Get to know Chris

Series Catchphrase: “No Stephen, we are not starting at 5am just because you are up at that time.”

— Me, most filming days.

I'm Chris T. Kirk...

...creator and director of Tracing the Rails®. I’ve been a filmmaker most of my life, from splicing reel-to-reel tape in the 80s to digital editing today. A former Dalek on Doctor Who and once presented to royalty in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, my path has been anything but ordinary. Now, I’m studying for a Master’s in Film and Television while working full-time and making this series, a passion project that’s grown far beyond what I ever imagined.

I grew up in Worthing during the 1970s, raised by my mum with my wonderful brother, Kester Reece. We didn’t have much, but we had each other, and steam trains were still just clinging on, their whistles fading into memory by the time I was old enough to really notice at the bottom of my road on the Worthing South Coast Mainline.

I went to St. Andrew’s School for Boys, where I later in life, returned as Operations Manager and Bursar. Sci-fi was my first love, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Sapphire & Steel, The Tripods, Day of the Triffids. I met Stephen Cranford through Doctor Who fandom, and we made all sorts of wild, terrible films as teenagers. We spliced tape, edited on Umatic, Betamax, SVHS, DV, all before it went fully digital. So yes, when I edit in DaVinci, Premiere or Filmora now, I really know what “cut” means. And “VT Running” isn’t just a nostalgic phrase.

I worked freelance for the BBC and helped at drama colleges around London with ad-hoc production work. I co-founded a company called GenesisFX with Simon Lawrence, and we created airline safety videos, airport films, and our first commercial documentary, Successful Searching, about metal detecting, hosted by Stephen, naturally!

Through a shared friend, Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner, I found myself filming people like Tom Baker and Brian Blessed. I even got to play a Dalek. I was once presented to a member of the Royal Family in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, dressed in a suit borrowed from someone posher than me. This was not as glamourous as it sounds because I had actually arranged a garden party with the palace as part of my role for the charity Blind Veterans UK. The reason for being presented was the achievement of getting over 4000 blind people from all over the country to the palace in one massive coordinated venture.

Life eventually demanded a mortgage, so I traded camera gear for more stable work. But it was my wife Louise, who I met while working at the charity Blind Veterans UK, who gave me the push I needed to get creative again. And Tracing the Rails was born.

Louise came up with the idea, partly to get me out of the house, losing weight, and stop me moaning that I didn’t make anything anymore. We thought it would be a short local film about the Steyning Line. Then Stephen jumped in. Then Mike Jaimes, whom I met driving buses for Brighton and Hove Buses and also became a truly great friend, came onboard. And then it grew.

We’ve made some amazing friends, been welcomed into homes, pubs, sheds, fields and barns. We’ve laughed, filmed the wrong bits, missed great shots, and still somehow stitched together something people genuinely seem to love.

I direct, research, film, edit, clean up old photos, buy gear, help plan shoots, write emails, and help manage all our social media. I work closely with Lou on everything from archive digging to tracking down interviewees. It’s a full-time job on top of a full-time job - and I adore it.

Sometimes I forget to press record on a brilliant take. Sometimes I get in the way. Often, I get gently mocked by the team who affectionately call me Christ because I dared to put my middle initial in my name on the credits once. But they all know it wouldn’t be happening without me pushing it forward. That quiet knowledge is enough.

I’ve always been a storyteller, whether through theatre, film, audio, or archive. I love old maps, model railways, lost buildings, dark comedy (Blackadder, Fawlty Towers, The Boys, a humour more shared with Mike than Stephen) and natural history or lcoal history.

At home, I’m incredibly proud of my daughter Selina, who’s now 18 and bursting with creativity. She makes her own beautiful, artistic videos on TikTok, very different from mine, but no less powerful. She’s also deep into K-Pop, which fills our house with beats I definitely don’t understand, but love hearing anyway.

I’m currently studying for a Master’s in Film & Television at Falmouth University. I wanted to formalise what I’ve spent a lifetime doing, to push myself further, and to give the series the credibility it deserves. I am also hoping it will serve well when we fundraise for future work.

I want people to feel the care and craft in Tracing the Rails. I hope they notice the slow pace, the attention to detail, the trust we build with every interviewee. I hope they support us if we push for a second series covering a different line, because this series deserves to be seen properly, with proper backing.

What really drives me is urgency. We’re filming people whose memories are fading, and that memory is literally dying out before our eyes. We’re walking through stations that will be bulldozed before next year. We are preserving stories that, if we don’t in time, no one will.

The team gets on my nerves in all the right ways. They improvise, they boss me around, and they sometimes film things I told them not to. But I love them for it. And I know, deep down, they know who’s keeping the train running.

“I’ve spent a life telling other people’s stories — it turns out, this one was mine all along.” — Chris T. Kirk