Chris Denham, founder of south west television production company Denham Productions, has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the South West RTS Awards.
Denham began his career as junior reporter on Southern Evening Echo, Southampton, eventually becoming Showbiz Editor. He went on to join a national news agency in Winchester and then gained his first broadcasting job with BBC Radio Brighton as a reporter before moving on to British Forces Broadcasting Service in Cyprus for three years. On his return to the UK Denham became a reporter for BBC Radio Bristol and won the Journalist of the Year award for coverage of the Axbridge Air Disaster. His first television job was with BBC East in Norwich as a reporter for two years, moving to the south west in 1978 to take over from Hugh Scully as the presenter of 'Spotlight', a role he held for nine years. Denham presented the national sailing programme 'Waterfront', but eventually left presentation to produce a current affairs series (a series that first broke the story of BSE). In 1983 he set up Denham Productions which began making programmes for Television South West and soon went on to produce a wide variety of network programmes. Denham said: “I’m delighted to accept this award – particularly as it’s for a lifelong passion. The south west’s fantastic local talent and thriving television community has been a place of inspiration for a long time now. Thanks to this talent Denham Productions now has a long-established international reputation for producing quality lifestyle and documentary programmes." (GB)
