ONA Magazine | Tom Gutteridge (ON 63-70)

ACCLAIMED TV PRODUCER TOM GUTTERIDGE (ON 63-70) SPEAKS TO ONA’S CAROLINE BRIGGS ABOUT HOW HIS SCHOOL DAYS SHAPED A TRAILBLAZING CAREER IN BROADCASTING. WITH WARMTH AND INSIGHT, HE TRACES THE PATH FROM THE CORRIDORS OF RGS TO MAJOR TV STUDIOS IN THE UK AND US - A STORY OF EDUCATION, CREATIVE AMBITION, AND STAYING CONNECTED TO HIS ROOTS.

Read an excerpt of Tom Gutteridge's ONA feature below: 

It’s late morning in Cullercoats, and a soft, silvery light spills through the window of TV producer Tom Gutteridge’s east-facing Victorian home, casting gentle shadows across a scatter of half-emptied moving boxes.     

In the high-ceilinged drawing room, the air carries a faint scent of fresh paint. The subtle grey-green walls shift with the changing light, echoing the restless moods of the North Sea outside.     

The leaden sky, streaked with silver like brushstrokes on canvas, is the kind of brooding scene that might have stopped artist Winslow Homer in his tracks. Old Novo Tom takes it in quietly, savouring the view with the instinctive eye of a storyteller.     

“The light and sky change every 20 minutes,” he says, momentarily lost in reverie. “It’s beautiful. If you grow up near the sea, like I did, it becomes part of the essence of who you are.”     

He nods towards the grey velvet armchair nestled in the bay window beside him. “And when the house renovation is finally finished, I’m going to sit in that chair with my coffee every morning and just enjoy this view.”     

Cullercoats is a long way - literally and figuratively - from California, where Tom lived until recently, and where he forged a wildly successful television career after leaving RGS, collecting an International Emmy and several BAFTA awards and nominations along the way.      

From directing Panorama and producing The Hot Shoe Show to creating the cult hit Robot Wars and helping turn BattleBots into a global franchise, his credits read like a guided tour through late 20th-and-early-21st-century popular television.     

And despite the considerable distance, he still oversees BattleBots: Destruct-A-Thon, a live high-octane, metal-crunching spectacle spin-off staged just off the Las Vegas Strip.    

But for Tom, the move from California’s sunshine to a weathered house in Cullercoats is more than a change of scenery. It’s a return to something deeper - a homecoming in the truest sense.     

Now in his early seventies, Tom is embracing this new dynamic. He’s begun writing his memoirs, part reflection, part celebration of a life built around storytelling.  The move isn’t just a return to his roots; it’s a conscious decision to do more, to re-energise, and enter a creatively rich phase - far from the fighting robots and churn of social media.   

A place where the tides mirror the rhythm of his writing and ideas.    

“This was all I knew growing up,” he says, gesturing out of the window. “We didn’t have much money. We rented the top floor of a house just a few doors down this very street, and I had the attic room overlooking the sea - it was the coldest place on the planet!     

“Back then, in winter, you’d be woken up at least twice a week by a rocket from the lifeboat station. If a ship was in distress, they’d fire a flare right above the house to wake the whole village. That was the signal for the lifeboat crew to get to the station. If a second flare went up, it meant it was serious.     

“You’d wait for that second bang, then go to the attic window and watch the lifeboat being launched. You’d also see all the wives of the lifeboat men gathering. The whole of Cullercoats was built around that community.”    

And it’s to that community Tom has returned - this time with his wife, fellow TV producer Joanna, and their teenage daughter.     

“The first restaurant we went into when we arrived had a sign on the door that said ‘Cullerfornia’, and we just loved that,” he says, grinning. “So that’s what we call it now.”        

This return marks what Tom calls the fifth ‘phase’ of his life. The first began in London, where he was born, and unfolded through his childhood in Cullercoats and nearby Tynemouth, and, of course, his school days on Eskdale Terrace. Now, a generation later, his daughter is preparing to follow in his academic footsteps, closing a circle that began decades ago.       

“There was a sense of community at the school from day one,” he reflects. “And it has stayed with us. I’m sure many people say that about their schools, but with RGS, there was something unique about the spirit and togetherness.”     

“When my daughter got her RGS acceptance letter, and they asked which house she wanted to be in - Stowell, Collingwood, Eldon, or Horsley - she said Horsley because she likes blue. I told her I’d never be able to come to school events and cheer her on - because I was in Eldon, so she’d have to get used to wearing green!      

“She looked at me and said: ‘Are you serious?’ And I said: ‘Absolutely!’ That school spirit never leaves you.”       

Click here to read the full article in the digital edition of ONA Magazine (Issue 115).