User:Stuart Aikman/sandbox

Stuart St Paul (born 1954 Stuart Aikman) is a movie director, stuntman (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0820787/), author of the CSCI crime series of books (Cruise Ship Heist, Cruise Ship Serial Killer etc) and broadcaster who was born in Walthamstow. He is married to actress Jean Heard. Father to businessman Luke Aikman and actress Laura Aikman.

Biography
He studied at the McEntee Technical High School and excelled at sport; playing basketball for The Avenue, including the National Basket Ball Championship final against Doncaster Rovers, he swam competitively for Leyton, Walthamstow and then Waltham Forest. He fought competitively in Judo attending two National Championships then, in 1972 represented Sussex University in their team.

Stuart worked as a disc jockey, first working at the Room At The Top Club in Ilford then joining Mecca where he was the disc jockey at the Lyceum in The Strand, the Empire Ballroom Leicester Square, and the Cat's Whiskers in Streatham.

Career
Stuart joined BBC Radio in 1973. He was a backroom assistant technical engineer to disc jockeys Tony Blackburn, Johnny Walker, David Hamilton and Noel Edmunds amongst others. He was the original DJ at the Dun Cow Pub in the Old Kent Road and all the Radio 1 DJ's guest-starred there in his sets.

In 1977 he left to join EMI and became the promotions manager at Capitol records, responsible for breaking Mink DeVille's Spanish Stroll which was his good friends, Paul Burnett's record of the week. Other records of the week he placed included Gee Baby by Peter Shelley, and Morning Man played by Noel Edmunds.

In 1978 he joined Metro Radio in Newcastle as the new breakfast DJ, and in that year compared the main tent at the Tyneside Summer Exhibition introducing acts such as The New Seekers and The Bay City Rollers. After signing with agent Bill Steel he starred in Cinderella that year at the Sunderland Empire, with actor Bill Maynard. In 1979, when Steve Wright went to Radio 1, Stuart took over his old shows on Radio Orwell in Ipswich.

In 1980 he played the character Dave Farrell, the morning show DJ, in the television teen-soap Radio Phoenix for TVS in Southampton.

As an actor, he played in shows such as Minder, but wanting to play in the major movie arena he made a sideways move into stunts. Within a year he was a stunt coordinator and teamed up with old acquaintances. He doubled Dennis Waterman in Stay Lucky, did many stunts on the Noel Edmunds Show, also worked again with Tony Blackburn. He looked after stunts on the Kenny Everett Show. Other shows he coordinated and choreographed included Juliet Bravo, Casualty and The Bill (series 1) onwards. Stuart joined the James Bond 007 team on A View To A Kill. He joined the manager of the rock band Queen, Jim Beech as a producer at Fugitive Films, where he worked between his shows. He went on to make many pop videos and including doubling Elton John in Passenger and often doubling Simon LeBon, as well as designing all the action in the short film and video Wild Boys where he worked alongside Arlene Philips. For Fugitive he went on to produce https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099951/, starring Martin and Gary Kemp, where he also was the stunt coordinator and gave himself the single card credit at the front of the movie, one of the first single cards ever for a stunt coordinator. Stuart is the narator to the Queen documentaries https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158745/

In 1985, he played the Queen Alien, in Aliens for James Cameron. One of the most horrific screen monsters ever. It was his last performing role.

After many A-list and mainstream TV and movie credits, he went on to write and direct. The Scarlet Tunic starring Jean-Marc Barr and Simon Callow saw him nominated as Best Director at festivals including Cabourg in France, and the Shermi d'Amor at Verona in Italy. His movie Freight, made for ICON Pictures saw him win Best Director in Beckenridge, USA, and win a Silver Plam at the MIFF in 2010. Stuart then directed the comedy romp movie Bula Quo! for Universal Pictures, which was shot in Fiji and also starred SNL star Jon Lovitz.

Stuart has written a number of acclaimed novels, including six novels in the CSCI series; Cruise Ship Heist (official 5* review from the Online Book Club), Cruise Ship Serial Killer, Cruise Traffic, Cruise Ship Art Theft, Disastrous Cruise Romance, and Bloods Diamonds.

Stuart is now an engaging after dinner speaker with Champions UK agency. He is often on cruise ships as a guest and he contributes to the cruise TV channel uCruise Doris Visits.

Family
Stuart is married to actress wife Jean Heard who presents the Cruise Port Guides for Doris Visits. He is the father of entrepreneur Luke Aikman and actress Laura Aikman.