JAMIE Doran recalls the moment he came perilously close to losing his life.

"I was on the wrong side of a car with five dead bodies around me," he says.

"My fixer called my name and as I stepped forward a sniper's bullet just missed my hair and hit the wall behind me. We all hit the ground very, very fast.

"There was another guy standing 10 yards away and the next time I looked at him he had no head."

Horrific images of death and war haunt the award-winning film-maker whose career could have ended that day in Syria.

The man who says he hates war has made it his life, with his eternal quest to bring the terror of the front line into our living rooms.

Celebrating his recent success at the news and documentary Emmy awards in New York, the Glaswegian said he was disappointed that his two winning films, Opium Brides and Battle for Syria, have been show on television around the world but not in Britain.

"I don't know why British television didn't show them, and frankly I think it was a mistake," he says.

WHEN they're shown everywhere else and win the Emmys, why on earth are they not shown in this country?"

The story of how young girls are being forcibly sold to drug traffickers and into the sex trade to pay loans their fathers have taken out is told in Opium Brides.

Filmed in Afghanistan, Jamie discovered girls as young as six had been taken from their families.

Months on the front line provided material to show the horror of war in Battle for Syria.

"I hate war, I hate useless murder, I hate the fact that human beings are so pathetic the only way we can actually solve problems is to kill each other, and that's really why I do it," says Jamie.

"I've covered basically every single major war for the past three decades, except Bosnia.

"Lots of people ask me for advice before they go into a war zone and my only advice is just make sure you're frightened.

"I'm quite serious because if you go in full of bravado and confidence you're in trouble.

"You have to very much be aware of everything and be frightened. Make sure you have a good level of fear."

After growing up in a council house in Newlands in Glasgow's south side, Jamie went to work on a Sunday paper before moving to the BBC as a producer. A few years later he set up his own company.

"We're very much at the top end of documentaries. We look into all the very heavy issues of the world and obviously a lot of time is spent in dangerous countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and, of course, Syria," he says.

Production company Clover, based in Windsor, may be small but it has scooped 23 awards in the past three years, including two duPont-Columbia awards, the broadcasting equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

It was also awarded the top United Nations award for child issues two years ago.

"That was a great award to win as it was recognising what we do," he says.

"As well as war we do a lot on children in the developing world and the things that they have faced over time."

Despite his adventures in some of the most war-town corners of the world, Jamie still finds time to come home to Glasgow and put his season ticket to Parkhead to good use.

ONE of the films he is most passionate about was a biography of Jimmy Johnstone, the legendary Celtic player.

"He was my boyhood hero and to meet him and discover what a beautiful human being he was quite extraordinary," says Jamie.

"The Jimmy film was very much a labour of love, whereas with the Afghan film I'm trying to say something and change things, which is what we're all about."

He is currently working on another film in Syria and says it is unlike any other war he has covered.

"It's the bloodiest, most horrific...it's hand to hand, and literally you are 20 to 30 yards away from the opposition forces," he says.

"They have tanks and the guys you're with have little pop guns.

"Because outside countries were so slow to act in any way, Syria has become an absolute disaster.

"Had the West taken an interest a year ago it was still time to ensure the secularists, the moderates, remained in the strongest position.

"Because they delayed, because they waited and didn't want to get involved, because of the American elections and so on, no-one wanted anyone involved.

"And because of that huge delay the jihadists, the Islamists and the extreme Islamists are effectively taking over now.

"We're going to be paying for that for decades because of the inaction."

angela.mcmanus@ heraldandtimes.co.uk