Staff

After a degree in Economics and a spell as an advertising copywriter Les Blair enrolled as a student at the London Film School. In 1969 he spent six months in Prague as an exchange student at FAMU where he made a short documentary about life under the Soviet bloc invasion which was shown by the BBC before being snatched back by the Czech authorities. On returning to London he produced and edited Mike Leigh’s first film Bleak Moments before launching his own career as a director with a string of films made for television which he wrote and directed after extended improvised rehearsal with the actors. He also directed the work of other writers, most notoriously G.F.Newman’s Law and Order which secured a place in television history with its portrayal of endemic corruption in the police and judicial system. His TV films News Hounds and The Accountant both won BAFTA’s for Best Single Drama. He has written and directed feature films for cinema including Bad Behaviour which won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers award for comedy. His work for the theatre includes Becket’s Waiting for Godot and two plays of his own.

Nicola worked at the BBC for 12 years as a Producer/Director on primetime series and programme strands in BBC Arts, Specialist Factual and Documentaries and as successful Development Producer. Her work has been nominated for a Grierson Documentary Award, a Royal Television Award and the highly acclaimed series ‘My Life As A Child’, won at five International Input Documentary Festivals. 

Her approach in all her work comes from her belief that documentary is ‘life shared on film’ and after leaving the BBC she worked in the independent sector for Ridley Scott Associates and the Garden. She then set up her own media company which made short films, radio documentaries and most recently creating animated documentaries. 

She is also an experienced and qualified documentary lecturer in Higher Education and a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority. She taught documentary making at City University for 7 years and has also been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of London Goldsmiths and Birkbeck.

Rachel has extensive experience in student/degree programme administration & funding. Supporting Registry in all areas of Admissions, Tier 4 visa, U.S. Federal Loans, Student Finance and leads enrolment/induction. She also works closely with our Awarding bodies to ensure onboarding and offboarding of students.

Loves cult horror films, hates romance.

Writer-director, born in London to Anglo-Polish parents. After studying literature then film at University of Kent at Canterbury, became Visiting Research Scholar in Film at University of California at Berkeley before returning to the UK to work in the independent film sector and higher education. Short films including Alfalfa and Flames of Passion were distributed internationally. Work as a director for British TV received Royal Television Society and D&AD (Gold and Best of Year) awards and a Prix Italia nomination. Feature-films Love and Death on Long Island (John Hurt and Jason Priestley), and Owning Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Minnie Driver) both made Best of Year critics’ lists. Awards include prizes from Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, New York Film Critics Circle, US National Board of Review, and BAFTA. He teaches directing, screenwriting and acting-to-camera at a range of institutions in the UK and beyond, and has contributed to many European initiatives in feature film development. His LFS directing workshop for film students and actors has just celebrated its 300th edition. His name is easier to pronounce than it looks: Kfee-etnee- ov-skee.