Jo Coombs was appointed Director of Radio at Loftus by Nigel Acheson in Spring 2008. She started her career as an independent producer for BBC Radio in 1997 when she worked on Going Places with David Stafford.

Since then Jo has been the series producer on the long running interactive series Questions Questions, and produced many of Radio 4's most popular programmes such as Pick of the Week, Excess Baggage, Sentimental Journey, In Touch, All in the Mind, and You and Yours.

A philosophy graduate from Edinburgh, Jo is best known for her ‘story-telling’ style which is epitomised in programmes like the landmark series The Child Migrants presented by Sir Charles Wheeler, Cleaning Out The Camp, which examined the armed forces' attitude towards homosexuality with Eddie Mair, a series of on-location programmes from India about peace pilgrimages with Sir Mark Tully, and from Jerusalem, the award-winning feature The Holy Fire.

Jo is also a talented executive producer and enjoys supporting less experienced producers fulfilling a founding principle of Loftus to bring a younger generation into radio.

David Smith is Technical Director for Loftus in London. He’s worked in audio production since 1996

and has a background in audio book production, multimedia editing and live audio/visual production. He’s mixed innumerable documentaries and features for Radio 4 and Radio 3 including several award-winners. David worked closely over many years with Loftus founder Nigel Acheson and is committed to maintaining Loftus as a friendly and efficient place to record and work.

David has always been fascinated with audio and has recently worked as the sound designer for a short film featured in the Edinburgh Festival. His degree was in music.

Matt Thompson has been making radio programmes since 1989 when he joined the BBC as a production trainee. After stints on the various R4 magazine programmes such as Face the facts, Woman's Hour, All in the Mind and Loose Ends, he ended up in Talks and Docs where he made features.    This included Touching the Elephant about 4 blind people meeting an elephant for the first time. Bishop Thomson compared listing to that documentary as 'touching the hem of God's garment'. His programmes have been nominated for Prix Italia's three times, won Sony silvers and a Glenfiddich Gold. He has made over 250 programmes. 

In 1999 Matt left the BBC to join Loftus Productions and alongside the features started making 90' dramas. He applies his documentary making approach and sensibility to radio drama. 

For Radio 3 he produced Confessions of a Justified Sinner '..taut and chilling, sparkling and terrifically intelligent' (Guardian). This was recorded on location with much of the acting improvised. He followed it with 'Death and the Penguin' recorded in Kiev. “This adaptation took me back to the best Bulgakov productions I've seen, relishing the utter absurdity of how power works and making darkness a treat to behold” (Guardian). Most recently Salmonella Men on Planet Porno pushed the form (and content) out even further. “I wish I had gone further” - Matt.

Kim Norm

anton is an award-winning producer and Director of Loftus. She joined the BBC's production trainee scheme in 1989 and worked on various magazine programmes – Woman’s Hour, You and Yours and Loose Ends. She worked as a staff producer on BBC Radio 5 before going freelance.

Kim likes to share with a wider audience the inspiring stories of people not often heard on radio.  She’s known for her montage style of programming which allows people to tell their own story. Collaborations with Nigel Acheson include Second Time Around (2007), Black, Muslim and Gay (2004), She's Alright, My Mum Is (Gold Prize, Third Coast Festival, Chicago 2004), It's All Down to Ben (Winner, best foreign programme, Premios Ondas, Barcelona 2004. Recent programmes with Elizabeth Burke include Merry Widows (2009) Clearing The House (2008) and Advice To The Living (2008).

A gifted interviewer and compiler, she has produced innumerable feature programmes for Radio 4 over the past 20 years. She’s fascinated by storytelling and has produced several programmes on the subject which include storytellers from various cultural backgrounds such as If The Slipper Fits a montage of Cinderella stories told in different parts of the world.

Elizabeth Burke is an Executive Producer at Loftus. She has immense breadth and depth of experience working for over 20 years in Radio. She worked for the BBC World Service as the producer of a books programme, and presented and produced Meridian for several years. She then moved to Radio 4 and Radio 3, making features, documentaries, music programmes, and producing The Reith Lectures. She has won numerous Sony Awards.

Elizabeth was a Commissioning Editor for Radio 4, Editor of the Bristol Features Unit, and Editor of Weekly Arts Programmes for Radio 4. At the BBC, she signed John Peel, Mariella Frostrup, Matthew Parris and Kate Mosse as presenters.

Since leaving the BBC, Elizabeth has produced numerous features with Loftus. Her recent feature with Kim Normanton, What’s in Your Head? explored the poetry and music which sustained people through extraordinary ordeals. She is currently making a 30-part history series for R4 in the autumn, Amanda Vickery’s A History of Private Life.

Frances Byrnes has been producing since 1988 when she joined the BBC as a Production Trainee. She's

produced a wide range of programmes, working with major artists, writers and actors on cultural programmes for five networks. Her interest in international dance and writing (backed respectively by Masters degrees from the Laban Centre and Trinity College, Dublin) gives her a wider than usual perspective on current cultural expression. She has won Sony awards, and has been shortlisted for a BAFTA.

Frances has also made many social documentary features such as Other (with the then aspiring actor Christopher Simpson) about young people who tick ‘Other’ on Census forms). Her programmes often explore worlds we don't hear much from - the merchant navy, Communists and the North East, where she lives.

Paul Quinn was a staff producer at the BBC Radio Arts Unit from 1992- 2000, producing Kaleidoscope, Bookshelf, Open Book and other arts programmes for Radio 4. He created individual arts series like Close-Ups (about film) and Lion’s Den (about various Arts). He also served attachments in the Features unit, during which he produced strands like Word of Mouth.

Paul was one of the original production team that started Night Waves on R3. He has also developed and produced numerous special events (Chaucer Evening; Beckett Season;) and after going freelance in 2000 he co-produced the first series of Off the Page for R4.

