Roy Ackerman
Creative director of Diverse Production
Roy Ackerman has played a major role in shifting the indie from a niche factual specialist to a growing company that’s often chasing big audiences. His specialities are high profile docs, event series and formats. Recent high rating productions include Beat the Star for ITV1, Mission Africa for the BBC and Real Dad’s Army and Bear Gryll’s Mission Everest for C4. Other high profile commissions include Britain’s Rich List: Give It Away for ITV and Tribal Wives for the BBC.
Speaking at Gotcha! The rise and rise of tabloid TV
Jeff Anderson
Controller of current affairs and documentaries, ITV
Jeff Anderson has held his current post since 2006. He joined Granada in 1984 following spells on local newspapers, the national press and commercial radio. He was a newsroom journalist before becoming a researcher, producer, then editor of World In Action. In 1999 he launched the multi-award-winning Tonight With Trevor McDonald, and edited its various spin-offs including Living With Michael Jackson. As Granada’s head of currents affair and features he oversaw Tonight, plus a number of other ITV1 series such as House of Horrors and Package Holiday Undercover.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Current affairs
Steve Anderson
Creative director Mentorn Media
Steve Anderson oversees all of the indie’s current affairs and contemporary factual programming, as well as Folio Productions, which produces Motorway Cops and Traffic Cops for BBC1. He’s the executive producer of BBC 1’s Question Time, and has executive produced Madeleine, One Year On; Campaign For Change (ITV1), Panorama (BBC1), Real Crime (ITV1), 7/7: Attack on London; Tsunami: The Day The Wave Struck (Five), Dispatches and Ashes Fever (C4). He joined Mentorn in 2004 from ITV where he was controller of News, Current Affairs, Arts and Religion. While there he launched Tonight with Trevor McDonald and commissioned the two most popular factual programmes on British television, Living with Michael Jackson and Millionaire - A Major Fraud.
Stephen Armstrong
Writer/broadcaster
Stephen Armstrong writes for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, GQ, Elle, Esquire, Wallpaper and the New Statesman. He also does some presenting on Radio 4, the occasional Newsnight Review and turns up on talking head shows now and then – most recently How TV Changed Britain on C4 this summer. His second book – War plc – will be published by Faber and Faber in July.
Interviewer for On the spot: Richard Klein and On the spot: Hamish Mykura
Peter Bazalgette
Media consultant
From 2004 – 2007 Peter Bazlagette was chief creative officer of Endemol, to whom he remains an adviser. He has personally devised several internationally successful television formats such as Ready Steady Cook and Changing Rooms. He also brought Big Brother to the UK. Peter’s book about the international business of TV formats, Billion Dollar Game, was published in 2005.
Chairing Question Time
Mark Bell
BBC Commissioning editor, specialist factual, independents
Mark Bell commissions specialist factual programmes and multiplatform content. Prior to this, from 2004 Mark worked as a channel executive at BBC2 and BBC4, where he worked directly to the channel controllers, and was executive lead on high profile projects including BBC2’s Summer of British Film season and nights and seasons on BBC4 including The Edwardians, The Lost Decade, Pop On Trial and Science Fiction Britannia. Mark Bell began his career as a researcher and then producer in BBC Music & Arts. In 2001 he moved to Newsnight Review as series producer before joining specialist factual as a series producer in 2002.
Speaking at Meet the Commissioners - Specialist factual
Ed Braman
Commissioning editor, current affairs, Channel 4
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Current affairs
Meredith Chambers
Commissioning editor, documentaries, Channel 4
As a producer Meredith Chambers has worked in Current Affairs, Education, Documentary and Factual Entertainment - ranging from Will Hutton to I’m A Celebrity, from Cutting Edge to Pop Idol. At C4 Documentaries he commissions series including The Secret Millionaire, My Boyfriend The Sex Tourist and Help Me Love My Baby and he is the editor of Cutting Edge. He also looks after feature singles including The Seven Sins of England and The Doctor Who Hears Voices.
