Comedy director Geoff on how his telly career started at Essex University

Not a bit of it, because according to Geoff Posner, that's where it all began.

"I was in Argentina at the time," he tells me, "when I got this e-mail out of the blue telling me I had been awarded an honorary degree. I can't tell you how chuffed to bits I was. I adored Essex when I was there back in the late Sixties and I feel truly humbled to be given this award."

Later this month Geoff Posner is one of 12 distinguished individuals who will be receiving honorary degrees during this year's Graduation Week at Essex University, which runs from July 12 to 15.

And while Geoff may feel humble about the award, looking at his incredible television CV, he needn't be at all.

Born and raised in his own words in a 'middle-class north London family' the expectations were as far removed from the world of television as they could be.

"They wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor," he laughs, "but I wanted to be a television director, which as you can imagine wasn't met with hostility but more complete incredulity. It was so ridiculous. It was the Sixties so there was only the BBC and ITV, but that's what I wanted to do.

"I remember watching the old music programme Ready, Steady, Go and while my friends were more obsessed with what new dance or fashions were on there, I was more interested in how they made the show."

Not knowing anyone in television he was advised to go to university because 'I would at least have a degree'.

"I didn't even know Essex existed," Geoff adds, "no one did. That's probably how I got in."

But it's relative newness, the fact it soon became a hotbed for radicalism and perhaps most importantly its knack of instilling the art of the possible in its students had a profound effect on the budding young director.

"I really do believe if I hadn't gone there," he continues, "I would not have been so resolute and wanting to take on the world. Essex was really, really important because when I left I didn't entertain any other career apart from television."

That determination was essential, especially at a time when if you didn't go to Oxford or Cambridge, the BBC really wasn't interested.

"I just could not contemplate not getting in," he adds. "I was so passionate I metaphorically stood outside the BBC until they let me in."

Eventually he got his break.

"As a floor assistant," he says, "doing that classic thing of making the tea and running basic errands but I was in, although, as I soon discovered, it was even more competitive on the inside than it was on the outside. In the end I just agreed to do whatever jobs came up, working on Doctor Who, Top of the Pops, and then finally Dad's Army, which I really liked and fortunately they liked me."

Setting himself a target to direct his first show before his 30th birthday, three days before that milestone he got the call to take on the pilot of a new all female sketch show called Revolting Women.

"It was done from BBC Manchester," Geoff tells me, "and I was the token man except when they offered them a series I got a call saying unfortunately they wanted a woman to direct it so very sadly I made my way back to London.

"They must have felt sorry for me because they offered me the job on Top of the Pops, which I did for three months."

Since then Geoff has gone on to produce and direct some of the best-loved TV comedy shows since the Eighties, including Not The Nine O’Clock News, The Young Ones, Saturday Live and Little Britain as well as series starring Victoria Wood, Steve Coogan, Lenny Henry, Paul Merton, French and Saunders, Harry Enfield and Catherine Tate. He also directed the pilot programmes of both Blackadder and Vic Reeves’s Big Night Out.

During his career Geoff has won an incredible six Baftas, two International Emmy Awards and four British Comedy Awards.

"Life is full of chances," he says, "and I'm a great believer in taking them because if you don't you might regret it.

"For example I remember editing a song for Not The Nine O'Clock News once and I heard this massive crash from next door where they were doing the pilot for The Young Ones. I thought 'that looks like fun, I'd quite like to do that'."

As well as being one of the country's most successful comedy directors, that passion led to Geoff becoming the 'go to guy' for live events.

He's directed the Eurovision Song Contest, two Princes Trust Concerts, events for Amnesty International and Comic Relief and both the Golden and Diamond Jubilee Concerts from Buckingham Palace. He was also one of the directors of Live 8, the Royal Wedding and the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.

"It started with Carrot's Lib in 1983," he explains. "Jasper wanted to make the programme live. That was his tradition but there was very little live television at the time. Everything was recorded. Most people shrank with horror but I offered to do it and that was me bitten by the live bug.

"There's something about doing live television, the danger that something might go wrong, the huge challenge, and of course the slightly nausea when the television announcer passes over to you and everything is completely in your hands. You feel a bit like the captain of a ship keeping the programme on course but it can be pretty scary and chaotic but then I love it when it's more chaotic."

Committed to nurturing younger generations on and off the screen, Geoff's company Pozzitive has been behind such programmes as Coogan's Run, Little Miss Jocelyn, and Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies.

He also lectures in television at the University of Arts in London, and returned to Essex recently to attend the Sociology Speed Networking event.

"I love my job," Geoff says, "and to help someone else realise their dreams is a great thing. I enjoy doing it and actually I think it's pretty natural to want to give something back."

Which is no doubt why Essex University will love handing over his honorary degree on July 14.