Williams joined the BBC as a News Trainee in 1986 and worked as a Producer on "Newsnight". In 1992, he directed and produced the documentary "A Journey Home" with the model, Iman, on the famine and civil war in her native Somalia. Then in 1993 he joined "Panorama" as an Assistant Editor, reporting on the domestic and international stories of the day. His programme with Reporter, Jane Corbin, on the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, "War Crime: Five Days in Hell", was used as evidence at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, and nominated for an Emmy Award.