Piers Helm

Piers Helm joined the BBC in 1989, his first job fresh out of Maidstone College of Art, with a graphic design degree in print and packaging. He went to work on ‘Breakfast Time’, the first News programme to create programme content artwork digitally. The graphics were made using Quantel Paintboxes and Framestores and transmitted live from a ‘graphics gallery’. Before that, everything, including the weather, had been done with cardboard and Letraset and fed via caption cameras to the studio. Gradually a digital workflow was being introduced across all Current Affairs programmes and BBC News.

A spin-off called ‘Business Breakfast’ followed and in his interview, Piers talks about his approach to the graphics, “thinking outside of the box”, in his desire to make dry facts and data clearer, more engaging and entertaining for the audience. This characterised his concept for the title sequences of other programmes such as ‘Blood on the Carpet’ and ‘Working Lunch’. The whole scenario for the latter was filmed in 16mm on a motion-control stage with a live goldfish in a kitsch aquarium environment, representing the world of business and finance. Nowadays 3D computer-generated imagery would be his obvious solution to such a sequence.

An important part of Piers Helm’s working life has been his long-standing relationship with the highly popular dance competition ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, with which he has been associated as designer since the launch of the first series in 2004. He is never satisfied and enjoys building on the previous title sequence with each new series - nowadays in 4K 3D CGI. Having embraced all the new technologies as they evolved, Piers Helm enjoys surfing the wave of popular culture and entertainment, where he has found his own particular niche, illuminated by the antique glitter ball that decorates his studio.