Yvette Vanson

Born in Walton-on Thames , Surrey, Yvette Vanson escaped suburbia to study at drama school in Cardiff. An actress for several years in the 70s, in theatre and on TV, Yvette returned to study as a mature student and gained a BA. Hons.1st class in Social Science, before pursuing her career as an independent film maker with a job secured at the BBC. Then blacklisted from the BBC along with others, Yvette produced & directed via her independent production company Vanson Wardle Productions (VW) with Tony Wardle, journalist, many highly acclaimed training and promotional videos for major charities & NGOs, covering issues as diverse as disability, children in care and trade union rights, including the first Government film on the plight of carers. In the early 1980s she developed and managed the East Sussex Social Services Media Unit producing and directing ground breaking training videos for social services staff nationally and internationally. Finally returning to the BBC, Yvette produced a single documentary and a mini series. Later her award winning documentaries were made by VW with Tony Wardle, and later under the banner of her own company, Vanson Productions. Yvette produced and directed the vast majority of these films over a 20 years period from the mid-80s to 2000. She then returned to drama, as Executive Producer. Vanson Productions co-producing with Granada, The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, Bafta Winner Best Single Drama 2000. And Doomwatch, a feature length science thriller based on the cult 1970s TV series, with Working Title TV. Retiring from TV production, in 2004 Yvette first picked up a paintbrush at Putney School of Art & Design, and from 2013 had four successful London exhibitions, one in Yorkshire, and one in France. In the same period, she also became involved in co-writing and editing a number of books including a novel, The Inquest, with Tony Wardle, the best-selling Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer with Michael Mansfield QC, and Presumed Guilty the book of the documentary Yvette produced and directed for the BBC. She has just finished writing her memoir, the Simple Truth.