Alastair Layzell (born 28 June 1958) is an independent television producer who started his career as a reporter for Channel Television (the ITV contractor in the Channel Islands) and later served nine years as a deputy of the States of Jersey, becoming President of the Home Affairs Committee, President of the Jersey Transport Authority and Vice-president of the Planning & Environment Committee. Biography Layzell was born and then educated in Jersey at Victoria College Preparatory and then at Hautlieu School. He helped found the island's hospital radio service, in 1975, as a presenter and later producer of the weekly political programme Midweek. In 1977 he joined Channel Television as a junior reporter, then continuity announcer, before returning to the newsroom as a journalist. He produced and directed a number of documentaries for the ITV network including Summer 1940 (the story of the German occupation of the Channel Islands), Around Britain and The Dakota: 1935–1985 marking the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight of the Douglas DC3 airliner. From 1980 he was a regular presenter of the nightly news programme Channel Report and anchored the station's coverage of the Budget and general elections. In 1988, he left Channel Television to form Colonial American which, through its trading arm Colonial Pictures, has become one of Britain's top 150 independent production companies (source: Broadcast Magazine annual survey). As producer and director his early credits included The Only Way to Cross: 150 years of Cunard (for ITV), The Best of Europe (for Discovery Channel USA) and Mansion: Great Houses of Europe – a series of forty programmes with Marcus Binney, architecture correspondent of The Times. More recently he has written, produced and directed Art Deco Designs and In Search of Style – both with the actress Maureen Lipman – for UKTV and ITV, The Flying Picnic (with Annabel Croft) for ITV Anglia and Sky Travel, Garden Makers (presented by Joe Swift) London Visions with Peter Ackroyd (ITV/Sky Arts), and Peter Ackroyd's Venice (Sky Arts). He directed City at War and Legacy of War (ITV/PBS) jointly presented by veteran CBS newsman Walter Cronkite and ITV News anchor Alastair Stewart. The first of these looks at the reporting of the Second World War by correspondents such as Edward R Murrow, the second examines the post-war re-construction of Europe and the onset of the Cold War. For Discovery Channel he produced Britain's Greatest Ships (the story of