One of Liverpool’s best-known and longest-serving film and TV producers, Colin McKeown, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Edge Hill University. The doctorate acknowledges his two key contributions supporting the local community on Merseyside and his contribution to the wider TV and Film industry.
Colin McKeown, whose current vehicle is LA Productions, has enjoyed over 25 years in the industry.
He also helped to set up Mersey Television, which launched Channel 4’s launch flagship soap Brookside. Mersey TV was subsequently bought by All3Media and renamed Lime Pictures and as an employer of over 400 staff in Liverpool, remains by some distance the largest independent production house based outside London.
McKeown began his broadcast career aged 20 when he got a job at Granada Studios where he became a broadcast engineer.
During his career, he has worked with many of the UK’s leading names in the industry, including Frank Cottrell Boyce and Jimmy McGovern and he has also produced several household shows ranging from Coronation Street and Emmerdale to Brookside. In recent years he has been associated with newer series such as Justice, Moving On and Stepping Up. He has also collaborated with Jimmy McGovern on a feature film entitled – Common which is due to be screened later this year.
Outside of the broadcast industry, he has been actively involved with charity work, in particular with young and disadvantaged people across the North West.
Speaking after his ceremony, McKeown said: “I’m over the moon to receive recognition of my work in film and the community.
“Nothing is more rewarding than passing on opportunities to young film makers, consistent with the opportunity I received early in my career. Film is an educator, it is informative and when telling a story, particularly when based on fact, no other medium, in my opinion can be as effective.”
McKeown’s partner, Sara Wilde McKeown, the former commercial managing director of Trinity Mirror Regionals, has recently taken on a new role as managing director and major shareholder of the Liverpool-based PR agency Paver Smith.
