‘Adam Fowler’s first radio programme was for BBC World Service in 1994 when he travelled to the Russian Far North East, to live with semi-nomadic reindeer herders. Originally from Glasgow, he now works freelance from his home in Oxford, mostly producing work for BBC Radio 4, often with his wife Anna Scott-Brown. Their recent projects range from an ambitious 50 part history of Russia, (Russia: The Wild East) to an intimate portrait of a family putting their 16-year-old, severely autistic son into full time residential care (Letting Go of James).

Among other awards Adam has won a Sony Radio Academy Gold for a series of programmes for the Prison Radio Association in the UK on drugs in prisons; the Directors’ Choice Award at the 2010 Third Coast Audio Festival for a programme about The Loneliness of the Goalkeeper (also broadcast on RTE) and, with Anna, the Sandford St Martin Trust Premier Award for the programme Twin Sisters, Two Faiths, about identical twin sisters: one a devout Muslim, the other a devout Christian.

On An Irishman Chained to the Truth, Adam has worked closely with Allan Esler Smith, shadowing him as he pieced together the story of his Great Great Uncle, Brian Desmond Hurst. Due to the amount of ‘fly on the wall’ recordings required over the course of 18 months, Allan has had to learn to record his own material on some occasions and deserves credit for being a part of the programme making process.

Allan was born in Dungannon and now lives in Hertfordshire although he frequently spends time in Northern Ireland.

He is a chartered accountant, business advisor, author and owner of Quartertoten Productions Ltd. His website about Hurst, can be found at www.briandesmondhurst.org.