As an extreme engineer, petrol head, adventurer and soldier, Jimmy has been tinkering with and building extraordinary machines his entire life.
From childhood, Jimmy’s keen interest in how things worked was driven by frustration when toys broke. Surely they could be fixed? Finding the solution is what ultimately lead to his love for engineering. He later achieved a Bsc Hons in Product Design and Engineering where he was awarded the Trevor Baylis Award 2000 for Innovation in Design.
Jimmy’s early career involved the design and development of Action Man and Micro Machine toys for Hasbro and he was then invited to build a radio controlled paranormal search vehicle for Channel 5’s TV show Urban Gothic.
This show proved to be Jimmy’s spring board into a world of physical effects, which manifested itself for Jimmy in the form of a London based SFX house, where he worked for five years on a whole plethora of various ventures including stage shows, music videos, adverts, interactive museum exhibits, feature films as well as factual, magic and live TV shows.
Jimmy still works independently as an approved 1st Option Safety Group Ltd engineering consultant for programs including Channel 4’s Scrapheap Challenge, Windfall Films’ Building the Bouncing Bomb, Dragonfly Productions’ Beat the Ancestors, National Geographic’s None of the Above 1&2, BBC Knowledge’s Factomania, and Discovery’s Breaking Magic.
Jimmy is also a qualified Class One Small Arms British Army Armourer involved with the development, maintenance and use of firearms and equipment.
On his first deployment to Iraq he provided force protection to UK assets, earning a General Officer Commanding’s Commendation in the process. In Afghanistan he trained local forces in tactics, weapon handling and deployment. He is also a qualified Range Conducting Officer, combat medic and a top fifty shooting medalist.
‘Engine Addict with Jimmy de Ville‘ was his first series in front of the camera and allowed him to explore abandoned factories, junk yards and deserted airfields to unearth an incredible range of combustion engines across the globe – traveling to Poland, India, Brazil, Sweden and Austria.
‘Goblin Works Garage‘ was his second Tv series and was first shown on Quest TV in January 2018. He teamed up with Anthony Partridge and Helen Stanley to build custom cars and bikes that mess with your motoring perceptions.
Click here to see Jimmy’s showreel.
Jimmy de Ville 