Speaking at Where next for factual
Simon Chinn
Producer
Simon Chinn is an award-winning producer working across both drama and documentary. His feature documentary Man on Wire won the Jury and Audience awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the Special Jury and Audience awards at the Full Frame Festival. He co-produced Peter Kosminsky’s Bafta and RTS award winning The Government Inspector and produced and co-wrote the feature-length dramatised documentary Smallpox. Documentary credits include: America Beyond the Colour Line with Henry Louis Gates, Correspondent: The Promised Land, Invading Iraq, and The Real Alan Clark.
Speaking at Big screen stories
Nick Cohen
BBC Vision multiplatform commissioning executive
A senior member of BBC Vision’s new multiplatform team, Nick Cohen is in charge of commissioning content and services across all non-TV platforms (web, mobile, interactive TV, etc) with specific responsibility for factual. He works with controllers and commissioning editors across docs, features, current affairs and daytime to commission stand-alone online services and new media aspects of cross-platform TV commissions.
He was previously commissioning editor for BBCi, the BBC’s interactive TV service, and before that assistant editor at BBC News Interactive, overseeing roll-out of video services on the BBC News website.
Speaking at Where next for factual
Sue Davidson
Five commissioning editor, factual
Sue Davidson is commissioning editor, factual at Five. She is responsible for science within the factual department which includes Five’s highly successful strand of documentaries, Extraordinary People. Sue also commissions general factual series ranging from observational documentaries to factual formats.
Before joining Five, Sue was an executive producer and series producer on a range of factual programmes both within the independent sector and the BBC. Her production credits include, Brat Camp, Bad Lads’ Army, Little Angels, Posh Plumbers, Olympic Diaries and the RTS nominated Gold Fever.
Speaking at Meet the Commissioners - Specialist factual
Simon Dickson
Deputy head of documentaries, Channel 4.
Simon Dickson commissions documentary series and singles, both as “stand-alones” and as contributions to the Cutting Edge strand. His commissions include 2007 RTS and Broadcast Awards Best Documentary Series Meet The Natives; Cutting Edge: A Boy Called Alex; 2006 BAFTA Best Doc nominee Breaking Up With The Joneses; 2005 BAFTA Best Doc winner Make Me Normal; multi-camera ob-doc series The Family; The Strangest Village In Britain; The House Of Obsessive Compulsives; RTS Best Doc Series nominee My Crazy Parents; Tony Robinson: Me and My Mum; and Bafta- and Emmy-winning The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off.
Speaking at Gotcha! The rise and rise of tabloid TV
Clive Edwards
Executive Editor, and Commissioning Editor, Current Affairs TV, BBC
Clive Edwards took his current role in January this year. Prior to that he was editor of The Money Programme from 2001 to 2007. Highlights include the undercover investigation Mortgage Madness which revealed widespread abuse in the selling of self-certification mortgages. Before The Money Programme he was deputy editor on Panorama from 1995 to 2001. He joined the BBC in 1993 as a producer on Panorama and in that year won the RTS Current Affairs International Award for a Panorama on the Arab-Israeli peace accord. Before that he was a producer on Thames TV’s current affairs show This Week.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Current affairs
Beadie Finzi
Producer/director
Beadie Finzi was the producer of Unknown White Male a feature doc about a young amnesiac rediscovering his life and which was selected for Sundance and the Oscars Shortlist in 2006. Finzi has gone on to direct The Hunger Season on the system of humanitarian food aid and is currently shooting Vida Ballet with Tigerlily Films which charts the story of a young boy trying to dance his way out of the favelas of Rio. Finzi is one of the founding directors of the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation, a grant giving body which invests in independent documentary filmmakers, and also the festival director for the independent documentary film festival BRITDOC, which takes place in Oxford in July.
Chairing Big screen stories
Maxyne Franklin
Editorial director, BRITDOC
Maxyne Franklin was assistant editor in the documentaries department at Channel 4, before leaving to set up the British Documentary Film Foundation with C4 funding. At Channel 4, she commissioned the new talent slot after the news known as Three Minute Wonders and was co-curator of the late night Outside Zone, for new talent and innovation. Franklin works on Foundation projects from the ideas stage to completion, festival strategy and distribution. She is currently exec producing a number of projects on the Foundations slate, including Here’s Johnny and Jamie Johnson-directed feature Star Struck.
