NEWS

Founder-Director of ReadDillon in South Africa, Tim Hughes, was honoured to be the special advisor to the BBC’s Nelson Mandela memorial broadcasts from South Africa.

Continuing a long relationship dating back to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, Tim’s role as advisor to the BBC included background research to the memorial events, political analysis and the identification and sourcing of expert guests for the BBC’s UK and global broadcasts of the memorial events around Mr Mandela’s passing.

Led by the doyen of global events broadcasting, Mr David Dimbleby, Tim was advisor to the cream of the BBC’s events team that has broadcast recent events such as the funeral of Mrs Thatcher, the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Guests on the BBC programme included British Prime Minister, David Cameron, Mr Mandela’s lawyer, Advocate George Bizos, Mr Mandela’s Advisory Council head Dr Yvonne Muthien, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Moeletsi Mbeki, Prince Buthelezi, Nkosi Pathakile Holomisa and former SA cricket chief, Dr Ali Bacher.

As Tim comments, “Working with and advising this great BBC team was both an honour and a tough task given the pressure, emotion and importance of the event, but I think we managed to honour the remarkable legacy of Mr Mandela in a way that only the BBC knows how”. “

Everybody in the team from David to the South African technical guys all brought their decades of experience to the fore to make this a memorable tribute to Madiba.”

ReadDillon is proud to have been a part of this historic event.