turnaround telling the story of the GermanWings air crash in the Alps and asking if low cost airlines have made air travel less safe. As Location Director, I conducted all talking head interviews and directed the sequences shot in UK.

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Dispatches: Salt: Are You Eating Too Much?
ITN Productions for Channel 4
tx 25 June 2015

Combining science and journalism, Dispatches investigates the salt in our diet, its impact on health and the government’s strategy to reduce it. Production included working with a primary school to test children’s salt intake, reporting the results of new scientific studies and conducting our own lab tests and FOI requests.

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The Great British Break-Up? The LIVE Debate
ITN Productions for Channel 4
tx 17 Sep 2014

Jon Snow hosts a live debate from Edinburgh, just hours before Scotland decides whether to be independent or stay in the United Kingdom. Studio guests include figures from politics, business, arts & academia.  Producer role only.

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Dispatches: Supermarket Wars
Firecrest Films for Channel 4
tx 28 July 2014
Harry Wallop investigates the biggest revolution in food retailing since supermarkets began. The Big 4 are struggling while Aldi and Lidl are booming. Secret filming reveals breaches of consumer protection law and insiders reveal what went so wrong for the supermarket giants. Audience peaked at 1.9m and trended #1 on Twitter during TX.


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Dispatches: The Truth About Low Fat Food
ITN Productions for Channel 4
tx 07 April 2014
As the country faces an obesity crisis and soaring rates of diabetes, Dispatches investigates whether low fat food is the answer to shrinking our waistlines. Production included filming several set-piece stunts with members of the public, a highly stylised studio shoot and lab test results that found wildly inaccurate nutritional labels.  

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How to Find Love Online
The Garden Productions for Channel 4
tx 18 June 2013 
Dawn O’Porter presents the definitive guide to online dating. A current affairs / features crossover, the two part series aired as part of Channel 4’s Mating Season exploring the complexities and nuances of forming modern day relationships. Production involved casting and following 25 single people from around the country trying online dating for the first time and commissioning a comprehensive - and very revealing! - behavioural survey of 2,000 online daters.

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Dispatches: The Secrets of Your Supermarket Shop
October Films for Channel 4
tx 21 Jan 2013
A three-week turnaround investigating the price of fruit and veg, asking whether supermarket prices are transparent and their special offers genuine. The film featured a national snapshot survey of prices and included undercover filming, user generated content (UGC) and graphics with elements shot in an infinity studio.    

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Infested!
DSP for Animal Planet
tx Jan / Feb 2013
Drama-doc series featuring real-life horror stories of ordinary people plagued by extraordinary infestations. I devised the narrative structure for 2 episodes; produced the drama recon shoot in Canada, including casting, location scouting, logistics, studio construction and script supervising; independently directed key drama scenes with both A and B unit; and conceived, commissioned and managed delivery of 2d, 3d, and live action compositing of complex VFX shots.    

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Dispatches: The American School Massacre
ITN Productions for Channel 4
tx 17 Dec 2012
Produced in just 3 days, Matt Frei reports from Newtown, Connecticut, scene of one of America's worst mass shootings and asks whether this latest tragedy will lead to a real change in America's attitude to guns. 

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Sex, Death & the Meaning of Life
Clearstory for Channel 4
tx Oct 2012
Bringing popular philosophy to a prime time audience, Richard Dawkins asks the big questions relevant to us all – questions of morality, mortality and meaning – that our forebears looked to religion to answer. In Dawkins’ world without religion, what can science offer in its place?  I was responsible for the Meaning of Life episode. 

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Married to a Murderer (6x 60”)
WAG TV for the Crime and Investigation Channel
tx Nov – Dec 2010
A shocking series based on extraordinary access to the spouses of Britain’s most notorious killers. Each episode tells the story of a marriage and a murder, and the parallel tale of a criminal investigation. Often spanning several decades and recounting episodes of harrowing domestic abuse, the women’s stories posed both narrative and visual challenges. As Series Producer, I managed a small team on a tight budget and directed four of the six films.

CAMERA / DIRECTOR

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Dispatches: Too Old to Work
Blakeway for Channel 4
tx 9 Feb 2009
An investigation of age in the workplace finds Britain’s work culture to be prejudiced and discriminatory against older workers. We have an ageing population and an unsustainable work force with 50yr olds unable to find work and 60yr olds forced to retire while workers in their 20s and 30s are overworked and burnt out. 

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Dispatches: The Human Cost of the Credit Crunch
Blakeway for Channel 4
tx 22 Sep 2008
On the eve of the Labour Party conference, a series of intimate portraits reveal the shattered dreams of the voters who believed New Labour’s 1997 promise that “things can only get better”. 