Speaking at Alternative sources of funding
Ben Gale
Director of programmes, Five
Ben Gale was appointed director of programmes at Five in March having spent just over a year as commissioning editor for features and formats at the BBC. He joined the BBC’s factual commissioning team in November 2004 from Wall-to-Wall where he was series editor of the award-winning genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? His BBC credits include Nigella Express, Heston Blumenthal’s Perfection and Indian Food Made Easy on BBC2 and he re-launched Crimewatch on BBC1. He has executive produced Traffic Cops and Car Wars for BBC1, Balderdash and Piffle for BBC 2 and commissioned The Real Hustle, Dog Borstal, and documentary series Mischief for BBC3. He started his career at the BBC where he produced the first series of Airport for BBC 1.
Speaking at Question Time
Andy Glynne
Director/producer
Andy Glynne was initially trained as a clinical psychologist, and became involved in documentaries around ten years ago, founding the Documentary Filmmakers Group (DFG) in 2001 - the national organisation working to promote documentary filmmaking talent and innovation in the UK. He has directed and produced numerous award winning films for broadcasters both in the UK and overseas and has been instrumental in creating specific strands and series for new filmmakers with Channel 4, Five, and ITV. Glynne has also produced projects for new and emerging filmmakers in India, Central and Eastern Europe, and Africa and is chief executive of Mosaic Films. He’s the author of the recently published book Documentaries and How to Make Them, and works as part-time director for the One World Broadcasting Trust.
Chairing Alternative sources of funding and The three hundred and sixty degree spin
Steve Gowans
Head of factual entertainment, Five
Steve Gowans has been commissioning factual entertainment at Five since 2004.
Before that he had spent some 15 years at Chrysalis News & Sport working his way up as researcher, AP and producer on hundreds of hours of live sport, magazine shows, news shows and documentaries, including ITV Snooker, LWT News and Gazza’s Soccer School. From 1994-1998 he was series editor, Football Italia for C4 and then series editor/executive producer of list show Top Tens. In 2002 he became head of entertainment at Chrysalis Television.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Factual Entertainment
Roger Graef
Writer, filmmaker, broadcaster and criminologist.
Roger Graef’s more than 120 films as director or producer cover arts, current affairs, social issues, and comedies, including The Secret Policeman’s Ball (with John Cleese), and the first Comic Relief (with Richard Curtis). He developed the ‘fly on the wall’ technique in Britain that gained him the first access to film in normally closed situations from ministries and boardrooms to police, prisons, probation and social work. His BBC series Police changed the way police handle rape victims and his series In Search of Law and Order (C4) influenced the setting up of the National Youth Justice Board. As exec producer, his most recent films are Kim Longinotto’s Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go and The Burning Season on the Indonesian rain forest. His company, Films of Record, celebrates its 30th year in 2009. A founding director of Channel 4 he was the first documentary filmmaker to be honoured with the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement. He was awarded an OBE in 2006 for his services to broadcasting.
Speaking at Ob docs: Trade secrets
Alex Graham
CEO Wall to Wall
Alex Graham has built Wall to Wall into one of the UK’s leading independent producers. The indie, which was bought by Shed Media last November, has won almost every award on both sides of the Atlantic including several BAFTAs, Emmys, Royal Television Society and Peabody awards. Graham helped create several of its hit shows including The 1900 House and Who Do You Think You Are? which he executive produces along with New Tricks. Graham sits on the board of Shed Media. He is a member of PACT Council where he served as chair during 2006 and 2007.
Speaking at Question Time
Amelia Hann
Director/producer
Ever since Sky One series Ross Kemp on Gangs scooped the Bafta for best documentary at the 2007 awards director/producer Amelia Hann has never been out of demand. She is the director/series producer for October Films’ three part observational series The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Traffickers and directed and produced Baby Bible Bashers, a critically acclaimed observational documentary about child preachers in the USA and Brazil for Firecracker Films and C4. She is currently developing a feature film inspired by eight months she spent working in Afghanistan Other director/producer credits include Wife Swap USA and Scrapheap Challenge
Speaking at Ob docs: Trade secrets
Alan Hayling
Editorial director Renegade Pictures
Prior to forming Renegade Pictures in 2006, Alan Hayling was head of docs at the BBC where he exec produced awarding winning doc Children of Beslan. Previously he was editorial director at Mentorn where he initiated formats including Britain’s Worst Driver and reality show Paradise Hotel for Fox. Before Mentorn, he spent ten years as a commissioning editor for docs at C4, commissioning the strands Secret History and Secret Lives and Undercover Britain. He was the C4 exec in charge of films including Errol Morris’s Dr Death, Phil Agland’s Shanghai Vice and Molly Dineen’s Geri, Michael Moore’s series The Awful Truth and Bowling for Columbine.
