Christopher Pickard

Christopher Pickard is best known as the 'ghost' of the Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs. He helped Biggs to write his best selling autobiography Odd Man Out: The Last Straw and the novel Keep On Running. He assisted the development and appeared on screen in the two-part documentary The Legend of Ronnie Biggs (2002) for Channel Five in the UK, and the 60-minute documentary Ronnie Biggs: Last Escape?, which aired on Sky One in 2005. Through his own company, Critical Divide, Pickard is in pre-production and development on a number of motion picture and television projects for the international market. These include Honour Among Thieves: The Great Train Robbery; Rio 50 Degrees: Carry on CaRIOca! (2014); Hidden Rhythms: The Heartbeat of Brazil; On Parade: Carnival in Rio; The Film Quiz; and Consider the Lilies Before They Burn: Margaret Mee. Pickard is a consultant to Festival do Rio, Rio de Janeiro's International Film Festival, and the Rio Film Commission. He lived in Rio for over 20 years and has been involved with Brazil since the early 1970s. He wrote The Insider's Guide to Rio, for many years the largest selling guidebook to Rio de Janeiro, and has contributed to numerous books about Brazil, as well as writing articles in newspapers and magazines, including as the arts and entertainment editor of The Latin America Daily Post. He also wrote and produced a best selling video version of his guidebook to Rio, and has been involved in numerous productions for both film and television in Brazil. Pickard also found time to travel the world for over three decades covering the film and television industries as a journalist, and lived for several years in Los Angeles where he was editor-in-chief of Moving Pictures, based in the offices of Variety. He has edited daily publications at the Cannes, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Rotterdam and Karlovy Vary film festivals, and has written for Variety, Screen International, Pulse, Down Beat, Cash Box, Songlines and Music Week, among other entertainment publications. He is also deputy chairman of the UK based Latin American Travel Association (LATA).