A FORMER West Somerset College student celebrated as another one of his documentaries was broadcast to the nation on BBC1 this week.

Leon Dean, 35, of Minehead, was part of the team who produced ‘Hole in the Road Inspectors’, which was shown on TV on Tuesday night.

The documentary follows two men in Leeds who are employed to deal with some of the 30,000 potholes which appear there each year.

Leon works for Landmark Film, a production company based in Oxford, and though the idea for the documentary was not his he still gets excited by his job.

“When I come up with an idea I often like to come closer to home,” said Leon.

“My graduation film at the National Film and television school was shot in Lynton and Lynmouth.

“I do, of course, have fond memories of growing up in West Somerset. “It’s a wonderful place in which to grow up – something you don’t actually appreciate until you move away.

“People are very warm, friendly and interesting, and, of course, I’d argue West Somerset is the most beautiful part of the country.”

Leon, who is hoping to start work on a new BBC series in the next couple of weeks, has an impressive list of documentaries under his belt.

His mum, Suzanne, who runs the café in Blenheim Park, told the County Gazette how proud she is of her son.

She said: “It’s when you get to see his name in the credits, that’s really something.

“The first time he had something on the telly, we had a party around ours with champagne, but for his latest documentary me and my husband [Mick Dean] watched it on our own with a cup of tea.

“We laughed because it’s so different now.”

You can catch up on Hole in the Road Inspectors on BBC iPlayer.