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Chris Atkins (filmmaker)

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Chris Atkins
Christopher Atkins in 2016.
Born1976
NationalityBritish
OccupationDocumentary film maker
Notable work

Chris Atkins (born Christopher Walsh Atkins[1] in 1976[2]) is a British journalist and documentary film maker. He has made several fiction feature films, feature length documentaries and television documentaries. His work is noted for causing controversy and has faced legal action as a result of his films. He gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into the ethics of the British press.[1][3] In 2016 he was sentenced to five years in prison for two counts of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, theft and fraud.[4][5][6] He published a book about his time in jail entitled A Bit of a Stretch.

Early life and career

Atkins was educated at Bromsgrove School from 1989–1994.[7] His early career involved making low-budget dramas with director Richard Jobson,[8] including Jobson's debut feature film, 16 Years of Alcohol, which was nominated for five British Independent Film Awards in 2003, winning two. He also produced The Purifiers with Jobson in 2004, a martial arts film set in the future, which was acquired by Working Title and released in the USA by New Line Cinema. In 2005, he produced Jobson's A Woman In Winter, starring Jamie Sivves, Julie Gayet and Brian Cox. It was nominated for two Scottish BAFTAs, including best film.

Taking Liberties

In 2007, Atkins directed his first feature documentary Taking Liberties,[9] which criticised the Blair government for undermining civil liberties since the war on terror. While making Taking Liberties, Atkins was held under anti-terror laws when he tried to speak with the Home Secretary John Reid at the 2006 Labour Party conference.[8] The film was released in over 50 British cinemas shortly before Blair stepped down in 2007. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave the film 4 stars, saying "there's something exhilarating about this thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile docu-blast against Tony Blair's insidious diminution of native British liberties."[10] The film was BAFTA nominated for the "Carl Foreman award for special achievement by a British director, writer or producer in their first feature film" in the 2008 British Academy Film Awards.[11]

Starsuckers

In 2009, Atkins directed his second feature documentary, Starsuckers,[12] which heavily criticised the media for the negative effects of celebrity culture. The film gained wide notoriety for selling fake celebrity stories to several British tabloid newspapers, and for secretly filming journalists from Sunday tabloids, who were attempting to buy celebrity medical records. The Guardian newspaper published two front page stories about Starsuckers in October 2009, and the News Of The World quickly contacted the filmmakers to assert that they had never threatened libel actions against another publication.[13] Atkins also secretly filmed the celebrity publicist Max Clifford boasting about how he kept embarrassing stories about his clients out of the media. Clifford also tried to legally block the film's release. The film also criticised Bob Geldof over the negative consequences of both Live Aid and Live 8 charity concerts, leading Geldof to write Atkins a 6,000 word letter, attacking the film days before it was screened on Channel 4 in 2010. Thirty minutes of footage from Starsuckers were shown as part of Atkins' evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.[3] His evidence was quoted extensively in Leveson's final report.

Work for Channel 4 and ITV

Atkins went on to make TV documentaries for the Channel 4 television series Dispatches,.[14] In 2012 he spent a year undercover investigating the illegal trade in confidential data,[15] in which Atkins bought private information on volunteers from unwitting private detectives to illustrate the ease with which data is bought and sold on the black market. The film culminated in Atkins being unmasked by two private detectives who chased him down a street. He also produced and directed the Dispatches special, Celebs, Brands and Fake Fans, which attempted to show how social media popularity can be bought and sold. The film generated considerable controversy when it was revealed that Atkins had secretly filmed several members of the ITV soap Coronation Street at a gifting suite, where Atkins had handed out fake products in return for glowing endorsement tweets from several Coronation Street stars, including Brooke Vincent. The investigation was run on the front of The Sun and The Mirror newspaper, and ITV threatened to sue Channel 4 if the film was broadcast, but the film was screened in August 2013 without any legal action.

Writing

Atkins occasionally writes for The Guardian,[15] including an investigation into how British soldiers who join the Army aged 16 and 17 are more likely to suffer PTSD, depression and suicide.

Atkins was also a credited writer on the hit BBC3 show "The Revolution Will Be Televised", which featured political stunts by Heydon Prowse and Joylon Rubenstein. The first series won a Television BAFTA in 2012 and was nominated again in 2013.

In 2013, he produced and directed the Panorama episode "All in a Good Cause", which looked into unethical investments made by charities such as Comic Relief,[16] the aftermath of which resulted in Atkins claiming he had, "turned into the comedy establishment's most hated man".[17] The investigation into Comic Relief's investments, and the resulting public outcry, led to the charity selling off millions of pounds of shares in arms companies, alcohol firms and tobacco manufacturers and changing its investment policy. Atkins' Panorama was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA in 2014.

