A FORMER Tavistock College student will gain his first TV directorial credit tomorrow (Friday), when Channel 4 broadcasts his documentary, 'Break In and Make My Day'.

Jamie Balment's programme explores the lengths to which some British homeowners will go to in defending their property from intruders.

Jamie, 30, said: 'English people are very house proud and protective of their own property.

'In essence, the programme's about the extremes that people will go to — but it's also a celebration of eccentricity — it's about Englishness, paranoia and obsession.

'I'm really pleased with it. I found characters that were really interesting, who really had a story to tell.'

He certainly did — the programme features one home-owner who defends his land with a 30ft catapult loaded with chicken excrement. Others employ the latest in high-tech equipment, including a man who has spent £20,000 securing his three bedroom semi-detached home in Milton Keynes with 13 CCTV cameras. He is now thinking of installing a 'smoke screen' in his garden shed.

Although this is his first programme as director, Jamie has been working in broadcasting since 2003, working his way up the documentary ladder, from researching via producing.

His first experience of broadcasting was through Tavistock-based programme maker Tom Keane, who made the documentary Lost Lives in 1997 — the story of the tragic death of Jamie's brother Tom in a Polzeath surfing accident.

'He gave me my first researcher credit for the BBC in their regional slot, which I am really grateful for,' said Jamie.

'Post-university, I knew I wanted to get into TV and I was very lucky with the company I started with. I got into the documentary department and knew that was where I wanted to go.

'You get a real insight into how people live their lives. Because you need to attract viewers in their millions, the people you research are always inherently interesting.'

Last year, Jamie worked on the Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary, Killer in a Small Town. The programme investigated the effects of the serial killing of prostitutes in Ipswich on the victims' families — and on the community.

Jamie said: 'It was really hard, you were working in an area which had been trampled on by the tabloids, the families had been through a huge amount and you had to develop a relationship with them because you want them to tell that story in the best way possible.

'You do get to feel tremendously privileged that people will open up to you about subjects that are really very sensitive.'

As far as the future is concerned, Jamie, who is freelance, has 'lots' more ideas which he hopes will be commissioned.

Last year he lived with aborigines in Australia for a month — an experience he found 'incredible' and which he hopes will form the basis for a new documentary.

'I'm biding my time slightly until this film goes out first. I wanted my first job to be as good as it could be and I'm glad it all came together at the right time.'

'Break In and Make My Day' will be aired on Channel 4 tomorrow (Friday) at 7.35pm.