Looking East – Alumni Stories, Stuart Ratcliffe
The Film & TV school has a fantastic track record for graduate success in industry, and 1996 Drama, Film and Television graduate Stuart Ratcliffe is no exception. Indeed, York St John alumni living the in the East of England may recognise Stuart, who can often be seen reporting on BBC Look East in his capacity as District Reporter for the Northamptonshire area.
We first chatted to Stuart back in spring 2002 when we interviewed him for the White Rose magazine, and we wanted to get an update on what he’s been up to since. Stuart is very quick to highlight that the Film & TV programme at York St John was key to him landing his first job in industry. ‘An important part of the programme was that students were expected to undertake a three month placement in industry. I had the opportunity to work in Leeds with Children in Need for this, and not only was I able to get some really valuable hands-on experience, but I had the chance to make some really useful contacts. I’m originally from Lancashire and when I left York St John in 1996 I was able to get a job straight away with Children in Need over in Manchester, which was a great start for me and wouldn’t have been possible without the contacts I’d made during my time on placement.’‘
Stuart’s next step was working for an independent TV Company called Mentorn Barraclough Carey which was based at Granada television in Manchester where he was involved in making arts and crafts programmes for BBC2, and then, in 1998, he took the opportunity to take up a role as a Station Assistant in Norwich. At this point Stuart’s career focus started to shift towards journalism. ‘I really loved what I was doing, but I really wanted something that would provide me a good stream of continuous work, so I decided to re-train as a journalist and move into News. I spent a few years as one of the managers at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire while I was re-training and then moved to the Midlands where I was a senior journalist on the BBC’s Local TV project. I then returned to Cambridge and in 2006 started my current role as a District Reporter for BBC Look East.’
York St John alumnus, Stuart Ratcliffe
Soon after Stuart started working at BBC Look East his student training proved invaluable. ‘At that time the BBC were asking journalists to take some responsibility for filming as part of their work. Because our course at York St John as so well rounded and covered various film and TV disciplines I had some filming experience and so was really well placed to adjust to this. Some journalists were not as receptive to the idea, so it really helped for me to demonstrate that I was happy to be on board . Journalists filming is completely the norm now and I’ve been helping train new journalists to help develop their filming skills.’
Stuart has now been at BBC Look East for 12 years, and explains that the variety of his work is one of the reasons he enjoys what he does. ‘One day you can be reporting on a really big story that breaks nationally, and then the next day you can be working on a smaller local piece. No two days are the same and that makes what we do really interesting and exciting. One of the really rewarding parts of my job is when we get the opportunity to help expose and right injustices. If you’re working on a story that results in someone’s life being changed that can be really special, those sort of stories aren’t as frequent, but when they come around and you feel that your work and reporting has made a real difference, it really means a lot.’
We asked Stuart what his plans were for the future, and at the moment it’s very much more of the same. ‘I’m really happy with what I’m doing right now. In the future, when our children are a bit older, I might explore returning to working on longer documentary pieces because that was something I really enjoyed working on in the past, but at the moment I’m enjoying what I’m doing and haven’t really got any plans to look at anything else.’
Thank you Stuart for taking the time to chat to us. Do you have a story to share about your career since leaving York St John? We’d love to hear from you! You can get in touch by e-mailing alumni@yorksj.ac.uk
