Martyn Auty

Martyn entered the film and TV industry in the 1970s working in exhibition (programming arthouse cinema and festivals) and in film journalism (as a magazine critic notably with Time Out in London). He took up the challenge to move across from criticism to production when he joined the BBC Drama Department in 1984. At BBC he was soon promoted to producer and made several TV movies during five years in drama. Headhunted to join Palace Pictures in 1989, Martyn led the successful film-indie into TV production with a roster of thrillers, comedies and music specials before the demise of the parent company. In the 1990s he returned to television producing a number of prime time dramas for ITV in the UK (Heartbeat, A Touch of Frost, PD James Mysteries) as well as creating his own one-off films for BBC (A Foreign Field, Soul Survivors) through Trisquare, a company based at Pinewood Studios. The 2000s saw Martyn as Production Chief at TV Production Co, where he worked in close concert with media investors at Close Brothers Merchant Bank in the City of London. The next career step was to set up his own company to develop and produce film and TV content. Martyn's first indie venture was Suitable Viewing which produced a highly successful film of the children's classic, Heidi. Under the banner of his new company, Life & Soul Pictures, Martyn wrote Bounce, a short film for charity and Ball Boy, a feature film optioned by an Italian producer. He produced Ways to Live Forever in 2009 as a UK-Spain co-production written and directed by Gustavo Ron. The film starred Ben Chaplin, Emilia Fox and Greta Scacchi. It was released coast-to-coast in the USA in 2010 by Worldwide Motion Pictures and won six awards.