John Walsh is an English filmmaker and author. He is the founder of the film company Walsh Bros. Ltd.[2] Two of his children’s documentaries received BAFTA nominations. Since 2019, he has written a series of “making of” coffee table books for Titan Publishing Group. Walsh is a Trustee of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.[3][4]

Early life and education

A filmmaker from a young age, Walsh had his first super-8 camera by the age of ten. At the age of 18 he was the youngest student accepted to the London Film School (LFS) in 1989.[5] He made a film there on stop-motion animation filmmaker Ray Harryhausen.[citation needed] Walsh graduated from the LFS in 1990 or 1991, according to its blog.[6][7]

Film

Walsh founded Walsh Bros Ltd. in 1992.[8] It was ranked 70 in the Televisual Magazine's list of the top 100 independent film companies in the UK in 2012.[9]

In 2010, Walsh stood as a parliamentary candidate in the 2010 General Election and made the gonzo-style documentary feature film Tory Boy The Movie, which was released in cinemas in 2011 and 2012.[10] The film follows Walsh as he becomes a Conservative candidate after a lifetime of voting Labour motivated by reports that Sir Stuart Bell, the Labour Party's MP in Middlesbrough, was absent so often from the town that he was an unsuitable candidate.[11] The file was nominated for the Grierson Awards for "Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme".[12]

In 2014, Walsh's remastered version of the film Monarch was released.[13] The original negative for the film had been lost. The film starred late Irish stage and screen actor T. P. McKenna and Jean Marsh.[14] This subsequently led to cinema showing starting at the Tricycle Cinema.[15][16][17]

Television

Walsh's three-part Grierson Trust-nominated BBC series Headhunting The Homeless was part of the corporation's 120 most treasured programmes of the first half of 2003, and was included in the corporation's drive to convince its critics that the licence fee should not be abolished.[18] The Guardian described the series as "truly touching"[19] and also chose it as their Pick of the Day.[20]

The BAFTA-nominated[21] and New York Film Festival-winning[22] Channel 4 series Don't Make Me Angry (2003) was about anger management.[23] This ran for two series.[24]

In 2010, Walsh's five part BBC series on childhood homelessness, Sofa Surfers, was nominated for the Social Award at the Rose d'Or Awards.[25]

The BAFTA-nominated 2010 film My Life: Karate Kids[26] tackled issues of bullying among disabled children. It was narrated by David Tennant.[27][28]

The Monte Carlo Golden Nymph Award nominated [29] BBC film Toy Soldiers, made in 2010 and screened in 2014, presented the point of view of the bereaved children of UK service personnel. Walsh discussed this on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme.[30] According to the blog of the private medical service Dr Mortons, the film was mentioned positively by retired psychiatrist Geraldine Walford, who said it had been shown in schools across the country.[31] It was also entered for the Foundation Prix Jeunesse in 2012.[32]

Walsh worked with charity boss Eva Hamilton on her venture Key4Life and made a five-minute publicity film for them in December 2013 about their work with former young offenders.[33]

Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation

Walsh has been a Trustee of the Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation since 2014.[4] He first met with Ray Harryhausen in the late 1980s as a film student of the London Film School[34] and in 1990 wrote and directed a 15-minute documentary entitled Ray Harryhausen: Movement Into Life, narrated by Tom Baker.[35]

Walsh helped the Foundation film and record commentary tracks in Ray Harryhausen’s London home commencing 17 May 2012. Since that date recordings were made about Clash of The Titans, Mysterious Island, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, First Men in the Moon with Randy Cook, The Valley of Gwangi with his daughter Vanessa Harryhausen, One Million Years B.C. with Martine Beswick, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad with fellow Trustee Caroline Munro, Mighty Joe Young with film director John Landis and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger with SFX artist Colin Arthur.[36] These were released as podcasts.[37]

At San Diego Comic-Con in 2021, the Foundation announced the new Ray Harryhausen Awards, devised by Walsh.[38][39] Walsh then received one of these awards in 2022.[40]

Writing and journalism

In additional to his film and TV screenplays, Walsh has written on film history, politics and religion in The Daily Telegraph,[41] The Independent,[42] The Catholic Herald[43] and Conservative Home.[44] He contributed to the Titan Books title, Ray Harryhausen Poster Art Book, written by sci-fi journalist and author Richard Holliss.[45]