February 13th 2012
IAN SKELLY gives us an insight into the pioneering work of the Prince of Wales with his illustrated talk “THE VISION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES”. Ian has worked closely with the Prince for several years, helping to articulate his ideas in speeches and lectures and now as one of the co-authors in a landmark book and film, Harmony. 

 Ian Skelly has been a broadcaster with the BBC for thirty years. He began as a reporter in the Midlands and then became a presenter of news and current affairs programmes for BBC radio and television, ending his time in the Midlands presenting two top-rated news breakfast shows.

Since 1995 Ian has been a regular voice on BBC Radio 3. He often presents all of its main programmes from the Breakfast Show at weekends to its afternoon programmes and its main evening concerts. He is one of the regular anchors on the station's live relays from the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and introduces concerts in the UK live from the stage.

Ian has worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in London, the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester and on the road with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He also introduces concerts outside his work for the BBC. Among the many venues he has worked, he has fronted concerts and events at the Royal Albert Hall, the Watford Colosseum, the Dorking Halls and the Plymouth Pavilions.

Throughout this time he has also worked as a highly effective voice coach and broadcast skills instructor for the BBC. In that capacity he has trained many of the BBC's top presenters and correspondents. He has worked in every BBC centre in the UK and many of its bureaus around the world. He has also been a voice consultant for ITN, GMTV and Channel 4 TV.

He has known HRH The Prince of Wales for ten years. He has helped the Prince articulate the detail of his philosophy and helped him explain how it works in practice across a wide range of disciplines. Ian has done so in many speeches and lectures given by the Prince on the international stage. They include the Dimbleby Lecture for the BBC, given by the Prince at St James's Palace in London and broadcast on national BBC Television, a lecture to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies on Islam and the Environment and a speech on the Future of Food at Georgetown University in Washington. All of these important statements are to be found incorporated into the purpose of the book, Harmony, co-authored with the Prince and the environmentalist, Tony Juniper. Ian is also the Prince's advisor on the film Harmony being made by Balcony Films of California.

Ian is the Chairman of the Temenos Academy, a charitable trust based in London and dedicated to offering education in philosophy and the arts in light of the sacred traditions of the East and the West. It was founded by the poet, Kathleen Raine, and the Prince of Wales is its Patron.

Ian is also a keen portrait photographer and has taken many portraits of actors and artists. He has taken photographs at the National Theatre and his pictures have been published in arts periodicals and various magazines and catalogues.

Talks and lectures by Ian Skelly on Harmony