the media lunch club was established in 1994, by producer Martin Cahill, as a non-profit making, and politically neutral, networking society and has grown to become the film, tv and media industry's premiere café du commerce.
Monthly lunches are held in London's West End (and a Brighton away-day lunch during the summer), with an invited guest speaker. Some of our previous speakers include:
Producers: Tim Bevan, Stephen Evans, Rebecca O'Brien, Nick Manzi, Richard Holmes, Jeremy Thomas, Duncan Kenworthy, Michael Kuhn, Nik Powell, Marc Samuelson, Richard Holmes, Michael Deeley, Simon Channing-Williams, Simon Oakes (Hammer films), Paul Brett, Anne Beresford and Jeremy Bolt.
Directors: Sir Alan Parker, Dame Beeban Kidron, Stuart Baird, Waris Hussein, Roy Ward Baker, Vic Armstrong, Robert Young, Jack Cardiff, Ronnie Neame, Lewis Gilbert, John Glen, Guy Hamilton and Ray Harryhausen and John Irvin.
Executives: Daniel Battsek (former Film4 and Miramax), Duncan Reid (Ingenious), Greg Dyke (TV), Ian Hutchinson (Silver Reel), Lord Michael Grade, Amanda Nevill (BFI), Stewart Till (former UK Film Council Chairman), Lenny Crooks (formerly of New Cinema Fund, UK Film Council), David Thompson (formerly BBC Films), Steve Christian (Pinewood Films), Peter Bennett-Jones (Tiger Aspect), Dave Bishop (Protagonist), John Woodward (former CEO, UK Film Council), Jane Lighting (former CEO Channel 5), Simon George (Ealing Studios Productions), Lorraine Heggesey (ITV/BBC), Dr Kim Howells MP & Shaun Woodward MP (former Film Ministers), Sara Geater (all 3 media) and Robert Duval, David Cooke & David Austin (directors of BBFC), Mia Bays (BFI), Anna Higgs (Facebook) and Elliot Grove (Raindance).
Sales agents: Hilary Davis (Bankside), Mike Goodridge (Protagonist), Martin Myers (Miracle Communications), Andrew Loveday (Carnaby), Maura Ford (7 & 7), Alex Hamilton (former E One, now Pathe), David Grumbach (Juliette Films, Luxembourg), Michael Ryan (formerly J&M, now independent).
Actors: Sir Roger Moore, Britt Ekland, Honor Blackman, Judy Cornwell, Jenny Hanley, Sally Geeson, Virginia McKenna, Ray Brooks, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Bruce Montagu, Brian Capron, Victor Spinetti, Richard Kiel, Madeline Smith and Dame Virginia McKenna.
Writers: Dick Clement, Sir Ronald Harwood, Rob Sprackling, Jimmy Perry, Brian Clemens, Raymond Allen, Jimmy Sangster, Allan Scott, Laurence Marks & Maurice Gran and Dominic Minghella.
And others including: lyricist Don Black CBE, broadcasters Tony Blackburn OBE and Dame Joan Bakewell, director of photography Phil Méheux BSC, Ossie Morris OBE and composer David Arnold. …. to name but a few!
The media lunch club also hosts occasional evening networking events, from 2009 additional and occasional 'Briefing Lunches', (to focus on a more specialised subject in an intimate board-room setting) and during the Coronavirus pandemic switched to online podcasts, with guests in discussion with committee member and broadcaster Olly Smith.
Membership is inexpensive and open to all in the media business.
On April 19th 2013 Sir Alan Parker joined us for our 200th lunch, and cut the special birthday cake!
Colin Vaines is a British film and Emmy-winning television producer whose credits include The Unforgivable, starring Sandra Bullock, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Gangs of New York, Coriolanus, The Young Victoria, and The Rum Diary.
Beginning his career in 1977 as a journalist with Screen International (which he went on to edit) he left journalism to run the UK's National Film Development Fund, and in 1987 oversaw UK development for Columbia Pictures during David Puttnam's tenure at the studio, subsequently becoming head of development for Puttnam’s, Enigma, working on films including Memphis Belle. He made his debut as a producer in 1992 with the Emmy-winning TV film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, which introduced Ralph Fiennes in the title role.
After co-producing Michael Radford's B. Monkey, Vaines supervised production and development for UK lottery franchise The Film Consortium from 1997 to 1999, overseeing movies including Hideous Kinky, starring Kate Winslet. He was then appointed Executive Vice-President, Development for New York-based Miramax Films, and in 2007 he joined Graham King's GK Films in Los Angeles as Co-President of Production.
Returning to freelance production in 2010, Vaines produced Coriolanus, which marked the directing debut of its star, Ralph Fiennes. Vaines was co-producer of WE, the directing debut of Madonna, and co-executive producer of My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh - both of whom were Oscar-nominated. In 2015, he produced The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, was an executive producer of Red Dog: True Blue, and two years later a producer of Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.
In 2021, Vaines was executive producer of The Unforgivable for Netflix, and more recently is producer with Lee Brazier on The Beauty of Sharks, a thriller set in Italy to be directed by Peter Chelsom and executive producer of Faithfull, a biography of the iconic singer Marianne Faithfull.
