May ends and I'm a married man

And I'm sat in a the roasting hot tin that is the In The City office. For 6 months of the year I'm a music head and the other 6 I'm a TV head. The music head part of me lives here in this office unless I'm making a music film which means I have to go outside....

I started here in 2005 when I was made redundant from ITV Granada, or Granada TV if you are from the North West of England. I found out I'd lost my job just as I'd started to get producer credits which had taken a measly 5 years to achieve. Regional Tv was great like that, you'd go see the boss and they'd say "right we've no budget...anyone here able to use a camera?" so you'd be straight out at the deep end from the word go. I'd completed 13 programmes and spent 2 years working in the News Room by the time I'd left. As a runner I'd turned up from Nottingham with no idea about making TV or geography of the region.

Nobody actually says to you "This is how you make TV", you either sink or swim. I floated to begin with but soon found my rythmn and off I went. Cooking shows, Loads of Live TV, Travel Shows, Music Documentaries, People Documentaries and more. I was either lucky or quite good because I won 2 Royal Television awards while I was there which doesn't come about often. Best Regional Programme and Best Regional News Programme for a live show with the PM.

However the halcyon days had already begun to fade from Granada and the scissors were being sharpened for the giant job cut bonanza of 2005. I was one of about 30 in an office of 60 to go. Shucks.

Factory Records music mogul Tony Wilson rang me one day when I found out I was getting the chop to say "I hear you are being made redundant from that shite TV company down the road" (he was one of the main presenters over 20 years in various regional TV shows so yes, I felt the irony) "come and work for me instead, you'll love the music industry its miles more fun".

Can't believe I'm still here sometimes. We lost Tony to cancer in 2007 but I guess his spirit lives on in the convention and yeah he was right, after a pretty turbulent end to the Granada days the people in the Music industry provided an impulsive enthusiasm for its subject matter that I'd been gagging to endure. Wilson was right. Bestest....time....ever.

It was at In The City though that I met my other half. I'd invited her last year to come and talk at the convention and she obliged, flying all the way from LA to do so. It's fair to say we got on and bizarrely she thought I was quite amusing. As she's American admittedly I wondered if my humour would get lost on her but her Mum is English so she totally gets British humour. Result! I thought "stick with this one, she's really special".

Turns out she was more than that, I was completely bowled over with her and after just 3 weeks together we knew we had legs to make this work. So we did, and in April this year after meeting up again in the New Year I went to stay with her for a few weeks and my future was sealed.

She's completely gorgeous and by far the best thing that has ever happened to me.

We got married just before I came back to the UK (yes you read that right). So I'm home to finish off things, home to prepare to move, home to shift my work, home to say goodbye to everyone as I prepare to take my life to Los Angeles to be with my lovely wife. I'm about to pick my home up and move it 7000 miles. I've started the immigration process, the paperwork is in... this is it!