Steve Sklair

Biography

The Story Behind the Lens

Early Career

Steve started his professional television work in editing and graduated to Production and camerawork. Before working for the BBC, his first film as director was The Black and White Pirate Show — a one-hour documentary about pirate radio for Channel 4.

BBC Years

He had two long spells at the BBC and while there one of his films he directed, a Video Diary — The Man Who Loves Gary Lineker — won a BAFTA for Best Single Documentary. He also won a UNICEF award for a film furthering the rights of the child (Child Slave Rescue).

He has worked as Series Producer on many factual series, often creating the style and feel of first-run series. He cut his teeth on Video Diaries where most diaries were one hour or longer — his particular skill is in keeping people's interest and enthusiasm over the span of a longer film.

Recent Work

More recently he directed, wrote, shot and edited a 90-minute feature documentary about the Cypriot classical pianist Nicolas Economou. He also made A Worker of the 20th Century for TVG (Galicia TV) in Galician, about a communist living under the Franco dictatorship.

For the last four years Steve has also been working in videos about education in conjunction with the National Education Union. He has a real eye for capturing the most important moments with children in schools, and gets on with everyone — helping to put interviewees at ease with the camera.