In June 2014, the Wall Street Journal[18] as well as Campaign Magazine[19] reported on Atkins and Nimrod Kamer's protestations at the advertising festival, Cannes Lions.

UKIP: The First 100 Days

In 2015, Atkins wrote and directed "UKIP: The First 100 Days", a one-hour mockumentary drama for Channel 4.[20] The film was set in an imagined future where UKIP had won the 2015 general election, and mixed real news archive with fly on the wall style footage of a fictional UKIP MP, Deepa Kaur. The film was broadcast on 16 February 2015 and caused considerable controversy, leading to over 6000 complaints to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom.[21] UKIP supporters were upset that the film portrayed UKIP policies in a negative light so close to the general election. However the Ofcom rejected all of the complaints and ruled that the film had not breached the Ofcom code.

Fraud

In 2016, Atkins went on trial at Southwark Crown Court for tax fraud. He had been arrested in 2012 by the HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service as part of enquiry into tax evasion schemes within the British film industry.[22] He was found guilty on two counts of "conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, theft and fraud", sentenced to five years in jail and disqualified from acting as a company official for 12 years.[4][5][6]

A Bit of a Stretch

Atkins kept a diary recording his experiences in HM Prison Wandsworth, between July 2016, when he was sentenced, and March 2017, when he was transferred to an open prison. The diary was published in February 2020 as A Bit of a Stretch, and has received positive reviews.[23]

Filmography

Year Film Type Role
2007 Taking Liberties Documentary feature Director
2009 Starsuckers Documentary feature Director
2015 UKIP: The First 100 Days Mockumentary feature Writer / director

Bibliography

  • Atkins, Chris; Bee, Sarah; Button, Fiona (2007). Taking Liberties. Revolver Books. ISBN 978-1905978038.
  • Atkins, Chris (2020). A Bit of a Stretch: The Diary of a Prisoner. Atlantic Books. ISBN 9781838950156

References

  1. ^ a b "Atkins' Evidence to the Leveson Inquiry". 6 December 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  2. ^ "VIAF entry". Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  3. ^ a b Lisa O'Carroll and Josh Halliday (6 December 2011). "Leveson inquiry: Chris Atkins, David Leigh, Charlotte Harris - live". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Bafta-nominated producers of Starsuckers film jailed for £2.2m tax scam". BBC. 1 July 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Film producers jailed for 'audacious' £2.2m film tax scam". Press Association. 1 July 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Regina v. Christopher Walsh-Atkins and Christina Slater Sentencing" (PDF). 1 July 2016.
  7. ^ "Bromsgrovian News Review" (PDF). Spring 2008. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  8. ^ a b Wheeler, Brian (1 June 2007). "Taking liberties?". BBC. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
  9. ^ Reynolds, Nigel (5 February 2007). "New film 'exposes Orwellian Labour'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  10. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (8 June 2007). "Taking Liberties". the Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  11. ^ "Taking Liberties Awards". IMDB.
  12. ^ Starsuckers celebrity hoax dupes tabloids, The Guardian, 14 October 2009
  13. ^ Townend, Judith (8 April 2010). "Documentary's legal battles reveal ugly truth about UK media culture". Journalism.co.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  14. ^ Greenslade, Roy (5 August 2013). "Coronation Street Twitter sting claims: Channel 4 to air Dispatches film". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  15. ^ a b "Chris Atkins". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  16. ^ "Panorama, All in a Good Cause". BBC. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  17. ^ Atkins, Chris (13 December 2013). "How I revealed bad investments by Comic Relief - and turned into the comedy establishment's most hated man". The Independent. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  18. ^ Jack Marshall, "Ad Agency Spoofs Cannes for Promo Videos featuring Nimrod Kamer", Wall Street Journal, 18 June 2014
  19. ^ Ben Hall, "Watch: Satirist takes on Sir Martin Sorrell and joins Kanye West's entourage", Campaign Magazine, 19 June 2014
  20. ^ Plunkett, John (30 October 2014). "Nigel Farage to take power in Ukip documentary spoof". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  21. ^ Plunkett, John (23 February 2015). "Ukip docudrama: watchdog investigates after more than 6,500 complaints". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  22. ^ Brown, David (25 May 2016). "Celebrity hoax film-makers go on trial for tax fraud". The Times. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  23. ^ Morrison, Blake (5 February 2020). "A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins review – how to survive in prison". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
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