What was Matt Ryan’s first job?

W: Matt Ryan, could you tell me a bit about your background in your early career?
M: Sure. Well, it’s strange, really. At first I never thought about model-making as a career. Barely early on in my life, I worked for a television channel. I really wanted a full time job there. But the best I could get was holiday relief work, filling in for people while they were away. I started off in the photograph library. We had to collect pictures for the news and it was a good way of getting into the business.
W: How did your career come about?
M: I think it was an interesting time altogether, really. It was the sixties and everyone was talking about going to the moon. Where I was working we had photographs which were used in television reports on the subject. The scenes fascinated me and I thought " why not build some three-dimensional kits or models of the views instead of the flat photos that were mostly black and white?"
W: What happened to them?
M: During one of the space trips to the moon, the camera on the spacecraft burned out and we had no pictures back in the television studio to put on the news. So they used a total of 15 of my models as the substitute. And they were broadcasted to everyone at home.
W: What marked the beginning of your career in television?
M: The programme was called Bright Star and it was a children’s programme they produced about a time traveler. There were monsters and other strange creatures that he had to deal with. And I made most of the models for these. I was just one of a whole load of people.