Sarfraz Manzoor

Early life and education

Manzoor was born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), the second largest city in Punjab Province and the third largest in Pakistan. He emigrated to Britain in May 1974 with his mother, older brother and sister to join their father Mohammed Manzoor who had left Pakistan in 1963 to find work. Manzoor attended Maidenhall Infants and Primary Schools in the Bury Park district of Luton. In the autumn of 1979 Manzoor's family moved to the Marsh Farm estate and he attended Wauluds Primary School and in the autumn of 1982 began at Lea Manor High School. After completing A levels at Luton Sixth Form College, Manzoor left Luton to study Economics and Politics at Manchester University. He graduated in 1992, began a master's degree in Documentary Production at Salford University in the autumn of 1995 and remained in Manchester until September 1996 when he returned to Luton and began work at ITN.

Career

During his six years at ITN, Manzoor worked as a producer and reporter on Channel 4 News interviewing such figures as Woody Allen, Brian Wilson, Sinéad O'Connor, Peter Gabriel, Don McCullin and Charlie Watts. He left Channel 4 News and joined Channel 4 as a deputy commissioning editor before signing a contract with Bloomsbury Publishing for his first book.

Manzoor scripted The Great British Asian Invasion for Channel 4 and wrote and directed Death of a Porn Star for the same network which told the tragic story of the life and death of Lolo Ferrari. He presented a documentary for Channel 4 on the 2006 Guardian Hay Book Festival On the Way to Hay in which he interviewed Monica Ali and Will Self.

In March 2005, Manzoor wrote and presented Luton Actually, a documentary for BBC 2. The programme, a personal and affectionate portrait of his hometown, featured Manzoor tracing his family's journey from Pakistan to Luton.

In 2007, he published Greetings from Bury Park, a memoir that detailed his life growing up in Luton and the twin impacts upon his life of the death of his father in 1995 and the music of Bruce Springsteen. Manzoor had admired the United States, wishing to live there, but the experience of witnessing the 9/11 attacks in 2001 he came to view Britain as being his true home.

Manzoor has written and presented documentaries for Radio 4. These include From Luton Streets to Jersey Shores where he travelled to New Jersey to examine the connections between Springsteen's New Jersey and Manzoor's hometown of Luton; Don't Call Me Asian which examined the rise in British Indians and Pakistanis defining themselves by their religion and nationality rather than simply as British Asians; A Class Apart which explored the consequences of faith schools on social cohesion; Taking the Cricket Test which saw Manzoor follow the Pakistan cricket team across England during the 2006 test series. Radio 4 in the November 2008 broadcast Manzoor's documentary profile of Little Richard, who was interviewed; a programme on matrimonial websites in August 2009; a three part series Whatever Happened to the Working Class? in February 2009 and a programme which told the story of the George Harrison album Wonderwall Music in March 2009.

Manzoor has written for Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, The Observer, Prospect, The Spectator, Uncut, Marie Claire and The Times.

In 2010 Manzoor married Bridget, a speech therapist, a union disapproved of by his brother and elder sister.