Brian Lapping

Chairman and Executive Producer Brook Lapping, is a programme-maker and historian who started his career working as a journalist on The Guardian and The Financial Times.  He then became Executive Producer including World in Action and End of Empire (14 x 1H) for Granada.  As an independent, Brian won the first contract put out to indies by BBC Current Affairs – to run Question Time for three years. He has been jointly responsible with Norma Percy for THE SECOND RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, WATERGATE, THE DEATH OF YUGOSLAVIA, THE 50 YEARS WAR, ISRAEL AND THE ARABS, PLAYING THE CHINA CARD,  ENDGAME IN IRELAND, AVENGING TERROR, THE FALL OF MILOSEVIC, ELUSIVE PEACE, ISRAEL AND THE ARABS and IRAN & THE WEST. These award-winning series have been shown in more than 30 countries.

Brian was awarded a CBE in 2005 for services to broadcasting.

Norma Percy

Director of Brook Lapping and Executive Producer, she has been Series Producer of all the series which a 1995 BBC policy statement described as ‘virtually a new genre of documentary’ that retells momentous events from the recent past with meticulous objectivity and with the principal actors recording their version of what happened. 

A Guardian leader in ‘Praise of Norma Percy (February 2009) wrote: Her documentaries stand out ...most of all for the extraordinary range of people who agree to appear on them ...Every significant international story seems to have its Percy film. THE SECOND RUSSIAN REVOLUTION followed the fall of the Soviet Union. THE DEATH OF YUGOSLAVIA traced the causes and consequences of the Balkan wars. Two series, ELUSIVE PEACE and THE 50 YEARS WAR, examined the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the peace process that approached success but never achieved it, while ENDGAME IN IRELAND explained how a conflict was resolved. And IRAN AND THE WEST ...produced by Percy, working with executive producer Brian Lapping, whose company sustains the gold standard of documentary making.

These series have won more than two dozen major awards including an Emmy, two Bafta’s, four Royal Television Society journalism awards, three Columbia University du Pont journalism awards, and are broadcast worldwide. 

Norma was made a fellow of the Royal Television Society in 2000,  received an honorary degree from City University in 2004 and both the 2000 and the 2003 James Cameron prizes for outstanding journalism.  In 2009 Norma was awarded the Grierson Trust’s Trustee’s Award and, in 2010, the Royal Television Society's Judges' Award.

Anne Lapping

Executive Producer, was founder producer of Channel 4’s A WEEK IN POLITICS which ran from 1982 until the fall of the John Major government.  She has also produced major documentaries on Tony Blair’s years in office (THE RISE AND FALL OF TONY BLAIR), the international development of satellite television (SATELLITE WARS), social policy (CAN’T PAY, WON’T PAY) as well as dramas (A VOTE FOR HITLER, A STRIKE OUT OF TIME, etc), and a personal biography of Margaret Thatcher (MAGGIE – THE FIRST LADY) for ITV.  In 2008 she made GORDON BROWN: WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG? for Channel  4.  Anne was awarded a CBE in 2005 for services to broadcasting.

Simon Hollis

Head of Brook Lapping Radio
Brook Lapping Radio has made a number of award-winning features for BBC Radio 4. Simon started working as a producer and writer on 5 Live’s weekly political programme Sunday Service and produced a number of music series for BBC Radio 2, including BLUE NOTE: A STORY OF MODERN JAZZ. In 2006 his LENNON: THE WENNER TAPES won a Sony Gold. A number of other programmes have also received awards, including FALKLANDS: WAR AT THE WHITE HOUSE and NOT NO-ONE: THE STORY OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER both for Radio 4. His two part series on soul music and civil rights I SHOULD BE PROUD was the overall Grand winner of 2008’s International Radio Broadcasting Awards held in New York.