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The Truth About Street Weapons (3x 8”)
David Modell Productions for Channel 4
tx 30 Jun, 1 & 3 Jul 2008
Part of Channel 4’s Disarming Britain season, these films explore uncomfortable truths about gun and knife crime; one is about the obsessive grief of a mother whose son was shot dead, and another, the failure of communication between the police and community in Moss Side.  I Series Produced them all and filmed and directed one of them. 

EDIT PRODUCER

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Dispatches: In God's Name
David Modell Productions for Channel 4
tx 19 May 2008
An observational documentary that reveals the increasing political influence of Britain’s Christian fundamentalists. Charting the passage of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill through Parliament, the film examines the activities and motivations of 3 hard-line Christians. 

ASSISTANT PRODUCER

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Extraordinary People: The Boy They Call Fish
Barcroft Productions for Channel 5
tx 21 June 2012
A touching portrait of a widowed grandmother from Essex and her attempts to help a Vietnamese orphan abandoned at birth due to a congenital skin condition. Production involved two 2-week shoots in Vietnam, negotiating and maintaining access to a state-run hospital and orphanage for children thought to be victims of Agent Orange and dealing with the Vietnamese government, which monitors the work of foreign journalists.

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This World: Thailand – Justice Under Fire
In-house BBC for BBC Two
tx 7 Aug 2011
More than ninety people were killed in bloody clashes between “Red Shirt” demonstrators and the army in central Bangkok in 2010. Fergal Keane investigates the struggle of victims' families as they seek the truth about what happened to their loved ones, exploring claims of cover-up and impunity for the powerful.

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The Future of Food (3x 60”)
Blakeway North for BBC Two
tx 17, 24 & 31 Aug 2009
A 3-part series that sees George Alagiah travel the world to ask how the ever-expanding global population can continue to feed itself in the face of climate change, water scarcity and the insatiable appetite of the West. Working with local contributors, experts, fixers and translators, filming took place in Mexico, Cuba, Mozambique, Kenya and Senegal.
WINNER: RTS BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS 2010 (North West)

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Dispatches: Searching for Madeleine
Films of Record for Channel 4
tx 18 Oct 2007
Almost 6 months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a team of the UK’s best-qualified criminal investigation experts, including specialists in forensics, searches and criminal psychology, travels to Praia da Luz to review the Portuguese police investigation. 

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Dispatches: When Did You Last Beat Your Wife?
Quicksilver Media for Channel 4
tx 19 Feb 2007
An investigation of domestic violence policy and the provision of funding to support the victims of a crime that affects one in four women but has just a 5% conviction rate. Production included exclusive access to specialist police units, access to pioneering frontline workers and harrowing testimony from women who survived horrific violence. 

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Dispatches: The Drug Trial That Went Wrong
Focus Productions for Channel 4
tx 28 Sep 2006
An investigation of the circumstances surrounding the infamous drug trial at Northwick Park hospital in March 2006. The film was part investigation, part obs doc following the progress of the worst affected victim. 
RTS NOMINATED 2007

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Dispatches: Mad About Animals
David Modell Productions for Channel 4
tx 15 May 2006
A critically acclaimed observational film that lays bare the motivations and mindset of leading animal rights extremists, including the man who planned the infamous grave robbery at the Newchurch guinea pig farm. The activists talk candidly to reveal a fundamentalism fuelled by fantasies of animal abuse. 

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Witch Child
October Films for BBC Two
tx 4 Apr 2006
Dr Richard Hoskins, a specialist in African religions, investigates the phenomenon of young children who are abused and murdered after being “diagnosed” as witches by their church pastors. Hoskins travels to Africa in search of a young London child who has been sent back to the Congo, and comes face to face with the horrifying realities of exorcism in the 21st Century. 

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Dispatches: What’s Really in your Christmas Dinner?
Twenty Twenty Television for Channel 4
tx 19 Dec 2005
A seasonal follow-up to Supermarket Secrets (below). 

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Dispatches: Supermarket Secrets (2x 60”) 
Twenty Twenty Television for Channel 4
tx 28 Jul & 1 Aug 2005
Using a combination of undercover filming, stunts and scientific analysis to investigate what goes on behind the scenes in the production of supermarket food. I undertook the development and secured the commission for a 2-part series. 
Channel 4’s highest rating current affairs show of 2005. 

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Can You Trust Your Dentist and Can You Trust Your Doctor? (2x 60”)
Steve Boulton Productions  for Channel 5
tx 30 Nov & 7 Dec 2004
An investigation into NHS dentists and doctors convicted of various offences and struck off the register, but who continue to practice, treating patients who are completely unaware of their past. I secretly filmed visits to several convicted of sexually assaulting their female patients and appeared in an interview with reporter Donal MacIntyre.    

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Dispatches: What Hutton Won’t Tell You
Mentorn for Channel 4
tx 23 Jan 2004
A forensic investigation of how intelligence information was used and abused to persuade a skeptical public of the case for war in Iraq. Transmission coincided with the publication of the Hutton Inquiry’s findings. 
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