OnScreen & Production

With over 14 years on screen, as well as working as a consultant across drama and factual, creating history for multiple media audiences is my life-long passion.

Conveying this love for history, as an expert or presenter, has given me the chance to see the world, and be part of fantastic productions with the incredible teams that run them.

I am well used to appearing on singles and series, and in recent years have chosen to step into Series Consultant roles, providing support, research and feedback across all stages of production - from development to post, and all the hair-raising moments in-between. As a drama consultant, my job is to support that unique balance between historical accuracy and creative imagination for any team attempting to bring the past to life.

Working on fast-paced projects with quick turnarounds and strict budgets is a necessity of tv-making today. This is something I enjoy hugely, whether working with writers, development teams, producers, directors or during an edit. From rough drafts to rough cuts, I aim to provide research and feedback that is clear, concise and straightforward.

For a full list of credits click here.

Panel discussion with five people on stage seated in red chairs, with a large screen behind them displaying photos and names of six panelists and the text 'Q&A Panel'. The screen shows the panelists' names and titles, including Dan Korn, Kathryn Tayl
Promotional image for a new episode of 'Jack the Ripper: Written in Blood,' featuring a silhouette of a man in a top hat and coat with red blood splatters, torn paper design, and text indicating a trending new episode
Collage-style illustration featuring a person reading a newspaper, wearing a hat with eyes peeking over it, surrounded by vintage and cartoon images like a woman, a dinosaur with a castle on its back, a telescope, a lightbulb, and colorful circles, w
A promotional poster for a TV show called 'Truthseekers' featuring a large statue of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh with a striped headdress, situated alongside busts of historical figures, with the Sky and History TV channel logos, and the show's start
Multi-colored collage of money with text reading 'QUEENS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD'

My love affair with Radio & Podcasting started very young, holding down ‘record and play’ on my mum’s cassette deck to make shows with friends, or trying to catch my favourite song in the charts. I started appearing on audio history documentaries shortly after I started in TV; first as one of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Thinkers in 2013, then with multiple appearances across Nightwaves & Freethinking as well as standalone docs and series for the BBC.

I’ve been lucky enough to watch podcasting explode onto the audio stage during this time, and have worked with multiple indies and streamers on some fantastic series such Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets for Audible, as well as providing an expert intro to Lady Chatterly’s Lover, and speaking at Spotify’s Nine Muses Festival in Stockholm in 2019.

I hosted two seasons of Not What You Thought You Knew for Sky History, and most recently was Wondery’s historian for The Real History of Dracula.

Set up for both home recording and in-studio work, I record all my own audiobooks, and love being an expert or presenter for interesting projects.

Audio

A woman with light skin and brown hair smiles at the camera in a home office or studio, sitting in front of a large microphone with a pop filter.

FAQ’s

  • All enquires, small or large, go through my agent, Kirsty McLachlan of Morgan Green Creatives. You can contact her directly here.

    I don’t respond to enquires made via social media.

  • There’s no easy path into becoming a public historian, it’s 50 % luck and 50 % skill. For me, it really mattered that I would be taken seriously as an expert - which is why I worked hard to get my PhD. I also wrote an online blog, which helped me understand how to connect with a general audience, and brought me my first book deal. Sharing my research on social media brought me a lot of my early TV work, and I put myself forward for the BBC’s New Generation Thinker’s scheme to learn how to adapt for radio. All of this helped me to build the career I have today.

    Being a public historian is hard work. There’s no steady income and no job security, and you will always need to be working on multiple projects to make ends meet.

    It is very much a passion as much as a job, and, for me, worth every second.

  • Family history is an amazing area of research, however I don’t undertake work for private individuals at this time. I can recommend Ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.com as a great place to start, as well as the Society for Genealogists (https://www.sog.org.uk) for more!