Alan Rook
Alan leads the BlackRook companies and is our principal consultant and producer, having worked at senior executive level for some of Europe’s most significant media brands.
alan@blackrookmedia.com
Alan is an award-winning journalist and film-maker who has run the BlackRook companies for 15 years – and before that worked for 20 years in broadcasting, mostly for ITV in the UK.
In Corporate Film, BlackRook offers a variety of products and services – including taking direct responsibility for making sure the content we produce is actually seen by the audience clients want to reach.
We’ve been making high-end documentary video content for business on TV and online across social and native platforms internationally since 2011. We’ve done that in more than 40 countries now – across a huge range of industry sectors with location work spanning the EMEA, APAC and LATAM regions.
In 2026 and 2027, our production partners internationally include: World Steel, Sustainable Travel International, the World Bioenergy Association, the United Nations’ Champions 12.3 group, the Association of MBAs, the Business Graduates Association, The Association of Chief Executives and The Public Chairs’ Forum.
BlackRook’s events TV teams work internationally too, providing editorial and technical services, including production hardware and software, for clients including MP International (Singapore), BlueDog Group, George P. Johnson and FIRST Agency. We’ve deployed our live-streaming, ‘pop-up’ TV channel teams in Switzerland, Canada, Australia, the UK, Holland, Spain, France, China, Indonesia and the United States.
BlackRook’s coaching team trained all of the BBC’s UK digital apprentices over seven years. We’ve coached executives at car-maker BMW and at drinks company William Grant & Sons too. In 2023, we formed a dedicated team of industry professionals, delivering Digital Skills Bootcamps funded by UK Government, teaching hundreds of learners social media content creation skills right across the UK’s West Midlands region.
BlackRook has produced more than 300 half-hour current affairs programmes for the broadcaster Iran International and provided more than 50 of its staff in London over four years, producing thousands of hours of TV output in support of Nigeria’s ARISE News.
Leader
Alan was Editor of the ITV network’s daytime TV programme This Morning and was part of the senior management team that ran the breakfast shows GMTV, Lorraine and Daybreak.
He served as a member of the executive team that runs all of ITV News – its Nations and Regions. For five years, he was Head of News of England’s biggest television region – ITV Central.
He’s run broadcast and online news operations worldwide for the British Forces Broadcasting Service. As Head of News, he managed an international team at BFBS – multi-media producers, reporters and presenters, including those deployed in Camp Bastion, the principal British base in Helmand Province in Afghanistan during the conflict there.
Presenter & Actor
As a presenter, Alan has more than 30-years’ experience ‘on-camera’ and across the last decade he’s regularly appeared on screen and provided narration in BlackRook’s documentary work on TV and online.
In 2026 he was cast in the independent UK movie ‘First Cut’ which premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2027. He’s fronted network current affairs shows too – including anchoring live from the studio for ITV across the UK on the morning Princess Diana died, just a few hours after the news broke. He’s also presented successful factual entertainment series on ITV channels, as well as regional news programmes.
Collaborator
Alan is a member of Wolverhampton University’s School of Creative Industries Advisory Board. He’s been a regional and national awards judge for The Royal Television Society since 2005. For a decade, he’s also been an awards judge for the Association for International Broadcasters. As a producer/director, he is himself a recipient of the International Federation of Journalists’ Documentary Prize.
He’s worked as an executive producer, consultant, coach and provider of staff and facilities for organisations including the broadcasters CNBC (Europe), Iran International, ARISE News and Rudaw (Kurdistan), as well as The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (Rome), BMW, Zinc Communicate, DMA Media and VNS 24/7 (Johannesburg)
Alan has guest lectured on broadcast news, documentary making, TV presentation and television magazine production at universities in Nottingham, Lincoln, Birmingham, Derby and Leicester.
