For the last 20 years Oliver has been making films for television and theatrical presentation, working for internationally renowned broadcasters including the BBC and for creators including New Guide to Opera, Unhold Productions and Stans Cafe.
In his TV work he specialises in high-profile factual series often about the outdoors. He was the lead director of the first three series of the BBC’s hugely popular and influential strand Coast – the style he created spawned countless imitators and has gone on to become a TV institution. (A little known fact is that internally the BBC regarded the series as a disaster – that is until the viewing figures came in!) In addition to Coast, Oliver has worked on numerous other well-known shows including Gardeners’ World, Around the World in 80 Gardens, Countryfile and – as series producer – three series with the Hairy Bikers.
Running in parallel with the big hits, Oliver has worked on much smaller projects both on TV (Conflicts: Chechnya, Spin with David Shrigley) and in the theatre. His theatrical projects have included ‘Das Ende des Golfstroms (I woz here)’ for which he made a film about an opera singer travelling to Iceland to sing a lament to the gulf-stream and ‘Sing Sing’ for which he made films featuring a quartet of the same singer, some Gibbon Monkeys and a crying baby!
He is now in development with his first full-length feature film.