A born-and-raised Mitcham producer has talked about his journey to Hollywood and his time on shows like Loose Women and This Morning.

Patrick Farrelly is currently working on ‘Steve’, a major talkshow in the US, hosted by Steve Harvey.

The show was nominated for an Emmy for best Informational Talkshow and it won the Emmy for Best Host.

Patrick said: “I didn’t go to private school or anything – we didn’t have the money for that. My father was a proof-reader, my mum worked in a clothes shop.”

Patrick went to school at Wimbledon College where he “excelled at English and was terrible at maths”.

From a young age, he was obsessed with TV talk shows, especially This Morning, and would try to pinpoint the studio location by walking down the Thames riverside.

“I was desperate to know where exactly in London it was. That was kind of when my ambition to work in TV began.”

Patrick studied English literature and language at Manchester University and graduated in 2003.

His dreams didn’t fall into place right away, and he worked at M&S for a time after graduating, having had a job part-time there since he was 16.

Through persistence, he got his first job with television giant ITV.

“It was really a question of emailing the right people, I went on the internet and looked up who worked where.”

“That’s the message I really want to get across – I wrote about 150 times and told them how passionate I was to get my foot in the door.

“A lovely lady at ITV got back to me and said I could work in a press office for work experience.

“It was very basic office work, collecting tea and doing very basic office administration.”

Despite this, Patrick relished the opportunity to “actually be in the tower” and get the same lift as people working on his favourite shows.

“That two weeks work experience turned into two years,” he said.

Eventually, having learned as much he could, Patrick decided to commit to his passion for production and when he heard Loose Women needed a runner, he applied.

“It was a step down becoming an assistant and a dent to my ego, but I didn’t care about that.”

His first production role in This Morning came about again through sheer persistence.

“I’m not ashamed to say I applied four times,” said Patrick.

This Morning was a career highlight, “It was very hard work, working very long hours, but it was so great being part of the show – it taught me so much about daytime TV,” he added.

When one of Patrick’s friends got a visa to work in LA, Patrick researched how he could do the same – Hollywood being the ultimate goal in film and TV.

“I had to move back in my dad to save about £6000 to pay for the legal fees for the visa.

“In April 2016, I flew to LA jobless and homeless. It took about three months of unsuccessful interviews to get my first job.”

From here, Patrick launched his career in LA, working on Dr. Phil for CBS and the Emmy-nominated Steve in some of the world’s biggest television studios.

Patrick hopes to inspire the next generation of filmmakers and creatives with his story.

“I'm a working class boy from a very modest background and I want teenagers to know that anyone can do what they want if they put the hours in,” said Patrick.