Shows
Are You Creative?EP39 - MUSIC MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE - Jeordie ShentonJeordie is the Programmes Lead at the charity Tonic Music providing mental health support to the music industry and music fans. School and Jeordie didn’t get on - except for Mr.Harris the sociology teacher who encouraged his path into sociology. His psychology and sociology dissertation at uni was inspired by the death of Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots - why do these entertainers that give us so much enjoyment struggle with mental health? He’s since published a book chapter on mental health in the music business, and gone on to a pHD. And this led him...2025-06-211h 12
Are You Creative?EP38 - MULTIGENERATIONAL ROCK AND ROLLER - Neil McDonnellNeil is in a band with his 77 year old grandad Ken - Ken and Neil McDonnell. Playing 50s and 60s rock and roll. They’ve already made three albums in their first two years. Ken is a tough creative lead and has a clear vision of how he wants audio, image etc. for the band. He is motivated to be productive while he ‘still has his faculties’. Ken gave Neil his first guitar when he was 10, and ever since they’ve been jamming at family gatherings. There is a band with a parrot singer called Hatebeak. Chat about ALL the Blac...2025-05-231h 03
Are You Creative?EP37 - MAGAZINE CREATIVE DIRECTOR - Ben WatkinsWhat does an art director do? They make things look nice! Having visual ideas, organising photoshoots, video, social media, layouts, typography, Ben even designed the HEAT Magazine logo…. Ooooo! Telling the story visually is essential. The features editor will assign a celebrity and a small time frame to shoot images for the magazine. The art director has to have ideas, and arrange the photography shoot. A creative director will lead people on their team to come up with great ideas. How do you ask celebrities to do crazy things for photos on set? Working with Alan Carr and making si...2025-05-121h 14
Are You Creative?EP36 - CABINET MAKER SKATER - Jim RandsFurniture maker. Cabinet maker. Just don’t call him a carpenter! What does it all mean? Jim started out making cabinets next to Liam Howlett from The Prodigy’s house… that’s like Essex’s answer to Buckingham Palace surely! Jim started his creative journey polishing furniture, and then learned more about how to make it. When do you know you are ready to set up on your own and become self-employed? Applying craft, skills and unique materials to create bespoke cabinets on massive budgets for wealthy people. Jim also makes art from wood. Usually by identifying potential in knotted wo...2025-05-0952 min
Are You Creative?EP35 - PUNK ROCK ROLE MODEL - Lily MeffMEFF ARMY! Singer and guitarist in the punk rock band The Meffs. Born and raised in Colchester. Going from playing Hot Box to 100 people to Alexandra Palace to 10000 people in just a few years - WHAT A LIFE! What is the optimal strategy for a pre-stage wee? Recording at Frank Turner’s studio on Mersea Island. How not to do gang vocals! WHAT!? What’s it like supporting Alice Cooper? And Primal Scream? When does a duo become a band, even if it’s two people? How does Lily get a huge guitar tone and make enough noise to not ne...2025-05-021h 07
Are You Creative?EP34 - WITCH RESEARCHER AND CURATOR - Emma WardallCo-founder of Essex Witch Museum. Researcher, historian, marketing genius, and part of the creative force behind the project to bring Essex’s witch history to life. Everything Emma has ever done in her career is coming in useful on the journey to create a new museum. Adelle invents Witchipedia - let this be a permanent record. What is a ‘familiar’? It’s a demon in the form of an animal which will do their evil bidding. Like Satan the Cat/Toad/Dog. Who belonged to Agnes Waterhouse. Sent after a neighbour for not giving them any cheese. Witch trials happened...2025-04-201h 06
Are You Creative?EP33 - A MAN OF LETTERS - Repeat Beat PoetWriter, spoken word artist, journalist, DJ, historian, researcher, poet, slam poet, life-long student. Peter deGraft-Johnson is The Repeat Beat Poet, aka PJ, and Mr. Loose Egusi (his afrobeat DJ name). Talking about flâneurs, Argentinian funk, plumbing, and other random things. Slam poetry is a fake-competitive parlour game of poetry, where two poets go head to head in front of a very vocal and involved audience. The line between poets and rappers has gotten thin. Poetic writing can elevate theatre, drama, film, music - The right words, in the right order, being delivered in the right way. We feel f...2025-04-131h 03
