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  • Sarah Carr

    With a large team of directors, producers, production assistants, and researchers, keeping Horizon on schedule and within budget was no mean feat. Unit Manager Sarah Carr had the mammoth task of keeping the Horizon ship afloat, which she did with wit, charm and firmness!

  • David Dugan

    David Dugan joined Horizon in 1976 as a researcher, having only contributed science articles to the national press before. He heard about his appointment to the programme by what today would be considered antiquated means – telegram!

  • Andrew Cohen

    Arguably the rise through the world of TV science, of the hugely popular and highly successful physicist and communicator Professor Brian Cox, was down to Andrew Cohen.

  • Maggie Bebbington

    By 1992 Director General Michael Checkland had seen through the introduction of the inital phase of the BBC’s internal market called Producer Choice. For a Unit Manager like Maggie Bebbington there were a few surprises in store.

  • Edward Goldwyn

    Ed Goldwyn joined the BBC in 1962 first as a researcher, then producer in schools, education, and Open University programmes. He was anxious to move to Horizon which had impressed him since it first began in 1964.

  • Tessa Livingstone

    Horizon is known for its specialist and engaging science films, but occasionally the production team finds itself in a breaking news situation when on location.

  • Martin Freeth

    The pressures of the multi-channel world were not a concern for earlier Horizon film makers. Although Martin Freeth experienced some of the changes brought about by digital TV, his Horizon career (1971–1997) rarely encountered pressure to deliver anything other than ‘a good programme’.

  • Chris La Fontaine

    Such was the power of television in the 1970s (there were only three TV channels in the UK until 1982), that sometimes it was enough to simply look behind the scenes of an institution and see what went on there.

  • Graham Massey

    Horizon soon started to make itself known as a vehicle for breaking science stories and questioning accepted wisdoms. Graham Massey was Head of BBC Science between 1989-91, and was a Horizon film maker between 1974 and 1985.

  • John Lynch

    When John Lynch joined Horizon in the 1970s, simply revealing how something ‘worked’, without necessarily telling any ‘story’ as such, provided sufficient interest for audiences.

  • Christopher Sykes

    In 1980 Christopher Sykes wrote and produced The Slatemakers for Horizon. It was this programme that triggered his own unique approach to science television. For Chris, people were the key to successful science documentaries.

  • Jana Bennett

    It took until 1990 for the BBC to appoint a women to the position of Editor, Horizon. It had not been a straightforward journey for Jana Bennett who took the job, having faced some less than positive views about the role of women in broadcasting.

    • About the interviewer 

    Simon Campbell-Jones joined the Horizon team in 1968, and produced and directed a huge range of programmes, covering very diverse topics. He was the series editor until 1982, but continued to make editions of the programme until 1995.

    He started work on Horizon without a science background, having joined the BBC after making industrial films. Once inside the Corporation, he didn't join Horizon immediately, but made quite an impact on his arrival nevertheless, producing one of the most watched television films of all time.

    It was a short instructional film to demonstrate how colour TV sets should be adjusted! Shown literally hundreds of times on BBC One and BBC Two from 1967 until the early 1970s, it was this short film that propelled Simon toward Horizon, which was just four years old when he joined it.

    Find out more about Horizon

  • The other side of Horizon

     The science programmes that came before

  • Horizon 60 interviews

    A sequence of interviews with the makers of Horizon over its 60 years.

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