We start the tail of Mad Dogs with a young Martin Huntley. In his early 20's he had just returned home to the New Forest having spent the past three years traveling the world. Learning along the way to scuba dive, skydive, hitch-hike and all the crazy things you do whilst growing up. He met local cameraman and inventor John “Slim” MacDonnell at The Green Dragon pub in Brook near the family home. Once Martin found out what Slim did, he spent the next three months meeting pestering him every night in the pub trying to convince him to give him a job. After 3 months Slim took the bait and invited Martin to visit his workshop and underwater film studios, and while there told Martin that he started on Monday!

Having worked with at Eyewitness alongside Slim for 3 years learning underwater filming, secret filming, hazardous filming and more Martin moved to America and California as a freelance sound recordist working with Duane Empey. Martin was lured back to the UK by the prospect of a new series that would take him around the world. During this time, he starts sole trading under the Maddogs Television name, as only Mad Dogs and Englishman go out in the mid-day sun!

Whilst working on location and around the world so much Martin slowly converted the annex at his mother’s house that he had been living in, into storage for the increasing amounts of equipment he needed. The hot tub room soon became the sound store!

On a local shoot for ITV Meridian, Martin met local cameraman Rob Hawthorne, they became good friends and joined forces under the Mad Dogs umbrella to create a local equipment facilities house and crewing company, using the annex buildings at Rose Cottage to store equipment when not out filming.

In 2002 with business booming, Martin and Rob hires their first member of staff, Greg Pina as a kit room assistant. With more and more work coming in and more equipment to maintain Martin and Rob make their first staff hire. Over the coming years more and more staff were taken on to help handle bookings, accounts and more equipment.

In 2004, after initially applying for a job at Cinewessex (now Sweet TV) in Winchester, Andy's CV was passed on to Martin who was looking to hire a new kit room assistant ahead of a couple of big projects for the company. Martin, Rob and Andy travelled the world for shows like Scorpion Island, Extreme Dreams, Aero GP and more. Starting as an assistant and minicam operator, over the next two decades Andy has honed his skills and is still with us now as our in-house Director of Photography and Company Manager.

By the mid noughties the company has continued to grow, with 5 members of staff (Andy, Amber, Will, Jenny, Charlotte) and more equipment. Still operating out of the offices at Rose Cottage in the now fully converted annex, what was once Martins bedroom is now the main office for the business. The company is registered as a limited company and is going from strength to strength.

With the number of people on the payroll as high as it had ever been, with 3 office staff, 2, camera and audio technicians, 1 booking coordinator as well as Martin and Rob the company was as busy as ever. With shows like Top Gear, Countryfile, Animal Park, Celeb Air keeping everyone busy the company hired James Bailey, fresh out of university he became kit room assistant as others who came before him such as Andy worked their way up the ladder from kit room, to cameraman.

From having had one of the best years of the company’s history, came 2008 and the global recession hits. All industries are affected and TV is no exception. With the “feast of famine” of TV rearing its head and work drying up, Martin and Rob are forced to cut costs and with regret redundancies are made. The team that was 10 people, drops to 5 in order to keep the company afloat. During this time James is made redundant, whilst Andy is kept on, however due to happy circumstances there is another position that became available for James running the bookings desk and accounts which he gratefully does.

It’s a tough time, with less work around than the company had known before, redundancies having been made the team shrinks down to 4 with just Martin, Rob, Andy and James remaining. With uncertainty for the company and the industry Rob decides to return to being freelance and leaves the company. Martin and Rob part ways amicably and Rob remains on our books as a freelancer to this day. During this time the trio of Martin, Andy and James reallocate shares and roles within the company to hunker down and see if things recover.

Martin buys “The Barn” a former milking parlour on edge of a farm in Copythorne, just 10 minutes from our offices in Cadnam, and just a stone’s throw from his home in Winsor. Over the next 5 years work will progress in between jobs as the building is renovated and rebuilt for the company to move into and help the company regrow.

The beginning of 2014 shows great promise and Maddogs is emboldened to make its first significant investments in new kit for years. With the commissioning of Gold Rush Alaska, the company purchases 4 new Sony PDW F800 cameras which become the workhorse for the next 4 years. James is beginning to branch away from his role as book keeper and starts on his career out on location. Maddogs hires new office coordinators, Emma & Tracy.

Craig joins the team as a kit house technician after a brief career in sales. Craig picks up in the kit room as Andy and James are now both out more frequently filming. James having worked long stints away on Gold Rush series 2 and Ultimate Airport Dubai. Data wrangling has emerged as a key industry role and James is at the fore front of defining these roles for long form documentaries. Also at this point Martin, (Who had previously never turned down a day’s filming) hangs up his mixer and retires from location sound recording. Andy is getting his first DOP credits stepping up from 2nd camera to main camera.

We bid a fond farewell to Rose Cottage and the company moves into the former milking parlour, now newly christened as The Dog House. Molly Pond joins us as our office coordinator and book keeper having had a trial work experience and wanting to come back for me. Our Sony PDW F800s and Canon C300s are flying off the shelves and the future is looking bright. Martin focuses on running the company from our new headquarters and things are going from strength to strength as the company expands rapidly to fill its new home.

Mad Dogs takes on its first ever apprentice Craig Hookings, as he was the second Craig H at maddogs he was soon affectionally dubbed "Mini Craig" he was 16 years old at the time. Steve Hatch (19) also joins the company; both are like energetic young puppies.

The pandemic puts everything on hold and the industry comes to an immediate halt. We essentially go into hibernation until some shooting begins again by late July 2020. Most of the staff end up on furlough and it is not until the following year we return to full strength with the exception of Steve Hatch who levees the good ship maddogs to explore opportunities outside of TV.

As the Covid pandemic restrictions begin to relax it becomes apparent that a future strategy is needed for Maddogs Television. Trials begin for Andy & James running the company and Martin begins to consider a life beyond Maddogs Television. Andy & James become management and Martin starts to take his foot of the gas and takes a step back from running the company.

A tsunami of commissions and a shortage of new equipment drives a revitalised broadcast industry. Under new management with the company fully helmed by Andy & James, they hire two new kit room staff and we welcome Sam and Marc to the team. Molly is semi head-hunted and leaves us for a job at Presteigne Broadcast. Her replacement Jazz is hired as our new Office Coordinator and takes to the role like a duck to water with her previous broadcast experiences.

The industry post Covid bubble bursts and a significant reduction in work grips the broadcast and entertaiment sectors. From boom to bust in 12 months for some. The company faces challanges but thanks to regular commissions and loyal customers Mad Dogs Television continues to invest in more equipment and trade where industry giants begin to fold.

With the company about to turn 20 years old we proudly relaunch our web presence with our most advanced website to date, with a new look and more services on offer including training course for the first time. Mad Dogs starts running self-shooter guru courses to help train the next generation.