Are You Creative?EP32 - COSPLAY CRAFTER - Emily WhiteThis is the way! Cosplay is when you dress as a popular character from film, TV, games. Cosplayers usually start by buying costumes, and then realise it’s cheaper and more fun to make your own and customise it. Emily is involved with Chelmsford Takeover with Essex Cosplayers and Chelmsford For You. The whole town centre gets taken over by characters and vehicles, with chances to learn about craft and meet creators, and get selfies with RoboCop (next event Saturday 12th April 2025). Featuring the famous cosplay conga, where you can see George Lucas (not the real one), Transformers, Star Wa...2025-04-051h 07
Are You Creative?EP31 - NAMER AND MICROFICTION WRITER - Ben StanburyCompetitive story writer, namer, brander, and editor/designer of Menticulture magazine. Overall creative legend, and nicest bloke in Essex. Originally from the glorious hill of Danbury. Ben trained as a graphic designer as a mature student. Now he runs his own naming and brand agency The Identity Bureau. Naming is finding what a company is going to call themselves. A name that’s memorable and describes the company. A good name should be easy to say, easy to spell, easy to remember. Company names have the most brand longevity, outlasting multiple logo refreshes etc, so it’s super important to g...2025-03-2950 min
Are You Creative?EP30 - PARANORMAL PODCASTER - Bethan Briggs-MillerOne of the hosts of the Eerie Essex podcast (with Ailsa Clarke), all about paranormal happenings and traditional stories of mysteries and the unexplained in Essex. Is the Loch Ness Monster a ghost dinosaur? Old Roughy the poltergeist in Great Waltham. Ghost cats in pubs. How do Bethan and Ailsa research their podcast? Start with the paranormal database, books, British newspaper archive. Weird Norfolk podcast from the Norfolk Folklore Society inspired them to start their Essex podcast. Black Shuck the East Anglian dog is a brilliant regional myth. Part cryptid, part entity, a black dog with blazing red eyes...2025-03-241h 13
Are You Creative?EP29 - POET AND CULT SURVIVOR - Leon The PoetObservational poet with luxuriant hair from Witham. Leon started poetry in 2016, and became Leon The Poet in 2022. He was a songwriter first, and got inspired by spoken word like Kae Tempest. His first book was published in 2024 - ‘Sometimes I’m The Bull, Sometimes I’m The China Shop’ - with a brilliant cover by Essex artist Jackson Bollocks. The book looks more like a music album than a poetry book. Leon finds that poetry has a more focused audience than when he used to perform music. He wants to make poetry more accessible for a wider audience - not just...2025-03-1554 min
Are You Creative?EP28 - COMEDY FILMMAKER - Joe McGowanThis one’s a bit sweary! Joe writes, directs and edits sketches and shorts that screen globally. He also has a background in commercials and branded content. He’s had viral successes with his films. How do big American productions end up being edited in Joe’s house in Romford? Because he’s awesome! Can you learn to be funny? Or are you born funny? Joe worked a lot of corporate video jobs before realising that he could specialise in comedy. Joe took a media course at Havering Sixth Form and learned film-making and editing and found his passion. Then wor...2025-03-0551 min
Are You Creative?EP27 - DRAG SUPERSTAR - Ella VadayNick Collier AKA Ella Vaday is The Drag Beast from Dagenham East. Is Dagenham Essex or London? It’s Essex innit! Ella appeared on Season 3 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK in 2021, and has since shot to drag stardom. Nick trained in musical theatre and dance when he was 16. And after graduating performed in Wicked, Book of Mormon, Cats, Fame among other West End smashes. Ella has now been performing in Pantomime, so how does Nick act as Ella acting as an Ugly Sister - it’s drag inception! Being in drag gives you so much more permission to be...2025-03-0355 min
