Merlin was Magic!

Thank you to all of you Merlin fans who came to the show at the Barbican Theater last weekend! - the show was a great success!

Andreas really enjoyed performing his fight scene with Bradley James in front of all the fans. We want to thank BAFTA for their support to us.

Keep a look out on our blog for more events!......

London Children's Film Festival in association with BAFTA - Merlin behind the magic!

Hello again! We're really excited to be asked by Shine Productions - Merlin in association with BAFTA and The London Children's Film Festival to come and do some fight demonstrations at their star studded 'behind the scenes' Merlin event at the Barbican Theatre, London.

Andreas is the Stunt Co-ordinator for Merlin and he will be on stage demonstrating fight techniques used in Merlin with the actors, Katie McGrath, Colin Morgan and Bradley James. Andreas will also be getting audience members up on stage to learn and demonstrate a big fight sequence!

The event will be held at the Barbican in London on Sat 21st November at 3.30pm

If you're a fan of Merlin, this event is not to be missed.

To book tickets, please visit The London Children's Film Festival website http://www.londonchildrenfilm.org.uk/

See you there!!

Star Wars Experience at Staffordshire University

Andreas will be instructing the Star Wars Experience at Staffordshire University on Thursday Oct 8th @ 7pm. Tickets for the event are for sale on the Staffordshire Student Union Website.

Star Wars Experience - Winchester Uni

We are to be performing our Star Wars Experience to Winchester University on Sat 26th at The Stripe Lecture Theatre 3pm. Andreas is really looking forward to inspiring the audience on all things Stunts, Action and Star Wars. The audience will be taken on a journey though the world of Star Wars and Andreas' 20 year stunt career.

Please keep an eye out on our site for more news and events. We also update facebook and twitter so you can follow us there too!

See you all at one of our events soon!

RIP Michael Jackson

We were all very shocked and saddened to hear about the death of Michael Jackson here at the British Action Academy.

Michael Jackson was taught to MoonWalk by Jeffrey Daniels of the famous 80's pop group Shalamar, Jeffrey first famously performed the MoonWalk in the UK on Top of the Pops in 1982 (one year before MJ's live performance of Billy Jean). Jeffery was also in a dance group called 'Eclipse' who were famous for performing the original LA street dance style of Body Popping and Locking.

An interesting fact that you might not know was that Andreas was also taught the MoonWalk by Jeffrey during the same period that he taught Michael!

Andreas was taught the same style dancing as Michael from Eclipse at an early age, helping him to become a great Street Dancer and finally winning the UK Break Dancing Championship back in 1984.

Michael Jackson was a musical legend and in the end who cares about that he looked like or the financial legacy of his estate, he was a supremely talented, misunderstood man who fought desperately to recreate the childhood he never had.

It is estimated that his debt is about $300 million but not many are aware that he actually spent the same amount as his debt on charities over his lifetime, helping to radically improve the worlds serious global issues and the lives of children in need across the world.

When we know the astounding financial contribution he made to charity work, why do we care what is owed from his estate to those rich banks and billion dollar private investors? I'm sure they can operate without his money but the charities Michael invested in, couldn't.

His music will continue to inspire people for many hundreds of years to come.

RIP MJ

Jeffrey Daniel performing the MoonWalk on Top of the Pops - 1982!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ImkBve8OW8

We love Debbie McGee as much as Chris Moyles!

Well, if you tuned into BBC Radio Berkshire last Sunday, you would have heard Andreas talking to Debbie McGee about his movie career and our company! It was a great interview and were very happy to have our time extended so we were on air longer.

Debbie McGee was lovely and we do have to agree with Chris Moyles about her, she's fantastic on the radio and hosts a very good show.

We shall add the interview on the blog when we get it through from the BBC.

Debbie and Andreas also did some movie fight sequences on air which was recorded on video and they will be adding it onto Debbie's blog on the BBC Radio Berkshires website and it should also be appearing on YouTube soon so watch this space!

