John Walsh

Film Maker John Walsh was born in London and is founder of film company Walsh Bros Ltd. His film work on subjects such as social mobility and social justice have brought him many awards including two BAFTA nominations. His company Walsh Bros Ltd. was ranked in the Production 100, a ranking of the top 100 independent film companies in the UK, by Televisual in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

A film maker from a young age, John had his first super-8 camera by the age of ten. At the age of 18 he was the youngest student accepted to the London Film School in 1989where his documentary work got him was noticed with his film on stop-motion animation filmmaker Ray Harryhausen. Today John Walsh is a Trustee of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.

In 2010 John Walsh stood as a Parliamentary candidate in the 2010 General Election and made the gonzo-style documentary feature film Tory Boy The Movie which was released in cinemas in 2011 and 2012. The film follows Walsh as he becomes a Conservative candidate after a lifetime of voting Labour. In the film, he claims that Sir Stuart Bell, the Labour Party's MP in Middlesbrough, is absent so often from Middlesbrough that he is an unsuitable candidate. According to Richard Moss, a BBC film critic, "some silliness aside, it is a thought-provoking insight into the way our political system works or doesn't work on the ground."It was subsequently nominated for the Grieson Documentary award for "Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme". The film received a re-release in cinemas in 2015 in the lead up to the 2015 UK General Election. It was controversially banned in Middlesbrough where the film was set.

In 2014 John Walsh's remastered version of the film Monarch was released. The original negative for the film had been lost and was the subject of various newspaper reports. The film starred late Irish stage and screen actor T. P. McKenna and Jean Marsh. This subsequently led to cinema showing starting at the Tricycle Cinemain London.

He discussed the issues around finding the lost negatives for Monarch and other lost projects with BBC Radio 2 Janice Long

In 2010 Rose d'Or nominated Walsh's five part BBC series on childhood homeless Sofa Surferswas nominated for the Social Award at the Rose d'Or Awards.

The BAFTA nominated film My Life: Karate Kidsfor the first time tackled issues of bullying among disabled children. It was narrated by Doctor Who actor David Tennant

The Monte Carlo TV Nominated BBC film Toy Soldiers presented the point of view of the bereaved children of UK service personnel. John discusses this on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme. The film was praised by Dr Geraldine Walford for challenging perceptions around the topic of childhood grief. "good to see this sensitive and crucially important topic being opened up for people to learn from.". Also nominated for Prix Jeunesse International Munich.

John Walsh's three part Grierson Trusts Nominated BBC series Headhunting The Homelesswas part of the BBC’s 120 most treasured programmes in the corporation’s drive to convince its critics that the licence fee should not be abolished. John worked again with charity boss Eva Hamilton MBE again on her latest venture Key 4 Life and made a documentary in December 2013 about their work with former young offenders.

The BAFTA nominated and New York Festival winning Channel 4 Series Don't Make Me Angry was television's first anger management series. This ran for two series.

John Walsh founded Walsh Bros Ltd. production company in April 1992 . Its film work on subjects such as social mobility and social justice have brought many awards including two BAFTA nominations. Walsh Bros Ltd. was ranked in the Production 100, a ranking of the top 100 independent film companies in the UK, by Televisual in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

John Walsh was made a Trustee [1] of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation in 2014. He first met with Ray Harryhausen in 1988 as a film student of the London Film School and made documentary entitled Ray Harryhausen: Movement Into Lifenarrated by Doctor Who actor Tom Baker.

John Walsh filmed and recorded commentary tracks with Ray Harryhausen in his London home commencing 17 May 2012. Since that date recordings were made for Clash of The Titans, Mysterious Island, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, First Men in the Moon with Academy Awards winner Randy Cook, The Valley of Gwangi with his daughter Vanessa Harryhausen, One Million Years B.C. with Martine Beswick, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad with fellow Trustee Caroline Munro, Mighty Joe Young with film director John Landis and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger with SFX artist Colin Arthur. This last was recorded in January 2013. John Walsh donated the film and sound footage recorded entirely to the Ray Harryhausen Foundation and they contain many new revelations by Ray on how his films were created and produced.

In February 2016 The Foundation launched the The Ray Harryhausen Podcast. This included never before heard audio from Ray Harryhausen. Hosted by Collections Manager Connor Heaney and John Walsh, these were made available and broadcast via iTunes.

John has spoken on many occasions about his film work with broadcasters and recently with Today BBC Radio 4 discussing his war documentary Toy Soldiers. and Monarchand ToryBoy The Movie. for BBC Radio 2 Spoken Word Session with Janice Long.

John was a keynote speaker at the Society for Animation Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University in July 2015discussing the work of the Ray Harryhausen Foundation and plans for the centenary in 2020. The Scotsman reported on the centenary plans for the Foundation with a tour of items from the collection quoting John Walsh “As 2020 will be Ray’s centenary, we want to do a series of events counting down to this date.”.

In 2016 John gave a talk commemorating Ray Harryhausen's birthday at the Cinema Museum. This included a screening of his documentary Ray Harryhausen: Movement Into Life and in August 2016 at the Starburst Magazine Film Festival.

In September 2016, John appeared at the fifth annual Cinestrange Festival in Braunschweig, Germany, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Earth vs the Flying Saucers. The film was shown in colour for the first time.

On the 2nd October 2016 John gave a keynote talk at Canterbury Christ Church University at their animation festival, Anifest

On the 17th November John spoke at the Manchester Animation Festival

MCM London Comic Con 27th May 2017 John gave a talk for the upcoming The Barbican exhibition of science fiction entitled 'Into the Unknown' on Ray Harryhausen

• Directors Guild of Great Britain (Vice Chair from 1998 to 2000) member of awards committee for Lifetime Achievement Awards for Alan Parkerand Stanley Kubrick
• Writers' Guild of Great Britain
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts
• Directors UK
• Royal Television Society