Are You Creative?EP26 - COMMUNITY FARMER AND FILM MAKER - Marley KarazimbaFilm-maker, Marley lives on a three acre farm, designs permaculture, and specialises in community supported agriculture (CSA). Marley also co-runs a community cooperative cafe in Colchester. He’s been commissioned by Culture Essex to make a film for Extraordinary Essex with the working title ‘Don’t Fight The Land That Feeds You’ about the people of Essex and the land that nourishes them. Marley is interviewing people ranging from farmers with hectares of land to small growers with allotments. In CSA people can pay a share towards harvest by subscribing to seasonal veg boxes, or volunteer on the farm in excha...2025-02-1257 min
Are You Creative?EP25 - INDEPENDENT VENUE MANAGER - Jon HughesJon manages Hot Box in Chelmsford. An independent community venue for music, poetry, chess, comedy, drag, retro gaming and other things. At a small venue everyone has to muck in and do all the jobs. Venue is 110 capacity, but has seen huge acts like Fat Boy Slim, Frank Turner, High Fade, The Meffs, Beans on Toast, Native James. Norman Cook has come back to DJ many times, and once to help raise funds to save the venue. Venues and events make memories for the staff and crowd. How starting a new venue fired up a creative community in the...2025-02-071h 06
Are You Creative?EP24 - FIGURATIVE ARTIST - Nat GuinamardFigurative drawing. With special guest co-host Adam Whitaker. Nat’s collection of art ‘An Untamed Line’ is currently exhibited on Chelmsford Museum’s Gallery Wall. She makes a rough shape on paper with water and then inks in the figure. How does life drawing online differ from drawing from a photo? And how short time limits lead to the best art? Sixty second drawings have a lot of energy. Ink never behaves the same way, so the art can be unpredictable. Imposter syndrome in art and judging your own output. Life drawing tips. Moving your eye as little as possible...2025-01-1752 min
Are You Creative?EP23 - BASS CULTURE ADVOCATE - Jean-Claude LionbeatOwner of Lionbeat, a company that advocates for bass culture and black music. Jean-Claude was born and raised in Brentwood. Bass culture happened when the sound systems from the Caribbean travelled to Europe and eventually African diasporic culture. Bringing people together with a uniform love for bass. People immigrated to Britain and brought over sound system culture - Bass and dance was a ritualistic behaviour for these people. Peace, love and unity in the dance. Lionbeat is the ‘barristers for bass’. Jean-Claude initially went to university to study law, and wanted to move as far as pos...2025-01-071h 23
Are You Creative?EP22 - ADVERTISING LEADER - Elliot HarrisCreative director for advertising and entertainment. Elliot is 1000% creative! Why do younger people not like advertising as a creative career? People are paying to avoid adverts, and using ad blockers. People are watching telly in a different way now - no longer are people sitting at the same time to watch the same scheduled show. Elliot loved the Benetton adverts when he was younger, and how it played with culture and broke the mould. Oliver Toscani was the creative director and photographer behind these adverts. Elliot was inspired by music and art, raving, parties, putting on events, making flyers...2024-12-141h 13
Are You Creative?EP21 - OPERA SINGER - Donna LennardProfessional opera singer. Donna’s origins story, she was spotted as a talented singer by a teacher who took her to a French chateau to perform Mozart arias - this was of course acceptable in the late 1980s. Opera has music, drama, costume, and the power of an orchestra - opera is massive! In opera the singers also act, there’s a lot to be good at. Donna’s first professional opera gig was at the Royal Opera House. Donna has been performing modern opera works, like The Little Prince performing as a mad robot calculator character. Donna has perfor...2024-12-0853 min
Are You Creative?EP20 - COMIC BOOK WRITER - Phil ChapmanCreator of the independent comic series System Error. How to start creating a comic. Why does the System Error robot have such a big head? Creating a recognisable silhouette is essential for character design. Phil started drawing with biro, then pen, dip brush pens, and then creating digitally. Note: Phil has very clean hands, no ink! Digital is faster, cleaner and easier to adjust. Phil uses Procreate for black line work and Photoshop for colour. Phil LOVES Procreate and recommends investing the £13 to get it. System Error is about a robot called ITTO and why things went wrong in t...2024-11-3054 min
