TRAINING TEAM
Jim Hancock was Political Editor of Granada TV and BBC North West. Now he is busy with media training, conference hosting and political commentary.
With Data TV, his political knowledge is invaluable when dealing with clients, including Manchester City and Lancashire County Councils. He also works with Data TV for companies such as Siemens, Merseyrail and the Co-operative Group.
Jim hosts award ceremonies and conferences for Manchester University, Educate North, Transport for Greater Manchester and other organisations. He also hosts evenings for the Royal Television Society.
Recent guests have included Nick Robinson, Kirsty Wark, Michael Crick and Dorothy Byrne, former Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4.
Jim has not only witnessed major speeches by every prime minister from Margaret Thatcher to the present day, but he is also accustomed to delivering speeches and lectures to a range of organisations.
He broadcasts on BBC North West Tonight, LBC and BBC Radio Manchester where he regularly reviews the papers and websites. And Jim produces a weekly political blog at: https://jimhancock.co.uk/hancocks-half-page/
Mark Dowd has worked on a number of major ITV and BBC current affairs programmes as producer and director, including Weekend World, Newsnight, On The Record and Panorama. He has briefed presenters such as David and Jonathan Dimbleby, often preparing them for high profile interviews with government ministers.
In 2000, he went freelance and began to present a series of award-winning documentaries for Channel Four on religious themes, including the much-acclaimed “Tsunami:Where Was God?” which won the Radio Times readers’ best documentary award.
He continues to work for BBC radio, presenting programmes for Radio 4 and the World Service, as well as being interviewed on topics such as religion, football and climate change. In 2017 Mark's autobiographical book "Queer and Catholic: A life of contradiction" was published.
Mark has a diploma in voice and speech therapy which includes voice projection and non-verbal cues in communication.
He travels to media training venues by train and Brompton bike and has not owned a car since 1995.
Alison Butterworth - As a BBC broadcast journalist and presenter, Alison has interviewed thousands of people from every background. More than 30yrs of live broadcast experience meant she was live on air, fronting all speech news programmes at highly significant moments… responding to the Twin Towers attack; the Manchester Arena Bombing; the Grenfell fire; the Brexit Result, to name a few.
All required a knowledge of how to set the right tone, and conduct live interviews with a variety of people under stress and distress.
Hours of live news presentation has also led to many lighter moments. And from the likes of Roger Moore, Ruby Wax, Jane Horrocks, Steve Coogan and many others, she’s spent time in the studio with some of the most famous names in music, comedy and sport, as well as several prime ministers and leading politicians.
Whilst most of her professional life has been spent in the North West, Alison has worked at regional and network level – and had spent time as a reporter for Radio4’s Today programme, arguably the most prestigious news programme in radio.
Jess Forbes is an award-winning Senior Broadcast Journalist at Global Radio, with over ten years’ experience within the radio Industry. She works as a regional reporter for LBC and a presenter of Heart and Smooth FM weekly bulletins.
She has wealth of experience in covering some of the UK’s biggest stories from the General Election, flooding and Hillsborough, to the Manchester and London terror attacks.
Jess won an O2 Award for Community Journalism for a special report on baby loss and stillbirth. She has been highly commended in the O2 Radio Awards for a report on the Manchester Arena bomb. And she won an Independent Radio News ‘Best News Special or Feature’ for an investigation into the high number of deaths at the prison in Salford. The judges said it was ‘an incredibly powerful piece of journalism which truly gave the voiceless a voice’.
Simon Reynolds has an award-winning record in journalism, holding senior editorial posts at the Lancashire Evening Post, Liverpool Daily Post and Edinburgh Evening News after starting as a reporter for the Daily Mail. Stories he has covered include the Hillsborough disaster and the Dunblane massacre.
He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Central Lancashire in 2009 for outstanding achievements in communications and journalism in the North West. He is currently Communications and Customer Relations Manager for a local authority.
Mair Thomas is a bilingual senior radio broadcast journalist working for Global Radio commercial stations across Wales, the North West and East of England, including Heart, Capital and Smooth. She has also reported for the BBC’s Radio Cymru and Radio Wales.
Before this she worked as communications officer for a University Health Board where she was responsible for responding to media enquiries, often handling sensitive and confidential information. Mair’s work also included sourcing, writing and disseminating positive news stories about the work of the Health Board.
In 2012 she was won a gold at the New York Radio Festival Awards for her report Tribute to the Miners: the moment Welsh hearts were broken. She has been nominated as Local Radio Journalist of the Year at the Radio Academy Awards and in 2015 was a member of the team winning the IRN News Team of the Year Award.
Terry Scaife is a former Police Superintendent and was the lead tutor at the National Police Staff College for many years where he delivered media skills and media strategy training for senior police and press officers from across the UK.
Since leaving the police in 2013 he has worked in Kabul, Afghanistan as a Social Media and Crisis Communications expert for the EUPOL police mission and as a Strategic Communications Consultant advising Ministers and Generals at the Ministry of the Interior in Kabul.
Terry also now works as a private consultant and as an Associate Tutor with the UK College of Policing where he has delivered senior leadership and strategic communications training in Peru, Qatar, Morocco, Kenya, Ukraine and in the UK.
Terry has coached and mentored several Heads of European Missions in how to respond in times of crisis which has included advising on many major, critical and terrorist attacks.