Christopher Riley: Difference between revisions

Riley went to school in [[Cambridge]], where he grew up. He studied [[geology]] at the [[University of Leicester]] for his first degree and completed his PhD at [[Imperial College London|Imperial College, University of London]] in the mid 1990s.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

Riley is a veteran of two [[NASA Astrobiology Institute|NASA astrobiology]] missions (Leonid MAC) from 1998 and 1999 – reporting on their progress for [[BBC News]]. He co-presented the BBC's live coverage of the [[Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999|1999]], [[Solar eclipse of 2001 June 21|2001]] and [[Solar eclipse of March 20, 2015|2015]] solar eclipses, and has fronted their astronomy magazine show ''Final Frontier'', their cosmology series ''Journeys in Time and Space'', and their live ''All Night Star Party'' – a co-production with the [[Open University]]. In 2006 he wrote and presented [[BBC Radio 4]]'s cosmology series ''The Cosmic Hunters''. Other documentaries he's written and presented for [[BBC Radio 4]] include ''Save the Moon'' (2014) and ''For All Mankind'' (2012).{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

In 2004 he produced the BBC's two-part drama documentary ''[[Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets]]''. He was the science consultant on the BBC's remakes of their science fiction cult classics ''[[A for Andromeda]]'' (2006) and ''[[The Quatermass Experiment (2005)|The Quatermass Experiment]]'' (2005). He directed and produced on the feature documentary film ''[[In the Shadow of the Moon (2007 film)|In the Shadow of the Moon]]'', which premiered at the [[2007 Sundance Film Festival]], where it won the World Cinema Audience Documentary Award. The film was released in the US and Europe during the autumn of 2007.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

Riley directed on the spinoff six-part series ''[[Moon Machines]]'' for the Discovery Channel in 2008, which celebrated the 400,000 engineers who'd made the Moonshots possible. The series aired in the US and the UK in June that year.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

During the making of [[In the Shadow of the Moon (2007 film)|''In the Shadow of the Moon'']], Riley rediscovered the only surviving 35mm print of the complete version of NASA's original Apollo 11 documentary film ''[[Moonwalk One]]'' which had been stored under the film's director [[Theo Kamecke]]'s desk since it was made. With NASA's blessing the pair worked to restore and remaster the feature film and re-released it in time for the 40th anniversary of the flight of [[Apollo 11]] in July 2009.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

At the [[Cheltenham Science Festival]] in 2009 he presented research conducted with forensic linguist John Olsson on the recordings of Neil Armstrong's first words spoken on the surface of the Moon in July 1969. Their study confirmed that the "a" was missing – contradicting previous conclusions presented by Peter Shann Ford in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chris-riley.com/one-small-word.html |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2009-07-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130119092707/http://www.chris-riley.com/one-small-word.html |archivedate=19 January 2013}} – An analysis of the recording of Armstrong's statement on stepping on the Moon in July 1969</ref> Olsson and Riley went on to show that the words were spoken spontaneously and were not rehearsed or composed by some 'wordsmith' beforehand as many have speculated they might have been.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

He produced [[Kevin Fong]]'s 2011 portrait of the Space Shuttle for [[BBC Two]] and Produced and Directed a 2012 film presented by [[Dallas Campbell]] which celebrated thirty-five years of [[NASA]]'s [[Voyager Program]] for [[BBC Four]]. The same year Riley collaborated with [[Neil Armstrong]]'s family to produce and direct the biopic ''First Man on the Moon'', which premiered on [[BBC Two]] at the end of 2012 and on PBS Nova in December 2014. The film included interviews with Armstrong's sister June, brother Dean, and childhood friend Kocho Solacoff.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

In 2014 he produced and directed a documentary about American neuroscientist [[John C Lilly|John Lilly]]'s controversial 1960s attempts to build an interspecies communications bridge between humans and dolphins. The film included the only onscreen interview recorded with the female researcher at the centre of the work - Margaret Howe Lovatt, who had reportedly developed a close relationship with one of the animals. The resulting film, ''The Girl who talked to Dolphins'', premiered at the 2014 Sheffield International Documentary Festival and received widespread five star reviews; ''The Telegraph'' noting that "the anti-sensationalist approach of Riley's superb documentary was its trump card."<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10905602/The-Girl-Who-Talked-to-Dolphins-review-moving.html] – ''The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins'' - review</ref> The film was nominated for both a BAFTA and an RTS award the same year and for a Grierson award in 2015.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}

In October 2015 Riley's long-awaited feature documentary ''[[The Fear of 13]]'' received its world premiere at the [[BFI London Film Festival#2015|BFI London Film Festival]] where it was nominated for Best Documentary.<ref>[http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/59th-bfi-london-film-festival-announces-2015-juries-first] - 59th BFI London Film Festival Announces Juries for First Feature Competition, Documentary Competition and Short Film Award</ref> The film tells the life story of death row prisoner [[Nick Yarris|Nicholas Yarris]], and took Riley over seven years to make, working without funding for the project for much of that time.<ref>[http://pressreleases.responsesource.com/news/88922/the-fear-of-13-the-film-producer-s-unbreakable-promise/] - The Fear of 13 - the film producer's unbreakable promise</ref> The title refers to triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13, just one of the many words learned by prisoner Nick Yarris while absorbing thousands of books during his 20-year stay on Death Row in a Pennsylvania prison.<ref>[http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/2015/11/12/the-fear-of-13-review-a-gripping-documentary-feature/] - ''The Hollywood News'' - ''The Fear of 13'' review: "A gripping documentary feature"</ref> It was received well by the critics scoring 92% on the review-aggregate site [[Rotten Tomatoes]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Fear of 13|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_fear_of_13/|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|accessdate=16 January 2016}}</ref> The film received its network premiere on the BBC's ''[[Storyville (TV series)|Storyville]]'' series on 31 January 2016, and was picked up by Netflix across the rest of the world.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}