Are You Creative?EP19 - VIDEO GAME CREATOR - AJ Grand-ScruttonAJ is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dlala Studios making video games in Witham in Essex. Dlala Studios made the Battletoads sequel in 2020 and more recently Disney Illusion Island starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Illusion Island is available on the Nintendo Switch. How did AJ start a computer games studio from his Mum’s garage in 2012? Starting as a programmer as a Game Content Developer at Jagex, then at Bossa, then winning a BAFTA, then starting Dlala Studios with Craig. Dlala have now been nominated for two BAFTAs for Illusion Island - Best British Game and Best Fa...2024-11-2153 min
Are You Creative?EP18 - ARTIST - Miss MeatfaceArt as escape and a therapeutic outlet. Kat Toronto is Miss Meatface. Garry Vanderhorne the wrestling promoter told us about her in EP1 of Are You Creative? Miss Meatface is a photographic alter-ego for Kat. She was an escape for Kat to express how she was feeling at a dark time in her life in 2015 - like an art therapy. Kat uses latex masks to remove her identity and create the anonymous character. Kinky and kitchy. 1950s typical domestic scenes, made playful and surreal with latex. Miss Meatface was born in America. Kat studied photography at art school. And...2024-11-0951 min
Are You Creative?EP17 - VIOLINIST - Elodie Chousmer-HowellesPROFESSIONAL violinist! Making money doing the creative thing that you love. Life as a musician can be hard. It’s not a 9-5 job, and there is a lot of practicing! Streamlining practice, and finding the time to do it. Diminishing returns in practicing. Setting goals for quality practice. What is score reading? Being inspired by an older sibling learning music and attending her cello lessons. Big up Classic FM - no adverts though please! Being inspired by BBC Young Musician of the Year. Attending a Nicola Benedetti concert and getting creatively inspired as a six year old. And Je...2024-10-2853 min
Are You Creative?EP16 - CREATIVE ENIGMA - GoldyThe Marilyn Monroe of Essex. The most chaotic episode ever. Goldy does EVEYRTHING creative! New rave. Nick’s Pot Trumps cards are now in the Chelmsford Museum recent additions cabinet. Is Chingford in Essex? Can you ever really refer to yourself as creative? Is Goldy the most glamorous person in Essex? Like a Parisian flamingo with mermaid legs - in the best way! - OFFICIAL! Editor of an aesthetics magazine, and presenter of awards and shows. Creating TikToks and doing the socials to promote shows. Spotting AI cats on the internet. Being a wrestler, a crochet-er, and a pin-up mod...2024-10-2452 min
Are You Creative?EP15 - STUNTMAN - Andy Pilgrim BONUS EPISODESpecial audience questions edition from Essex Podcast Festival.What’s the coolest stunt Andy has done? A high fall. How high? 100ft! What’s your favourite movie you’ve done a stunt in? Grimsby was the most fun film to shoot. What stunt did you do in Harry Potter? Andy was a student as a 30-year old man, and a Death Eater and had to go to Wand School to learn the actions. Have you ever done a stunt so crazy it made you reconsider your career choice? Andy broke his ankle as a Whit...2024-10-2110 min
Are You Creative?EP14 - STUNTMAN - Andy PilgrimStunt performer and stunt coordinator. Has the best imdb page in the world - FACT! Including loads of 10/10 films, and also falling off a cliff in Emmerdale. Getting burned by a dragon on Game of Thrones - Dracarys!!! Learning to be set on fire by scuba diving. Andy’s stunt origin story. Gymnastics, high-diving, judo, theatre. Assessing risks on set to make it safe for you and actors. South Essex Gymnastics Club - is it Kingsmen recruitment for stunt performers? Coming up through the profession with David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe’s double in Harry Potter and the star of the...2024-10-1145 min
