My Son the Jihadi
CHANNEL 4/TRUE VISION PRODUCTIONS; (Assistant producer)
In 2011, Thomas Evans left his family home in Buckinghamshire and travelled to Somalia to join the deadly Islamist group al-Shabaab, behind atrocities including the Westgate shopping mall attack in neighbouring Nairobi. This film – aired on Channel 4 on 22 October 2015 – documents the struggle of his mother Sally Evans and his brother Micheal to reconcile the 'normal teenage lad' they knew with the jihad-preaching Islamist he then became.
"by some distance the most powerful documentary I have seen this year" – The Telegraph
"technically near-perfect television" – The Times
"an extraordinary documentary that leaves you feeling numb. A desperately sad story about one family; but also an important one, one of the big stories of now" – The Guardian
Credits – Director: Peter Beard; Producer: Richard Kerbaj; Executive Producer for True Vision: Brian Woods; Commissioning Editors for Channel 4: Amy Flanagan, Siobhan Sinnerton