About 2 weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to find out the documentary series I hosted for Discovery Taiwan was nominated for Best Documentary Series at this years Asian TV Awards. Always up for an awards night anyway, so was very happy to be invited to join the Discovery table tonight.

This year it was held at the Shangri La Hotel, and they did a fantastic job with the menu – A lot of seafood and fish which was great! Only thing missing for me was juice! Entertainment included local funk hip hop group Sixx and an all girl dance group.

With Dominic Lau (E News Asia) and Joanne (LI TV Asia)

The best part as always was the chance to catch up with friends and make some new ones! Got to see Alaric Tay and Chua Enlai from the Noose (They won Best Comedy Program and were both runner up to Best Comedy Performance by an actor), Anthony Morse (His program – Hidden Cities on History was nominated for Best General Entertainment ) Dominic Lau & Oli Pettigrew (Both nominated for Best Entertainment Host), Henry Golding (His show was nominated for ), Jourdan Lee (Nominated for best Actor in a leading role), Linda Black (Co-host for the evening with her hubby Oli) and Rebecca Lim (Who was a Guest presenter on the evening). Click here to see all Asian TV Awards 2011 the nominations.

Also caught up with Kav, who worked on our documentary “Eye on Taiwan : The Search for Lost Happiness and the Search for Lost Fertility for Discovery. We got nominated for best Documentary Series which was awesome. Was was even more awesome, was we actually were runners up – scoring a “Highly Commended” Status. Congrats to the production team Samsara Films, Chandi Jayawickrama, Karina Holden, Kavitha, Joyce Huang, August, Umesh, the rest of the team and Discovery Networks!! Click here to see all the Asian TV Awards 2011 winners!

It was also fantastic to to meet many of the hardworking creatives and business heads behind the scenes.

Big thanks to Discovery Networks Asia Pacific for their kind invitation to join them and Congrats to Discovery for their 3 Wins!!! All in all a great night to celebrate Asian TV!

For more photos visit  Derrick’s Facebook page here

With Discovery Networks Asia Showing off their 3 Trophies for 2011

With Alaric Tay and Chua Enlai, The Noose Best Comedy Program Winners

With TV Host Henry Golding

Eye on Taiwan – Search for Lost Fertility – Best Documentary Series 2011 Runners Up!!! – Highly Commended:)

For more photos visit  Derrick’s Facebook page here

Hey All,

Just got word a new Travel and culture documentary series I have the pleasure of narrating is making its debut on Singapore’s Mediacorp OKTO Channel 10pm tonight.  Its a 6 part series so will be on air every Thursday from tonight at 10pm (February 24th, 2011)  Learn and experience some fascinating aspects of different asian cultures! I’ve included the program summary below:

FESTIVE FACES! is a 6 x 1 Hour travel and culture programme that takes
us on a journey to discover the lesser documented festivals from some
of the most discreet corners of Asia! See things from other cultures that will not be found in travel brochures, go to places that is not on the map, and taste things that are not on the menu!
Come and experience these festivals through the eyes and perspective of
those involved! They are – FESTIVE FACES!

Produced by Apostrophe Films.

Festive Faces 6 Part Travel & Culture Documentary Programme

About 2 months ago, I got the chance to fly to Hong Kong to be part of a new Australian TV series – Trouble in Paradise (Previously it had the working title Holiday Hell).  This is a new 1 hour TV Series which borrows from the UK version – My Holiday Hostage Hell. In Fact the Australian version includes the UK story with the specially produced Australian story.   David Mason of Mason Media produced and directed the series.  David has produced many TV series before including The Mole,  Celebrity Survivor, Popstars, and Who Dares Wins.

I was involved with the well publicized story of the busload of Australian female travel agents who were taken hostage by a Chinese National in Xi-an just months before the Beijing Olympics.  I got to play the role of Eric Wang who was the Chinese Australian tour operator that played a pivotal role in negotiating with the Chinese National to release the innocent Australians.

I’ve been informed by one of the producers that my story will be screened as part of the first episode tomorrow night.  I haven’t seen the finished product, but apparently it is one of the networks favourites:) We’ll see. . . If you’re in Australia you can catch it tomorrow night:

Thursday June 25th
8.30pm on Channel nine –  right after Getaway!

Trouble In Paradise

Please do leave a comment – Love to know what you think!

Click here to see Channel Nines page for the show

Other Links:

Hostage tour leader talks – Travel Weekly
10 Australian tourists taken hostage Chinese hijacker shot dead – Canberra Times
Australian tourists taken hostage on tourist bus in China – Herald sun