Are You Creative?EP13 - CRAFT BREWER - Dan HarveyCraft brewer and founder for Radio City Beer Works and Radio City Social venue. Creating beer alchemy with just four ingredients to make loads of different flavours, colours, bitterness, gravities. Beer magic! Learning about wort and brewing process. Being self-critical for growth and improvement. Aromas, head retention, drinkability - all the factors to consider in brewing. Having a flavour vision in your head and working out how to achieve it. Hops and different fruit flavours in them. Knowing how to extract the different flavours from the hop oil at stages of brewing. Beer drinking as a hobby for craft...2024-10-041h 04
Are You Creative?EP12 - MUSICIAN - Adam SandersAdam is MUSIC BOY! Musician, music teacher, studio owner, producer, rockstar! Being in pop-punk tribute bands, and coming up with puns for names - Blinked-182, Dookie and Half-Real Lavine. Supportive parents, and living out their rock fantasies. Starting young and finding music. Is 8 too young to learn guitar? NO! Seeing Adam playing drums at Teddy Rocks with pyrotechnic flames on stage - ultimate rockstar. Starting to learn drums at 10 and getting Grade-8 by 13 - Yep, he’s a prodigy! Grades maketh not the drummer. The student became the teacher - doing a postgrad PGCE and learning to teach. Teaching a...2024-09-2252 min
Are You Creative?EP11 - PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTER - James CallaghanJames's journey from photography into high-end film processing and printing. Owner of BlueSky Printing and London Film Lab. Working for Björk! BJÖRK the Icelandic music legend! Printing on special papers and hand finishing artwork. Being a paper expert and choosing the right paper for a print. Setting up colour managed environments (yeah we’re going deep into printing!) Does Bjork want paper made from swan feathers? James’s other premises London Film Lab off Brick Lane - a special analog film processing facility. Taking away snobbery and making high level film processing available to everyone. Colour grading photos...2024-09-1532 min
Are You Creative?EP10 - AUTHOR - Sade FadipeSade’s journey from school teacher to author. Being a top 50 children’s book in the US - A Fun ABC (US edition: A Visit to Grandad). Leaving London for Nigeria. How Sade’s experiences growing up in both London and Nigeria built the foundation for her first book. Working as a Reading Consultant in Nigeria. Donated books and lack of representation of Nigerian children’s lives and experiences. Funding for books, but lack of appropriate reading material. Creating an example text to demonstrate creating stories, rhythms and rhymes. Any teacher can make up stories. Accidentally finding a publisher. Finding...2024-09-1043 min
Are You Creative?EP9 - PHOTOGRAPHIC SCIENTIST - Jack HolmesPhotos for the first manned Moon mission. Photo finishes for horses. The first televised Queen's speech. Jack's done a lot! Making photographic film to send to the Moon. Being lead scientist of Ilford special projects. High speed cheese. Yellow light. Radiation. Seeing if it was safe for humans to land on the Moon. High speed film image quality trade off. Silver halide science! Testing film with all the bad radiation. Getting film back from the Moon without disturbing the results. Why isn’t the Moon photo on Jack’s wall? Was Jack’s photo the most important photo of that y...2024-08-1735 min
Are You Creative?EP8 - RETRO KNITTER - Maddy MooreBy order of the Peaky Blinders. What comes first - the button or the sweater? Knitted turbans. Is knitting like computer programming? Making sweaters for Wonka. Etsy costs for craft creators. Boo to fast fashion! Making handmade affordable. The 1930s and 1940s body shape. Decoding old knitting patterns. Finding the right yarn. Collecting a horde of buttons. Being born in the wrong decade. A creative journey through dance, film, fashion to becoming The Sweater Girl. The supportive retro knitting community. Knitting for mental health. Retro machines. And making sweaters for Peaky Blinders! WOW! What an inspiring guest. Thanks Maddy!2024-08-0144 min
Are You Creative?EP7 - TRANS INFLUENCER - Adelle BarkerTrigger warning: Early talk about s*lf h*rm. Gay jobs vs Day jobs. Being on a fancy video shoot for a TV ad. Coming out as a trans woman at work. Getting pro make-up. Unmasking. Identity. Air quotes in different fonts. Being in The Sims in real life. Is Sangita an energy vampire? Pretending to be geezer Dads to fit in. Adelle’s media empire of #not stuff. Adelle and Jordan Grey’s parallel trans journeys. Supportive managers at work. Deadnaming. The awkward teenage dressing up stage. 'My trombone is brilliant!' Nick. Tights filled with rice as boob...2024-07-2653 min
