In Conversation With John Lloyd CBE - September 23rd

Irish Film & Television Academy Members are invited to attend IFTA's In Conversation With...John Lloyd on Tuesday September 23rd in The Light House Cinema at 7pm, in discussion with John Maguire of The Sunday Business Post.

BAFTA winning John Lloyd is a producer, writer & director responsible for some of British television's most groundbreaking & best-loved comedy programmes of all time, including The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Not the Nine O' Clock News, Spitting Image, Blackadder and QI.

Lloyd first began his career as a radio producer for the BBC in the late seventies, co-writing episodes of the radio series of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy with college friend Douglas Adams. He also later produced the TV series of the same name. In 1979, he created & produced the BAFTA winning Not the Nine O' Clock News, the BBC comedy sketch show which ran for four years & launched the careers of several actors including Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson and Mel Smith. In 1984, Lloyd along with Peter Fluck and Roger Law created & produced the classic satirising puppet series Spitting Image, which quickly became one of the most-watched & defining television shows of the eighties. The BAFTA & Emmy Award winning series featured puppet caricatures of prominent politicians & public figures including Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Ronald Reagan and Queen Elizabeth.

Throughout the eighties, Lloyd produced all four seasons of the popular sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton & starring Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie. The series has achieved enduring popularity among viewers and critics, ranking among the top of the 100 Greatest British Programmes list created by the British Film Institute and voted the best British show of all time by the public in 2012.

Throughout his career, Lloyd also directed memorable & acclaimed commercial campaigns for brands such as Barclaycard, Kellogg's, Kit Kat, Castlemaine and Boddingtons. In 2003, he devised and created the hugely popular comedy panel show QI, hosted by Stephen Fry. The series gave BBC Four its highest ever ratings and has gained classic status among viewers, currently airing its eleventh series on BBC Two. The show has been nominated for multiple BAFTA's and has won both British Comedy & National Television Awards throughout its run. Lloyd was made a CBE in 2011 for services to broadcasting and currently hosts The Museum of Curiosity on BBC Radio 4.