Tony Coll

Tony Coll is a British film & TV scriptwriter and programme consultant with a background in broadcasting, journalism and the arts.

Current/recent projects:

ASIAN GANGSTER MOVIE SET IN LONDON - commissioned screenwriter.

COSTUME DRAMA ABOUT PSYCHIC RESEARCH AND THE AFTER-LIFE - programme consultant.

FOREVER VIRGIN SOLDIERS: Writer. Comedy/drama feature film about British part-time soldiers fighting in the Iraq war. Sequel to the successful 1969 Carl Foreman film ‘The Virgin Soldiers’ about reluctant conscripts guarding the post-war British Empire. Commissioned scriptwriter. Client: Elstree Productions/Leslie Thomas (original author). Long treatment completed, agent seeking finance.

WILLIAM AND HEDDA: Writer. Medieval action adventure film. A new take on the story of William Tell, the Swiss Robin Hood, who was forced to shoot an apple from his son’s head and went on to liberate his country from foreign domination. Script adapted from Schiller’s 19th century German stage play ‘Wilhelm Tell’, complete and ready to shoot.

DOODLECHAMPS: Writer, programme & format consultant, talent coach, voice-over. Thirteen-part children’s TV game show series combining art competition with quasi-mythical ‘guru’ character, host, judges and lively studio audience. Writer/programme consultant for development of format and scripts; talent coach and writer for host and judges; writer/director of contestant and judge profiles; voice-over artiste for post-production commentary. Client: Earthtree Pte, Singapore, for MDA/Okto Channel.

ONE SQUARE MILE: Writer, reporter, co-director. Documentary about Gypsies, Travellers and the UK’s planning system. Shown at the 2008 New York Gypsy Human Rights Film Festival. Client: Planning Aid/South West Alliance of Nomads.

CHANGING LIVES IN BRISTOL: Documentary-style information film with voice-over and interviews about social improvement projects funded by the European Community’s ‘Objective 2’ programme. Writer, researcher, voice-over artiste. Client: Giggle Group Productions/Bristol City Council.

Tony Coll was educated by Jesuit priests at a North London grammar school and studied law at Oxford.

He was a journalist for the first half of his career, starting as a weekly and daily newspaper reporter and progressing via the BBC World Service and BBC local radio to reporting for BBC TV in London and Manchester.

His first broadcast drama was CORN DEVILS, a comedy for HTV West about crop circles, starring Philip Jackson and Sorcha Cusack. It drew a 30% audience share, impressive for a local production.

Comedy writing and performing are also part of the mix. He was in a comedy group with a young Steve Coogan, has worked with Chris Morris, and was for two years HTV's instant songwriter, writing and performing a song to order for the chat show Late & Live. He has also written humorous material for TV comics and presenters.

His experience as a corporate video scriptwriter, director and producer is extensive, including a spell as Creative Director of a national production company. He has won three corporate video awards.

In the museum sector, Tony spent a month in Singapore, researching and writing a short play about the country’s history, to be the final event in the audience’s tour of a new museum, the Singapore Discovery Centre. It involved four live actors and a video wall as well as conventional stage scenery, lighting and sound.

When he's not writing or directing, Tony runs training courses for politicians, managers and others in media and presentation skills.