Empire’s Child: Broadcaster Charlene White’s Journey

Empire’s Child follows award-winning journalist and broadcaster Charlene White on her deeply personal journey looking at her family connection to the British Empire, how it’s shaped her family’s lives and asks what it is to be Black and British. Charlene White: Empire’s Child is a Doc Hearts Production for ITV and takes Charlene around Britain and Jamaica.

We’re joined by Charlene White and some of the Doc Hearts team including Anna Manton, producer/director Rachael McLean Anderson, production manager, Jacqueline Springer, researcher and Lizzy Elton, assistant producer, to hear about their journey of the show from idea and commission to production, bringing the White family together as contributors and what made them say yes and hearing about Charlene’s experience of looking back at their family history. 

Charlene White is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. At ITV, she is lead presenter of ITV News London and a regular anchor of the flagship Evening News programme. Charlene was the first Black woman to present ITV News At Ten. She has also presented several documentaries for the ‘Tonight’ and ‘On Assignment' strands of ITV and was part of their presenting team for the 2018 Royal Wedding programme.

She recently joined the Loose Women team as the new anchor. Charlene has over 20 years experience in the industry. She has worked in the UK and abroad – in both print and broadcasting. She began her career as a feature writer for the New York Post and then became a trainee producer for ITV Meridan. At BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra she started as a reporter and presenter. Later, she landed her own show on BBC London, as well as presenting for the BBC News Channel, BBC Five Live and BBC Three. Charlene writes for publications including The Guardian and the Daily Mail on a regular basis. She is a mentor to aspiring journalists, working with various organisations to achieve better representation of women and minorities in the industry.

She won two RTS Awards: Best Children’s Programme for IRL with Team Charlene, teaching kids about race and racism and Best Daytime Programme for the all Black Loose Women panel. She recently co-hosted an important new documentary with Sir Trevor Mcdonald, Has George Floyd Changed Britain?, which aired on primetime ITV in May this year.

Anna Manton

After leaving university Anna Manton carved a successful career in television in Manchester, most notably spending several years as a Producer/Director on Tonight With Trevor McDonald, before taking a long sabbatical to raise her two daughters. She made a return to television in early 2020 at the invitation of ITV, as Series Producer of a documentary on black history with presenter Alison Hammond. The programme has received a nomination  in the 2021 Grierson Awards.

Rachael McLean Anderson

Rachael trained in production management on the Production Panel at the BBC spending 10 years there working across such stalwarts as Blue Peter, Arena, and a number of flagship BBC documentaries. She is a specialist in setting up international filming. She left TV after having her first daughter in 2013 and moved into the branded space working across campaigns for brands such as McDonalds,  UNICEF, Levi’s and  Pioneer DJ.  Empire’s child marks Rachael’s return to television which she has very much enjoyed!

Jacqueline Springer

Jacqueline Springer is the newly appointed (and the first) V&A Curator of African and Diaspora Performance. Prior to taking this role, Jacqueline background was in higher education, broadcast music journalism and event curation. She has contributed to BBC arts programming and has extensively lectured at UK and US universities, specialising in the studies of medias, contemporary Black musics, societies and cultures.

Lizzy Elton

Lizzy started her TV career as a development intern and has since moved on and found her passion in factual entertainment and documentary formats, particularly those which include genealogy, historical research and archive. Charlene White: Empire’s Child is her first one-part documentary special, but before this Lizzy has worked on multiple series of BAFTA award winning  Long Lost Family and Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace for ITV1, as well as the DNA Journey series which saw Lizzy look into the pasts of celebrities such as Jamie Redknapp & Freddie Flintoff and Martin & Roman Kemp, also for ITV1.

Event Schedule:

18:55: Please join the webinar waiting room

19:00: HOST to lead conversation

19:45: Attendee Q&A opens

20:00: Finish

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