From the Swiss Air Force to Filmmaking, with Ben Seale
Release Date: 09/08/2026
From Village Pub to Community Hub, with Jo and James
The Surrey Hills Portrait
When The Six Bells in Newdigate closed in September 2025, Jo and James Dearsley felt its absence almost immediately. They’d lived in the village for more than 20 years, watched the pub go through various incarnations and, like plenty of locals, had often talked about what they’d do differently if they were running it. Then they actually did it. Despite having never run a pub before, Jo and James took on The Six Bells and set about bringing the building back to life. Their aim wasn’t simply to reopen a traditional village pub, but to create something closer to a community...
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From the Classroom to Cherry Trees, with Will Hammond
The Surrey Hills Portrait
Will Hammond didn’t set out to work in the charity sector. He trained as a primary school teacher, moved into sports coaching and later worked in care before finding his way to Cherry Trees, the East Clandon charity providing short breaks for children and young people with complex disabilities. In this episode of The Surrey Hills Portrait, I visit Cherry Trees to talk with Will about his own route into fundraising, the families the charity supports and why respite care is about far more than simply giving parents a break. Cherry Trees was founded in 1980 by Dr Helen Foley and a group of...
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The Art of Slowing Down, with Lisa Duncan of HINOKI Forest Bathing
The Surrey Hills Portrait
Lisa Duncan lives at the foot of Holmbury Hill, surrounded by some of the most beautiful woodland in the Surrey Hills. It’s also where she practises something many of us have heard of, but perhaps do not fully understand: forest bathing. In this episode of The Surrey Hills Portrait, Lisa joins Martin in the pinetum on Holmbury Hill, surrounded by more than 30 varieties of conifer planted around the millennium. Lisa explains that forest bathing has very little to do with covering miles or reaching a destination. Instead, it’s about slowing down, using the senses and becoming...
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From Assam’s Tea Gardens to the Surrey Hills, with Mandira Sarkar
The Surrey Hills Portrait
Mandira Sarkar grew up on a tea plantation in Assam, in a childhood filled with elephants, ponies, leopards and boarding school in the hills of Shillong. After studying in Calcutta and completing an MBA in Delhi, she moved to England with her husband for what was meant to be one year. Twenty-eight years later, Surrey is firmly home. In this episode of The Surrey Hills Portrait, Mandira joins Martin at Silent Pool in Albury, the atmospheric setting for Mandira’s Kitchen. She explains how a 17-year career in management consultancy gave way to a food business that began with £750, a...
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From the Swiss Air Force to Filmmaking, with Ben Seale
The Surrey Hills Portrait
Ben Seale spent more than a decade working in television, with credits including The Repair Shop, the BBC Proms, Glastonbury, Hairy Bikers and the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance. But his journey into filmmaking was far from conventional. In the first episode of The Surrey Hills Portrait, Ben joins me in Dorking to talk about television, creativity and building a film company around the subjects that genuinely matter to him. Half British and half Swiss, Ben received an invitation at 18 to complete military service in Switzerland. He stayed for several years, becoming an...
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Welcome to The Surrey Hills Portrait
The Surrey Hills Portrait
Welcome to The Surrey Hills Portrait, a new podcast sharing stories from the people who live, work and create across the Surrey Hills. In this short introduction, host and portrait photographer Martin Bamford explains what inspired the series and what you can expect from the conversations ahead. Find out more at .
info_outlineBen Seale spent more than a decade working in television, with credits including The Repair Shop, the BBC Proms, Glastonbury, Hairy Bikers and the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance. But his journey into filmmaking was far from conventional.
In the first episode of The Surrey Hills Portrait, Ben joins me in Dorking to talk about television, creativity and building a film company around the subjects that genuinely matter to him.
Half British and half Swiss, Ben received an invitation at 18 to complete military service in Switzerland. He stayed for several years, becoming an officer in the Swiss Air Force and gaining experience in leadership, logistics and project management. Those skills would prove unexpectedly useful when he eventually started running his own production company.
Ben describes how difficult it was to break into television without existing contacts. His first opportunity came through a production filming with Sean Bean in Belgium, where a connection with the director eventually led to work on Hairy Bikers and opened the door to the BBC.
After 12 years in the industry, long periods away from home, shrinking production budgets and wider changes in television prompted him to consider a different path.
Directed by Good grew from Ben’s desire to make films about the subjects he cares about most: British history, heritage, traditional crafts, music, culture and the countryside. It also gave him the opportunity to create a business shaped by his own values.
Through its Create With Care pledge, Directed by Good gives five per cent of every production fee to charity. Clients can add a further five per cent, which the company will match, allowing as much as 15 per cent of a project’s value to support UK charities.
Ben also speaks honestly about the less visible reality of starting a creative business. Alongside the cameras, fascinating people and interesting locations are contracts, release forms, administration, networking and the constant challenge of finding new clients.
Looking ahead, Ben doesn’t want Directed by Good to become an enormous production company. His ambition is to build a respected small team, producing distinctive work across the UK while offering good pay, proper holidays and a healthy working environment.
Most importantly, creating the company has allowed him to reconnect with the things he loves, spend more time at home and start playing the tuba again with Mole Valley Silver Band.
This is an open and thoughtful conversation about television, creativity, self-employment and building a business around work that matters to you.
Find out more about Ben and his work at directedbygood.com.
The Surrey Hills Portrait: stories from the people who live, work and create here.