Are You Creative?EP6 - PIERCER - Cat ChudykMaking belly button piercing inclusive for all body shapes. English sushi. Staring at people’s ears. Bespoke ear curation. Natural vs unnatural stones. Alan & Ron’s jewelry designs. Copycats copying Cat’s jewelry. Four dimensional jewelry shapes. Finding inspiration for designs in nature. Inclusive body jewelry. Ear transplants. Needles vs guns. A whole needle portfolio? Turning people away can be good for business! Cat remembers ears. Having multiple ear piercings is so hot right now on the red carpet! Naming jewelry after friends - jewelry friends! Pawsome! Snochs. Schnarvels. Tragus. Schnagus. Daith. Daves. All the bits of ears. Tiny little...2024-07-0846 min
Are You Creative?EP5 - ACTOR - Carlos BylesBecoming an actor. The journey from creative awakening to reality. Jaiden Smith in Karate Kid to Top Boy. We are Creative Gods! Is panto more fun than telly? Ice skating skills. The Brit school. Pretending to be a sausage like Benedict Cumberland. Music with Adele. Meeting Jessie J. Casual school visits from Tom Holland. Being a tree. Supportive teachers vs unsupportive teachers. Shrek auditions. Positive support networks. Coconuts for horse hooves. Finding an agent. Dealing with rejection from roles. Tips for a great first impression in casting. Carlos the Frozen Sausage. Being resilient. Being in Top Boy! Method acting...2024-07-0150 min
Are You Creative?EP4 - HORROR FILM MAKER - Jim DexterBuilding a supportive film making community with the Independent Horror Society. How much would it cost to make a feature film about a killer swan? What’s a DOP? Introducing Nickipedia. Do you need to go to University to work in film? Advice for making your first film. Finding collaborators. Learning from YouTube. Dolphin impressions. Bill vs Ripper. Best gore in a horror film. Bill Kill 3: Triple Bill. Learning to make practical special effects ‘Just buy some bits!’ The problems of having a kid’s brain with adult money. Making fake sweat and tears. And making 6 minute 6 second films in 66 hou...2024-06-2348 min
Are You Creative?EP3 - STREET ART FESTIVAL MANAGER - Candy JoyceOrganising a street art festival. Don’t mess with a mother seagull! Twig art. Learning how to spray paint. What’s an Open Reach box? The London Police and their cheeky LADS. Making Chelmsford more cultural and civic pride. Chexit. Running out of walls to paint. The barriers to organising a street art festival. Scotty Brave’s Grayson Perry portrait. More seagull attacks. Graffiti gang vs The Wicker Crew. Razorbeak of Tindall Street. Doodle walls. The smell of spray paint. Fat Boy Slim in a wicker spray can. Spray paint BINGO! Advice for young artists and street artists starting out. 2024-06-1938 min
Are You Creative?EP2 - PUBLISHING DIRECTOR - Keshini NaidooHow to get into books? What’s a bad first sentence? Alan Kazam and the alternative Harry Potter universe. Nick pitches 'Robo-Tindal: Judgement on Chelmsford'. How BookTok has sent physical sales through the roof. Boardroom sausagefests. Fiction Girl and her sharpened commas. Female-run publishing and smashing the glass ceiling. Working with literary agents to get your book seen by publishers. Do judge a book by its cover! Naughty AI robots writing books. South Asian drag queens. And Sangita is pretty much horizontally chilled with the post-holiday vibes - so she doesn’t talk much for the second half - just...2024-06-1050 min
Are You Creative?EP1 - WRESTLING PROMOTER - Garry VanderhorneHow did Garry set up an inclusive wrestling scene? Is wrestling creative? How do you turn a human man into an evil duck? What is Sangita's wrestling name? How did Garry help to mould Essex legend Will Ospreay into the AEW Superstar he is today? Bacon balaclavas? World Records for wrestling? Would Mr.Bean make a good wrestler? Can you wrestle in tweed? And how do you get into wrestling as a performer or promoter? And wise creative advice for anyone looking to get into performance arts!Thanks to our amazing guest Garry Vanderhorne from Lucha Britannia.2024-06-0945 min