His areas of expertise are literature, fiction, poetry and film, and most recently he has made Sunday Features and a series of Essays about Clouds for R3.

Jules Wilkinson  is a radio producer with substantial experience working both for BBC Radio and

producing podcasts and audioguides for museums, art galleries (such as Tate Modern and the National Gallery of Ireland) and independent charities. With over ten years production experience at the BBC, she has a strong track record in arts and literary programmes and has contributed numerous readings and abridgements for Book of the Week and Book at Bedtime and regularly worked on programmes such as A Good Read, With Great Pleasure, the Afternoon Play and a number of poetry slots and features.  She has also produced a series of documentaries for the Open University and is currently presenting for ITunesU (the Open University on ITunes) as well as narrations for museums in London. She has a strong interest in childrens' literature.

Tom Jackson is an experienced television and radio producer who produced the first MTV programmes for the Middle East. He has worked for many broadcasters including MBC, Travel Channel, BBC Comic Relief and Showtime, where he was head of production. He has produced corporate programming for numerous clients, including Host charity, Toyota, MICE International and Digital Classics. For BBC Radio 4, he recently produced the documentaries Postcards From The White City and A Tale of Two Emirates with Loftus.

As a journalist writing about Middle Eastern and other music, Tom is also a regular contributor to Songlines, Time Out Dubai, Global Rhythm, Roots and nationalgeographic.com.

Hilary Dunn

has been associated with BBC Radio 4’s arts unit since 1995, when she was a producer on Kaleidoscope. Since then she has worked on a diverse range of arts output, including The Film Programme, Nightwaves, Saturday Review and Open Book.

Her other production credits include: The Long View (the first five series), Off The Page (responsible for launch with its then new presenter Matthew Parris), Document, Pick of The Week, and various ad hocs. She has produced a number of arts documentaries including: The Gothic Quest, presented by Louise Welsh and Snapshots in the Dark with Colin Ford. Her specialism is film, in which she has her degree.

Hilary recently produced The Job Clinic with Loftus, a 3-part series for R4 about the impact of unemployment. Hilary is also a playwright whose work has been broadcast on R4.

Dinah Bird is a radio artist and feature maker living and working in Paris and London. Her recent

productions include The Music Machine, a programme about the ondioline, one of the first electronic synthesisers for R4, Natures Construites a series of sound/video works that document the changing urban landscape of Northern Paris, Songs of the Brewery, an in-situ sound installation for Cork, European Capital of Culture, 2005, and When Silence Sings, a sonic reflection from Venice for R3.  

Dinah is currently working at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris to develop a programme of sound/radio workshops in relation to their permanent and temporary collections.

Jane Green

wood’s broadcasting career began as a producer in Network Radio in Bristol, making programmes for R4 and R3 including features and documentaries such as a history of polio in the twentieth century and a history of mental health; a series of short features about the British coast called On the Beach; Mother Tongue with Bill Bryson; a R3 season on the life and work of Elizabeth Bowen; a dramatisation of the Civil War Putney Debates, and a series of biographical features called Missing Persons.

Jane has also produced long running series such as On the Ropes, A Good Read, Off the Page and Poetry Please and enjoys abridging and producing short stories, Books of the Week and Books at Bedtime. She is expert at producing OBs and organises literary events in Suffolk where she lives.

Joe Acheson is a producer and composer who has provided original and unique music for a variety of Loftus programmes, radio plays and other projects. He has recently written and arranged music for Advice to the Living and Three Men In a Float (2008), and in 2009 he produced a documentary on Scottish urban music for BBC 1Xtra. Joe also assists in recording, editing and mixing at Loftus’ Scottish facility. 

As well as music and sound design for film, TV, radio, and large outdoor projects, Joe ekes out an existence writing and producing records, and can be seen performing around the U.K. in the Joe Acheson Quartet. www.joeacheson.com

Jill Waters is an Executive Producer with a strong background in literature and publishing. Her contacts in

the literary world are wide-ranging and constantly refreshed through her role as a regular producer of readings for R4. Arts features that she has made in the past have included two poetry features for R4: When I Am Old: a 70th birthday celebration of the work of Jenny Joseph presented by Bel Mooney, and Songs of the Soul:  an exploration of the relationship between religion and poetry presented by Rosemary Harthill. Jill has also produced a feature series for R3 with presented introductions from Will Hutton, George Monbiot, Baroness Warnock, Tony Benn and Stephen Tumim each discussing the work of their favourite 'Dissenting Voice'. She has also reviewed fiction and interviewed (Nawal el Saadawi and Mark Doty) for the Times and Independent.

Dominic Byrne's

background is in print journalism at specialist politics and science titles such as the New Statesman and Nature journal. He produces regular podcasts for the British Medical Journal. For R4 he has produced programmes including Archive Hour Enter The Workhouse, socio-cultural documentary Wrestling With The Iranians and discussion series Head to Head with Edward Stourton.

Anna Horsbrugh-Porter  worked for the

BBC World Service for fifteen years. She was a current affairs scriptwriter and feature maker there, making documentary series on subjects as varied as James Joyce, Marcel Proust and the legacy of colonialism in Asia and Africa.  She has also worked on programmes like Newshour, The World Today and Outlook. 

In 2001 Anna moved to Sri Lanka and reported for the BBC and other news organisations. As a freelance producer for the last four years, she has worked on Feedback and Over To You, and in 2009 won the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association prize for her radio version of Taxi to the Dark Side - the story of interrogation and torture by US military in Bagram jail, Afghanistan.  For Loftus she has produced and presented The Wonderful World of Neem, Cabbies From Prague, and most recently a R4 Archive Hour, The Many Lives of Roald Dahl, presented by Sophie Dahl.

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