Welcome to Smashing Glass TV

Series 5 of the F Word starts on Channel 4 tonight. Since August Simon has been filming with Janet Street-Porter for inserts into the popular Gordon Ramsey programme. Filming has taken place on her small holding farm in North Yorkshire where she has been rearing pigs, cows and chickens for the top rating show. Filming for Optomen TV, Simon has also shot restaurant visits with Gordon, Janet and Maitre-d’ Jean Baptist looking for Britain’s best local restaurant. You can watch the F Word every Tuesday at 9am on Channel 4.

At this years Machester Festival, Simon has been camera supervising the links shoot for BBC2's The Culture Show. Presenter pieces to camera and a discussion panel were shot using four Sony DSR 450 cameras - two static, one on a prosup dolly and one on a jimmy jib.

Insert VTs were also shot around the festival with 'Kraftwerk', the German Electro band and performance artist Marina Abramovich. The festival runs between 2-19 July and highlights will be shown on BBC2 at 7pm on Wed 8th, 15th and 22nd July.

While in Sunderland, Simon has been pre-filming for the Bupa Great North 10k Run for Nova International, shooting opening titles and VT's and operating one of the handheld OB cameras on the event itself. Coverage can be seen on Channel 5 late on 12th July.

A shoot last week took Simon to a number of locations in Leeds to film a reconstruction of the murder of Adam Chadwick to be shown on BBC's Crimewatch. Catch it at 9pm on Thursday 30th April on BBC1. www.bbc.co.uk/crimewatch

Tune into BBC 2 at 10pm on Tuesday 3rd March for the BBC’s Culture Show from Newcastle Gateshead. Simon’s pieces will include presenter links filmed from the viewing gallery at The Baltic, an interview with Yoko Ono on her new exhibition, and feature looking at 30 years of Viz magazine. The show is repeated on BBC 2, with extended highlights, on Friday 6th March at 11.35pm. It is also available on the BBC’s i-player.

The 2008 Royal Television Society Awards for the North East and the Border Centre took place in glittering style on Saturday 21st February 2009 at the Sage Gateshead.

Simon received a nomination in the Professional Excellence: Craft-Vision category pitted against Director James Cook and Editor Mark Lediard.

Although missing out on the win this time Simon commented; “I was delighted just to be acknowledged in this year’s awards. The talent was at a very high standard and I’m pleased that my submission, which included footage of the BBC's Culture Show at The Edinburgh Festival, an ITV documentary series featuring the work of the RAF Search & Rescue crews and an promotional film highlighting the dangers of Meningitis for Newcastle University, caught the eye of the judges.”

Simon’s work was also recognised in the Best Production for a Niche or Target Audience Non-fiction category which was won by Chris Chapman of Dene Films, who directed the film Meningitis Matters

For full results log onto www.rts.org.uk/netb

Simon is filming at the Edinburgh Festival this summer with BBC2's The Culture Show. Presented by Lauren Laverne, the 3x30 minute programmes will be shown on Tuesday nights throughout August at 10pm on BBC2 and repeated on Friday nights with an extended programme.

The shows will take a glimpse at a variety of events and artists playing at the festival with a three camera OB, 'as live' recordings as well as VT's of festival highlights.

'The Culture Show goes to the Edinburgh Festival' will be produced by BBC Scotland.

bbc.co.uk/cultureshow

From March 2008 Simon will be embarking on his next TV assignment, an in depth behind the scenes of an RAF Search and Rescue Crew.

The fly-on-the-wall documentary series, to be aired in September on ITV, will follow A Flight 202 Squadron at RAF Boulmer during their day to day operations and rescue missions.

Filming will take place intermittently between March and July during which Simon will be spending days and nights on the RAF Boulmer base in Northumberland closely following the team.

Simon says of the venture; "This is a very exciting project for me to be involved in and I am looking forward to following the Squadron on their various missions.

I'll be rigging up two Sony SQ1 mini cams and HDV recorders inside the aircraft. A DSR 450 will be used inside the helicopter and I will also be using the RAF fitted Flir gyromounted camera system underneath the craft for extra coverage."

The series is being produced by Bright Bird Productions.

Series 5 of the F Word starts on Channel 4 tonight