A NORTH Essex insurance broker has carved out a niche in organising cover in the film and television sector, but is now also seeing rapid growth in two other areas of business.

Allan Chapman & James (ACJ), based in Colchester, is one of the UK’s leading specialist media insurance brokers, with its recent projects having included the TV shows Billy Connolly’s Route 66 and the second series of Sherlock.

Its work on ITV1’s Billy Connolly’s Route 66, in which the Scottish comic and actor travelled nearly 2,500 along the famous highway between Chicago and Los Angeles, involved helping production company Maverick Television, ensure that it complied with all the local state laws from an insurance perspective. It was also called in to help when the star of the show suffered a fall from his iconic Harley Trike.

On Sherlock, a modern take on the Sherlock Holmes stories, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, the firm worked with production company Hartswood to provide cover for locations in Wales and London’s West End, and worked with the client to reschedule some of the London shoots following disruption during last summer’s riots.

The firm has also worked on behalf of Bill and Ben Productions, the company behind a forthcoming UK film named Theatre of Dreams, a fictional football tale involving legendary Manchester United manager Sir Matt Busby.

ACJ provided a complete film package covering all key cast and crew, together with ”errors and omissions” insurance for worldwide film and TV distribution.

However, two other fast-growing areas of business are also becoming increasingly important to the firm – offering advice and services on corporate insurance and in the charity sector.

To help communicate the breadth of its offer, as well as to strengthen further its appeal in its core market in TV and film production, ACJ has now completed a resign of its website, working in partnership with another Colchester-based firm, branding and design consultancy Silk Pearce.

The work for the site, www.acjltd.co.uk, also included a reworking of ACJ’s logo, which forms an integral part of the page designs.

John Claffey, commercial director at ACJ, said: “The new site also includes full content management so we can easily add news, update content or link through to our Facebook and Twitter sites.”

He added: “The design is perfect for our creative industry as well as corporate clients and we are all delighted with the end result.”