- Nomadic Childhood
Angela Holdsworth
Angela Neuberger (nee Holdsworth) was born in 1947 in Newcastle-on-Tyne. As an army child she moved with her family 16 times – most dramatically when airlifted by RAF bomber from Tripoli during the Suez Crisis. (Her school was part of Azizia Barracks, later commandeered by Colonel Gaddaffi and transformed into his massively fortified family compound).
London in the Swinging Sixties was more enticing than university. After a couple of dull jobs, Angela became PA to two young Scottish MPs: Donald Dewar and Robert Maclennan and a life-long interest in politics began. She then read political science at Tufts University, Massachusetts, paying her way with a part-time job typing up the thoughts and books of the controversial author, inventor and behavioural psychologist BF Skinner.
- US Peace March 1969 (far right)
In the Summer of 1969 she was employed by Norman Mailer to manage the volunteers working on his campaign to be Mayor of New York and in the ensuing chaos ended up running the campaign headquarters. She also worked as an occasional stringer for Charles Wheeler, then the BBC’s Washington correspondent, and on returning to London in 1971 began as a researcher on the BBC’s late-night current affairs programme, 24 Hours.
For the next seven years, she worked on various current affairs programmes covering, among many other issues, Watergate, US and British elections, Northern Ireland, women’s rights, health and homelessness.
- Dorset 1985
In 1976 she married David Neuberger and they have three children – Jessica (born in 1977), Nicholas (1979) and Max (1981). After Jessica’s birth Angela changed BBC departments, moving to Documentaries where she joined the Man Alive team. After a few years she began to specialise in history programmes, producing some of the BBC’s most popular documentary series of the 1980s. It was a golden era for television, with interesting projects and the time and money to do them justice. She moved on to become Editor of Crimewatch UK and the BBC’s legal programmes. But working through school holidays became increasingly complicated and in the early 1990s she left the BBC for a more flexible working life.
- A BBC Edit Suite 1988
Since then Angela has made documentaries for the EU Commission, Channel 4 and the BBC and edited several books. She was a Grierson Trustee for many years and frequently chairs a jury for the British Documentary Awards. She holds non-executive directorships in the voluntary and public sectors and lives in London and Dorset.
- Grierson Awards 2011
