Our industry connections

Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, Comedy Laboratory, (c) Tony Bartholomew, 9th March 2007

As befitting our commitment to the integration of theory and practice and to the links between theatre, film and television, the department enjoys strong and beneficial connections to the media industries and creative practitioners both local and national.

Max Stafford Clark, Professor of Theatre

Our visiting Professor of Theatre is the distinguished director and producer, Max Stafford Clark (pictured right).

We also benefit from the advice and support of the University of York’s Chancellor, Greg Dyke who has been a pre-eminent figure in British television over the last three decades and who will participate in an industry advisory committee currently being established to ensure we continue to be alert to the current opportunities and challenges facing the media industries.

Visiting speakers and masterclasses

Recent visitors include:

  • Tony Cohen, CEO Fremantle TV
  • Archie Norman, Chairman of ITV
  • Helen Boaden, Director, BBC News
  • Simon Singh, author, TV producer and journalist
  • Sally Joynson, Chief Executive, Screen Yorkshire
  • Ben Grimes and Debbi Coleman, Double Negative
  • Heather Ayckbourn, actress
  • Rod Anderson, composer, including Official Music for the Sarajevo Winter Olympics
  • John Barton, theatre director (RSC)
  • Ray Beckett, feature film sound designer
  • Chris Burn, head of 2D, Double Negative
  • Bill Clark, feature film and ad director, Origami Films
  • Ian Curteis, playwright and screenwriter
  • John Crumpton, Freelance Sound Designer
  • Oliver Ford Davies, actor and playwright
  • Pia Dueholm, producer, Partizan
  • Adam Dymond, editor, Aardman Animation
  • David Edgar, playwright
  • Peter Flannery, playwright and screenwriter
  • William Gaskill, director
  • Ben Giles, video editor, BBC
  • Zinnie Harris, playwright and director
  • Sara Hill, Commercial Director, Broadcast, Prime Focus, one of the world's foremost postproduction houses working on a wide range of television and film projects including the Oscar winning Avatar.
  • Sean Holmes, theatre director
  • Peter Bazalgette, inventor of Ready Steady Cook, and the man who brought Big Brother to the UK
  • Greg Dyke, Ex Director General of the BBC, Chair of the BFI and Chancellor of York University
  • Sian Phillips, actor
  • Ian Bloom, Head of Corporate and Media at Ross and Craig solicitors, and a libel lawyer who has sued all but one British national newspaper
  • Chris Bouchard, VFX Engineer, Framestore 
  • Bill Clark, Director, Origami Films
  • Cliff Jones, sound mixer, Fairlight Studios
  • Genista McIntosh, theatre director
  • Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, television comedy writers
  • Robin O'Donoghue, former Head of Sound for Pinewood, Shepperton and Teddington Studios and Oscar nominated mixer of over 150 films
  • Barrie Rutter, actor and director
  • Patrick Spottiswoode, director of education, Globe Theatre.
  • David Thacker, theatre and TV director
  • Samuel West, actor and director
  • Penelope Wilton, actress
  • Ben Hooper, sound mixer, Blue Post Production
  • Phitz Hearne, sound mixer, Blue Post Production
  • Jerry Ibbotson, sound designer for games, Media Mill
  • Steve Haynes, re-recording mixer