So next stop....... Radio 1...... we're planning to woo the pants off Chris Moyles as we hear he's a big Star Wars fan.... !!

Stay tuned for more updates....

BBC Radio Berkshire - here we come!

If you have the sudden urge to listen to Debbie McGee this Sunday morning (10th May) over your morning coffee, please tune in to BBC Radio Berkshire online and listen to Andreas being interviewed. He'll talk about his experiences on major blockbuster movies and will also be plugging our company along with the Star Wars Seminars.....

Star Wars Seminars

OK, so we've finally been able to divulge some information on the exciting Star Wars Seminars that are going to take place across the UK! A lot of our customers and avid Star Wars fans have been asking when they will be taking place and what they will involve.... so, here is some information for you:

What did Andreas Petrides do on Star Wars?

Andreas was the Fight Arranger, 2nd Unit Stunt Coordinator and Stunt Double for Obi Wan Kenobi on The Phantom Menace.

Intially we are heading to Universities to perform the seminar and are pleased to announce we've already got 5 bookings in our first week of promoting the Star Wars Seminar.... man, there is a lot of Star Wars fans out there! We will be performing several seminars to members of the public and are already finalising booking a venue in Leicester Square, London.

To promote the Star Wars Seminars we will be going onto Capital Radio and BBC Radio 1in the next month. We will let you know when (info will be on our site and the blog).

You can listen to the show and find out more about where the seminars will be and what date and time.

..... so watch this space for more details. If you're interested in attending, please email us at info@britishactionacademy.com.

I've added a video here of Andreas and Ray Park (Darth Maul) practicing on the set of the Phantom Menace. Some YouTube Star Wars fanatic enhanced it with lightsaber special effects..... May the force be with you....

Welcome to the British Action Academy

Who are the Directors?

Andreas Petrides - is one of the UK's leading Stunt Performers, Stunt Coordinators and Action Directors. His career has spanned over 20 years working on over 600 productions worldwide and on some of the biggest movies to date, including Star Wars - The Phantom Menace, were he created all the Lightsaber fights, he was the 2nd Unit Stunt Coordinator and Stunt doubled Ewan McGreggor as Obi Wan Kenobi.

He designed and choreographed all the fight sequences in Ridley Scots Oscar winning epic Gladiator, trained Russell Crowe and Stunt doubled Joaquin Phoenix as Emperor Commodus. He has also worked on 4 James Bond movies: Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Along with movies such as: Braveheart, Terminator 3, The Mummy, Tomb Raider, Interview With The Vampire, Saving Private Ryan... to name but a few!

His television credits, to name a few include the current hit BBC show Merlin, Band Of Brothers, Little Britain, Eastenders, Casualty, Silent Witness, Trial and Retribution, Prime Suspect and Touch of Frost.

Cayte Robinson - Her background has been music, theatre and art and from a young age she was always on stage. Cayte finally won a place in the prestigious National Youth Music Theatre where she performed at Edinburgh Festival on shows written and directed by both Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe.

Cayte went on to further her talent at music with the dream of becoming a song writer for the movies. She finally landed her dream job writing a movie score for an up and coming British movie which was due to be showcased at Cannes Film Festival but sadly due to politics, the movie lost it's funding.

After working many years at a major publishing house in London, Cayte decided to broaden her skills to become a Quality Control Manager for a Brighton based company and it was during this time she met Andreas and together they now run the British Action Academy full time. Cayte still continues to write music and along side running the academy, is working on her debut single.

What do the British Action Academy offer?

The idea of the British Action Academy was created after Andreas Petrides was asked to perform a Stunt Workshop for the BBC Radio 4 programme 'Go For It'. The workshop was held in a South London School and was designed to educate children about the world of action within the Movie industry. It was a massive success but despite the demand 'Go For It' generated for this type of workshop, Andreas's movie commitments kept him from performing anymore for some time.

Finally in late 2008 Andreas and Cayte set up the academy.

We offer educational workshops, seminars, stunt training packages and experience days for children and adults, teaching them all about action, stunts and the career opportunities within the movie and T.V industry.