El is Lead Editor on Channel 4 documentary

“WHEN I was in Primary School at St Mark’s, I devoured books,” explains Tallaght’s El Brady.

El has been working in film and television for the past couple of years and is now delighted to share their work as Lead Editor on a new two-part Channel 4 documentary, ‘Murder in Suburbia’, focused on the murder of Sharon Birchwood.

Reflecting on their childhood in Tallaght attending St Mark’s, they enjoyed reading Derek Landy, Stephanie Meyer, Jacqueline Wilson, etc.

They bought a copybook and every day would title a page with a new story idea.

“This elation lasted until Mam pointed out that I’d have to actually write the stories, and that felt a little more daunting,” laughs El.

However, they stuck with it and wrote stories for these notebooks, even taking home the overall English award for a creative writing story.

El’s passion for film editing was ignited while studying at IADT Dun Laoghaire, where they specialised in Editing and Screenwriting.

For each project, they receive a hard drive filled with hours of footage. For the true crime documentaries that they work on now, this includes interviews, drone shots, newspaper clippings and archive footage like CCTV and police interrogations.

It is El’s job to “wade through everything and assemble the bits and pieces into coherent sequences”.

Their responsibility as an editor is the same as what it was when they wrote ‘The Cloud That Wanted To Be A Wave’: acting as a “mouthpiece between the content and the audience.”

El has been working as an editor for Peninsula Television since October 2025; they produce a plethora of true crime content, like ‘Bloodline Detectives’ and ‘Green-Eyed Killers’.

‘Murder In Suburbia’ a couple of weeks after they started, and although the mini-series is comparatively more complicated, they never felt out of their depth.

A challenge for El as an editor has included becoming familiar with “gruesome” and “horrible” details in order to truly represent the victim’s story.

“I worked on it for four months. For Sharon Birchwood’s family, her absence will be felt for the rest of their lives,” they reflect.

They hope that the documentary “encourages people to discuss coercive control further”.

El is currently still working full-time for Peninsula, and a short film that they started editing last year is due to start its festival run a few months from now as of writing.

They would like to thank producer Kratika Joshi and their family, particularly their Nan, for the support.

‘Murder in Suburbia’ premiered on Channel 4 on July 16, and both parts are available to watch on channel4.com.