Vision for Eastbourne is the brainchild of Eastbourne resident Chris Leach, who moved to the town from the nearby city of Brighton in 2007 and has not looked back.
Chris has had a varied career, across all forms of creative and technical areas. He started as a contributing writer to Thames Television’s ‘You Must Be Joking’ (at the age of 15) and then helped promote the works of TV producer Gerry Anderson (of Thunderbirds fame) with various large attendee conventions. He helped in landing the funding for what would become the relaunch of Anderson’s TV career, with the advent of the early 1980s TV show Terrahawks.
Originally qualifying in Theatre Lighting and Stage Skills, he worked for the nascent Croydon Cable local production arm, shooting on both video and film and covering all jobs from production assistant, focus puller, production manager, editor, producer and director on recorded and live programming. He also worked as chief quality controller for the Bravo Movie Channel.
On his return to his birth town of Brighton, he founded the Lionhouse Studios collective, working across corporate production, photography and graphics media. With an avid interest in science fiction, he produced a pilot with astronomer Patrick Moore from Patrick’s own Scott Saunders novels, and wrote and produced a promo for Starwatch, his own TV idea with ex Doctor Who Jon Pertwee as the lead. TV adverts, publications, brand designs and corporate promos peppered this period, alongside with Chris being script adviser to the then Head of Development for BBC Drama Television Series… and ending up in ‘development hell’ with some of his own sci-fi drama projects at the BBC.
The British Rocket Project of the Isle of Wight somehow caught his attention, especially as much of its history had been lost under gag notices and the Official Secrets Act, and Chris helmed an initiative to bring this unsung story to the fore and to celebrate the successes of the workforce that put the UK into space on October 28th 1971 with the Black Arrow R3 launch vehicle and the Prospero satellite. Talking to Arthur C Clarke in Sri Lanka over an early internet telephone is a particular highlight for him, alongside the event going live on BBC One’s Tomorrow’s World on the very night of the 25th anniversary.
An early embracer of fledgling computer technologies, he and his team created the award-winning Surf Green pop video and the Archangel Thunderbird quirky manga Sci-Fi Channel pilot on a then top of the range custom-build PC – with 16Mb of ram and a 9GB hard drive! The latter garnered a verified one million viewers.
A mainstay of Brighton, he helped the town achieve City status at the turn of the millennium with ‘The Place To Be’ campaign. Unfortunately for him, this made Brighton the place to be for Londoners, who moved down in number, drove up the prices, changed the nature of the City and displaced swathes of the local populus.
Moving to Eastbourne (unfairly called ‘god’s waiting room’ by many) Chris found that the generosity of spirit of the citizens, its sense of civic pride and its wonderfully maintained Victorian seafront sans kiss-me-quick hat shops (enshrined in covenants by the visionary 7th Duke of Devonshire) proves it to be ‘the hidden gem of the south coast’.
Old skills re-emerged and major technical work for both a local volunteer-run theatre and Heritage Centre saw the creation of a cinema room, shows being run, and more videos being produced and recorded, giving a growing archive of amazing local material.
Vision for Eastbourne was conceived in 2011 to administer Eastbourne Community Television, a Big Lottery funded project successful at teaching disadvantaged and young and old alike a full range of production skills.
A very successful scheme to help the hard of hearing rediscover their lost ability using readily-accessible computer programmes followed shortly afterwards. Free laptop clinics complemented his computer repairs and consultancy services and a return to photography and videography ensued, for work and for pleasure.
He has recorded many major events in the town and is documenting the changing face of the town’s evolution – always actively looking to apply his skills – and those of his growing team – to every area for the good of Eastbourne.
New technologies are always ‘his thing’ and he is fervent in bringing the advent of 360 degree imagery/video and VR headset experiences to people of all ages.
He is proud to be a trustee – and current chair – of The Eastbourne Society.
Vision for Eastbourne is a CiC. Incorporated February 2023. Company Number 14666734.