About Douglas
Douglas Anderson is some kind of artist. He works in various fields but would be utterly lost without music, it’s always been his unwavering companion, a constant source of comfort and inspiration through the good, bad and indifferent. Quite handy then that this passion for music has also lead him to working on major feature films such as Bart Layton’s American Animals in the role of music consultant.
What of other professional duties? As a broadcaster Douglas has presented for the BBC, Channel 4 and BAFTA among others specialising in genres from music and film to sport and entertainment. This and more is detailed in his book, the part memoir, part how to guide to creativity – Left Of The Mainstream: From DIY Film-maker To Public Service Broadcaster.
Then there are his short films which have been screened at the BFI as well as internationally. They include Looking Up, a meditative filmic essay on the search for calm and The London Nobody Knows Now which sees Douglas retracing the steps of James Mason from his documentary about the unknown London in 1967.
There’s also the current podcast series which sees Douglas present and produce the critically acclaimed Stories From St Paul’s for St Paul’s Cathedral. It was recently named Pick Of The Day in The Sunday Times no less. That was a bonus.
We’re never far away from music though and his mix series Seven Floors Up goes from strength to strength on the Mixcloud platform. Combining all manner of songs with esoteric audio interludes it is he believes, a true public service and who would dare to disagree.
Of course, he’s known to many for letting his humour and opinions run loose as a regular on BBC Radio 5Live’s award winning Fighting Talk where he has attained something of a cult following. The Velvet Underground also had a cult following when they were functioning.
His third book Never Save A Good Idea was recently published. You should get it if you haven’t already, it’s really rather good. A bit of a triple whammy as it happens what with it being entertaining, inspiring and also at times, profound.
So in a nutshell he’s gained a reputation as an accomplished, intelligent and witty broadcaster, a critically acclaimed podcaster, DJ, feature film music consultant, author and filmmaker. He should be a lot more famous but at least he’s talented. He’ll probably make you laugh if you ever met him and that can’t be a bad thing.
There’s much more he’s done and doing, but that’s enough to be getting on with for now.