Get to know Stephen

Series Catchphrase: The clues are there!

Stephen Cranford, Presenter, Tracing the Rails. A former serving Police Officer, turned broadcaster and presenter - who loves railways.

I live in Worthing, in West Sussex. I've lived and worked in Sussex all my life. I joined Sussex Police in 1991, and worked as a PC and later as a Sergeant in Brighton and Worthing until the summer of 2000, when I left the police to do an HND in television production. This was because it became evident to me that TV was a career that was much more for me! For almost 25 years I've worked part time for the BBC on Local and National radio alongside (bizarrely) a career working for my family's house building company. Working two parallel jobs as a builder and broadcaster is an unusual combination, but it has helped me work on some prominent TV shows, such as being an on screen tradesman on Alan Carr's Interior Design Masters on BBC1.

My hobbies and interests have involved railways, especially model railways. I have progressed from the traditional OO gauge Hornby layouts, to continental N gauge, and for the past 20 or so years, the remarkable miniature Z gauge trains. Science Fiction is also a huge interest of mine, especially for my all time favourite TV show, Doctor Who. In 1991, as the series had ended, a group of friends decided make their own Dr Who episodes, so we started making a fan made Doctor Who story called "Devious" - which is literally a life long project, as it's still being worked on to this day! Do check it out on YouTube! My bizarre world of work also crossed over in to Doctor Who several times, a highlight being when I was selected by BBC Worldwide to be a presenter at the large Doctor Who 50th anniversary celebrations at London Excel in 2013, and again two years later at the Doctor Who festival

Being a keen fitness fan and gym member, spawned a very quirky business venture which I ran for several years - "Buff Builders" - a bare chested handyman and construction service!. We even produced charity fundraising calendars each year! (Maybe I'll suggest this for the TTR team....)

I became involved in Tracing the Rails, when the director, Chris, asked me in the very early days. It was the easiest "yes" I have ever done. I am very lucky that I have known Chris since the late 80s, and he knew that I was big railways fan, and also, working as a presenter and broadcaster it seemed to be a perfect fit.

Unlike an actor, who is used to learning lines, I tend to prefer having a chat, as my style of presenting is very conversational. When we started, we had scripts, and even used an autocue to help me with my lines, but we abandoned that, and now, the beautifully researched material is written up in bullet points. I remember "the story" - and tell it in my own words. This is great for me, but a nightmare for poor Chris, who has to edit the piece, as I never do it the same way twice! (sorry, Chris!)

When we are out filming, we are gratified by the number of people who stop us and say hello. Unlike most series (which are all recorded and finished before they're shown) we release each chapter as they are finished, so there is quite a following already. As we head north up the line we now get spotted. If you do see us, please to stop us and say hello. We love meeting you all, and hearing what you think of Tracing the Rails.

I often say that I have the easiest job of all the team on Tracing the Rails. I often cite that I just "turn up and talk" and that's it. I do read the running script before each recording date so I am familiar with it, but I just walk and talk, and chat to amazing people. I don't have the necessary skills to be able to do the complex editing that Chris and Co can do, so my involvement is actually somewhat small, even though my role it possibly one of the most prominent. I do like helping out though with other roles if I can, so I have been known to step up as second camera operator when I'm not on screen myself.

One thing, dear viewers, that you might not realise, is that we film all year. Because I am on screen, we decided early on that I would have a costume (which I helped choose, inspired by brilliant Producer Lou, who has a great eye for such things.)

The drawback is that I have to look the same, whatever the weather. So, in the winter, it's often freezing cold... I think the worst example of this was when we recorded the remnants of the Steyning signal box. It was February, barely 2c, and I was absolutely frozen. Conversely, in the summer, it can be very hot, and wearing a cotton shirt and waistcoat and long trousers can be pretty uncomfortable too! What you don't see off screen, is either producer Lou, or production supervisor Catherine holding my coat / hat / gloves in the winter and passing them to me the moment the cameras stop recording.

I love my job on Tracing the Rails. It has been a life long ambition to present my own TV show - and I am delighted with how it's been received. I would like to thank you all for your very kind feedback too.

Having worked in the construction industry for so many years, I have a great affinity with building, and I will look in admiration at brickwork that was built 170 years ago, marvelling at the talents of the tradesmen back then, especially as they did it all without the machinery and power tools we have today. I have been known to caress some old brickwork!

I still do odd bits of building work now - right now I'm doing a radical rebuilt of our back garden at my home. We actually built our own home twenty years ago, which was also a great ambition of mine to achieve.

I very much hope that viewers of Tracing the Rails will find the programme interesting, even if they're not local, or interested in railways. The initial "lure" might have been for rail enthusiasts, but we are finding more and more that the programme has a far wider appeal, which we are delighted about.

I think it's vital to remember parts of our heritage, and we are lucky with our timings, in so far as the line closed almost 60 years ago, it's long enough ago to be nostalgic, but importantly there are still plenty of amazing people around who remember the line, and can give us their first hand experiences of it, to share for all time.

In a way we are banking social history for posterity. Not only people's accounts, but tangible things too. What's remarkable is that some of the few physical remnants of line that still remain are disappearing even now - and the Tracing the Rails team are the last people to have close up access to these things before they vanish for all time.

I would very much like Tracing the Rails to be commissioned (i.e funded adequately) so that it could be a full time job for us all, and we could make future series all over the country. Series 1 has shown us that there is vast wealth of treasure out there, and we would love to give the "Tracing the Rails" treatment to other railway lines all over the country. We have certainly had a lot of suggestions from you all, wanting us to come and explore your local closed railway lines.

I would just like to thank you ALL for supporting us, for all your love you have shown for our little TV show.