Charlie Hamilton James

Last updated

Charlie Hamilton James
BornJuly 1973 (age 50)
NationalityEnglish
Occupation(s) Television cameraman and presenter
TelevisionHalcyon River Diaries
I Bought a Rainforest
Spouse Philippa Forrester (m. 2004-2020)
Children3
Awards
Website www.charliehamiltonjames.co.uk

Charlie Hamilton James (born July 1973) is an English photographer, television cameraman and presenter, specialising in wildlife subjects. [1] He started his career at 16, working on David Attenborough's The Trials of Life . His work has since been commissioned by National Geographic Magazine, the BBC's Springwatch/Autumnwatch shows and The Natural World. [1]

Contents

His first film made when he was just 26, was My Halcyon River. Following its success, in 2001 he set up a production company, Halcyon Media, which specialises in wildlife productions. [2] In 2007 he produced An Otter in the Family, a short documentary series about the adoption of an otter cub called Grace and his attempts to raise her as a wild animal to be released into the wild. [3] He also produced the four-part Halcyon River Diaries, the first episode of which was broadcast on 16 May 2010 on BBC One. The series follows the wildlife found near his home. An additional episode was shown at Christmas 2010.

Charlie lives in Wyoming, US having moved from Bath in 2015. [4] He has three sons, all three have appeared in his television programmes.

During the week of 30 May – 3 June 2011, Hamilton James presented a segment, comprising pre-recorded video and live commentary to camera, on the reintroduction of beavers to the United Kingdom, as part of the BBC's Springwatch. In June 2014 the TV series I Bought a Rainforest, about his £6,000 purchase of 100 acres of Peruvian rain forest, was screened by the BBC. [5]

Awards

He was Wildlife Cameraman of the Year's 'Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 91/92' [1] and was nominated in three categories for Wildlife Cameraman of the Year in 2007. [1] He is also a Royal Television Society medal winner for cinematography. [1]

Bibliography

DVDs

Some of Hamilton James' programmes are available commercially:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Oddie</span> English conservationist, entertainer and ornithologist

William Edgar Oddie is an English actor, artist, birder, comedian, conservationist, musician, songwriter, television presenter and writer. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Scott</span> British ornithologist and conservationist (1909–1989)

Sir Peter Markham Scott, was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest in observing and shooting wildfowl at a young age and later took to their breeding.

Philippa Clare Ryan Forrester is a British television and radio presenter, producer and author.

The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, and has a long association with David Attenborough's authored documentaries, starting with 1979's Life on Earth.

Terence Paul Nutkins was an English naturalist. He appeared in the UK children's programmes Animal Magic, The Really Wild Show, Brilliant Creatures and Growing Up Wild.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian otter</span> Species of carnivore

The Eurasian otter, also known as the European otter, Eurasian river otter, European river otter, common otter, and Old World otter, is a semiaquatic mammal native to Eurasia and Maghreb. The most widely distributed member of the otter subfamily (Lutrinae) of the weasel family (Mustelidae), it is found in the waterways and coasts of Europe, many parts of Asia, and parts of northern Africa. The Eurasian otter has a diet mainly of fish, and is strongly territorial. It is endangered in some parts of its range, but is recovering in others.

Springwatch, Autumnwatch until 2022 and Winterwatch, sometimes known collectively as The Watches, are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The programmes are broadcast live from locations around the country in a primetime evening slot on BBC Two. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the BBC's largest British outside broadcast events. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon King (broadcaster)</span> British television presenter and cameraman

Simon Henry King OBE HonFRPS is a British naturalist, author, conservationist, television presenter and cameraman, specialising in nature documentaries. King received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2011.

<i>Natural World</i> (TV series) British TV series or programme

Natural World is a strand of British wildlife documentary programmes broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Two HD and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history series. It is the longest-running documentary in its genre on British television, with nearly 500 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World programmes are typically one-off films that take an in-depth look at particular natural history events, stories or subjects from around the globe.

Brett Westwood is a radio presenter and author, specialising in natural history. He regularly presents episodes of BBC Radio 4's series The Living World and Nature, as well as his own short series, several of which are available from the BBC website. He is a co-presenter with Philippa Forrester of World on the Move, a BBC Radio 4 series that started in 2008 on migration in the animal kingdom. He is active in the West Midland Bird Club, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, and for the Worcestershire Biological Records Centre, which all cover the area around his home town of Stourbridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Packham</span> British naturalist

Christopher Gary Packham CBE is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series The Really Wild Show from 1986 to 1995. He has also presented the BBC nature series Springwatch, including Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, since 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Backshall</span> British naturalist

Stephen James Backshall is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's Deadly 60.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Nightingale</span>

Neil Nightingale is a British freelance wildlife filmmaker, executive producer and creative consultant with over 35 years experience at the BBC. From 2009 to 2018 he was the creative director of BBC Earth, BBC Worldwide's global brand for all BBC nature and science content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Buchanan</span> British filmmaker

Gordon John Buchanan is a Scottish wildlife cameraman, filmmaker and presenter. His work includes the nature documentaries Tribes, Predators & Me, The Polar Bear Family & Me and Life in the Snow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Hughes-Games</span> British television presenter and producer

Martin Hughes-Games is a natural history programme producer, presenter and author. He is best known for co-presenting the BBC magazine-style nature series Springwatch and its spin-offs, Winterwatch, Autumnwatch, and Springwatch Unsprung.

Keith Scholey is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema, and a former television executive. He is the joint series producer of the Netflix original documentary series Our Planet, the joint director and executive producer of David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, and executive producer of Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet. He is the executive producer of the 2021 BBC / Discovery series A Perfect Planet, The Mating Game and The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet. He also co-directed African Cats, Bears, and Dolphin Reef with Alastair Fothergill for Disneynature, and is also the executive producer of the series North America for the Discovery Channel.

Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild is a three-part BBC documentary series chronicling the 60 years career making wildlife programmes of Sir David Attenborough. The first hour-long programme, titled "Life on Camera" was broadcast on Friday 16 November 2012 on BBC Two at 9pm. The second part, "Understanding the Natural World" and third and final part, "Our Fragile Planet" were broadcast on following Fridays, 23 and 30 November 2012.

Lindsey Katherine Chapman is an English television and radio presenter.

<i>Wild Brazil</i> British TV series or programme

Wild Brazil is a British nature documentary series, first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Two HD in January 2014. Produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and narrated by Stephen Mangan, the three-part series focuses on three animal families, one of tufted capuchins, one of giant otters and one of South American coatis, but also looks at other animals like jaguars. Each episode is followed by a ten-minute Wild Brazil Diaries segment, illustrating the techniques used to film a particular subject.

Colin Stafford-Johnson is an Irish wildlife cameraman, filmmaker and television presenter, best known for his work on a variety of BBC nature documentaries.

References