Mike Hanson - Co-Founder & Director and Executive Producer

Mike is an awarding producer, writer, musician, & songwriter. He has extensive experience in audio creation, having worked in the radio, podcasting & music industries for over 30 years. He’s worked in commercial & public radio, creating music & speech formats in the UK & in his native Canada. Mike has long had a pioneering spirit, helping to create new brands and embracing emerging technologies (such as DAB radio in the early 2000s and later podcasting). He was a member of the launch team at Talk Radio UK in 1995 & was still there to re brand it as talkSPORT in 2000. In 2001 he joined the BBC to help launch (& later save) BBC Radio 6 Music. But it hasn’t always been starting from scratch. In 2013 he joined the UK’s biggest Radio station BBC Radio 2 as Weekend Editor. Most recently, he was Content Editor at BBC Radio 2 & 6 Music overseeing award winning programmes, events, & outside broadcasts. He also edited the audio entry for Radio 2 to win the Radio Academy’s Station of the Year Award, two years in a row. During that time he worked with some of the biggest names in broadcasting, music & theatre, building an extensive contacts book.

In 2018 he formed Thelonious Punk Productions Ltd, an audio, music, & theatre production company along with its subsidiary Pod People Productions, specialising in podcasts, with partner Collette Cooper.

Mike plays guitar, drums, & keyboards for various bands including Bourbon Street Revival, also writing & recording the theme music for all of Pod People’s Podcasts. He can’t act, though. Or draw. On a good day he can carry a tune.

Collette Cooper - Co-Founder & Director and Executive Producer

Collette is a mulit-talented artist, performer & activist with an extensive experience in theatre, film, production, writing, broadcasting & music.

She’s worked with the likes of Jane Campion, Michael Winterbottom, Martina Amati, Samantha Morton, Graham Flowers & George Muranyi to name a few.

Her music has been played regularly on BBC Radio 2, 6 Music, BBC London, JazzFM & Soho Radio, & has performed at all the leading Blues and Jazz venues in London and around the UK.

Along with her own blues & jazz show on Soho Radio “Late Night with Collette”, she is now in production with a podcast series focusing on Women in Blues and Jazz called “Sisters in The Shadows”.

Collette performs for several major charity and fashion events & is an ambassador for the Nordoff Robbins musical therapy charity. She is also a keen activist in saving the planet & her most recent work of art, “Smoking Permitted”, was exhibited in the NOW Exhibition promoting the campaign for zero plastic. Collette is also a strong activist for anti racism and is involved in several campaigns. Along with this, Collette is currently organising an NHS ICS campaign.

Collette has a wide range of contacts around the arts & media world, & has a great eye for talent. She’s also a mean Netball player who likes to practice her scales while shooting hoops.