Trump's special envoy: The ex-Para who took part in the advance on Port Stanley
Donald Trump's new special envoy to the UK is a successful Hollywood producer who is responsible for a number of hit shows - who also happens to have served in the Parachute Regiment.
Mark Burnett, who has just been awarded the 2,387th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, credits his time in the Army for forming him as a person.
He was born in 1960 and he grew up in Dagenham in east London, where his father worked on the production line for Ford and his mother worked at a car battery factory.
According to Paul Read, a former colleague who spoke to The New Yorker, Mr Burnett joined up at the age of 17 and volunteered for the Parachute Regiment.
He was deployed to Northern Ireland before taking part in the advance on Port Stanley during the Falklands War in 1982.
Mr Read described Mr Burnett as physically commanding and a natural leader.
"My Army experience formed me as a person," Mr Burnett said in an interview with the Television Academy.
He named the two biggest things he’d taken from the Army as learning how to "do everything you need to do with way less" and "a sense of adventure".
He left the military and the UK when he was 22 to become "a manny" – a male nanny – for a family in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
Now, aged 64, he has been named special envoy to the UK by US President-elect Mr Trump.
Among his many achievements in television is producing the hit US reality show The Apprentice hosted by Mr Trump, who in 2016 called Mr Burnett his "special, special friend".
Mr Burnett won 13 Emmy Awards, was the chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world in 2004.
In addition to working in childcare, he worked in insurance and spent time selling T-shirts on the beach before his television breakthrough in the 1990s.
Mr Burnett went on to create the hit reality TV shows Survivor, The Apprentice and Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?.
Mr Burnett told the Television Academy his idea for The Apprentice came after his son called him and complained he could not remember what he looked like, which made him think about doing a Survivor-like show set in a city.
"Donald Trump came to mind," he said.
The British producer helped build Mr Trump’s profile, but distanced himself from the tycoon during the 2016 presidential contest.
In October 2016, Mr Burnett and his wife, Irish actress Roma Downey, criticised the "hatred, division and misogyny that has been a very unfortunate part of his campaign".
But he went on to introduce Mr Trump at his first National Prayer Breakfast.
The then-president said at the event: "I also want to thank my great friends, though, Roma. Where's Roma? Beautiful Roma Downey. The voice of an angel.
"Everything is so beautiful about Roma, including her husband because he’s a special, special friend, Mark Burnett — for the wonderful introduction."
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