Steve Hewlett
Guardian columnist and broadcasting consultant
Steve Hewlett started his career as a researcher on BBC Nationwide before going on to produce a number of series for C4 in the mid-eighties, including The Friday Alternative and Diverse Reports. At the BBC he was editor of BBC1 documentary strand Inside Story, then editor of Panorama. He was executive producer of the first two series of Children’s Hospital as well as The Skipper, Rough Justice, States of Terror and The Diamond Empire. He became head of factual programmes and features at C4, then director of programmes, Carlton Television, and then managing director of Carlton Productions until the Granada/Carlton merger in 2003. Besides his consultancy and writing work he runs indie Big Pictures Ltd, is visiting Professor of Journalism and Broadcast policy at Salford University and regular contributor to and presenter of programmes on Radio 4 and Five Live.
Joe Houlihan
Director of programmes, Twofour
Joe Houlihan joined Twofour as director of programmes in 2006 after spending two years in America as president of RDF LA, responsible for US production of series including Faking It, Boss Swap, I Hate My Job and Propose or Die. At Twofour he has created The Baron for ITV1, has overseen two series of the award-winning Beat: Life on the Street (ITV1) and numerous other projects including Make My Body Younger (BBC3) and Saving Ed Mitchell (ITV1) and is now spearheading the company’s drive into the US. Houlihan spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist before moving into TV at LWT where he was editor of regional current affairs series, The London Programme, and then produced some of ITV’s most popular shows including Airline, Parking Wars and From Hell. As head of documentaries he developed Brian’s Story (C4 Cutting Edge), White Van Man (ITV Real Life) and Twins In Black And White (ITV). As deputy controller of factual programmes for LWT (Granada) he executive produced A New Life Down Under (C4), Airline (A&E), Monster Garage (C4), Real Footballers Wives (ITV), I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here (ITV) and Placebo: The Lie that Heals (Discovery).
Speaking at Where next for factual
Diana Howie
ITV commissioning editor, features
Former UKTV head of commissioning Diana Howie joined the daytime and factual team at ITV, in August last year, with a remit that covers new factual and factual entertainment commissions for ITV digital channels and ITV1 daytime & off peak.
At UKTV she is credited with originating new TV formats with talent such as Sir Terry Wogan, Gary Rhodes, Bruce Forsyth, Danny Baker, Rosemary Shrager and Anthony Worral Thompson. Before that she worked at indie Cactus TV, as senior executive producer, responsible for creating, pitching, budgeting, piloting and producing a number of entertainment and factual entertainment shows for a range of terrestrial and non-terrestrial broadcasters.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Factual Entertainment
Roly Keating
Roly Keating became controller of BBC2 in June 2004. Under his tenure, memorable BBC2 programmes have included Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain, The Choir, the White season, Jerry Springer The Opera, Rain In My Heart, Shoot the Messenger, The Power of Nightmares and Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, alongside comedy successes such as Extras, The Catherine Tate Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and the re-launched Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Under his tenure the channel has also launched a raft of influential and popular returning series, including Dragons’ Den, Coast, Tribe, Springwatch and the first two series of Who Do You Think You Are? and The Apprentice. Its top rating programme, Top Gear, continues to go from strength to strength.
Few people can have had such a broad experience across the BBC. Since joining as a general trainee in 1983 Keating has been a producer and director in Music and Arts, head of programming for UKTV, controller of digital channels, controller of arts commissioning, controller of BBC4 and jointly led the BBC’s Charter Review project. From October 2007 to May 2008 he combined his job on BBC2 with the role of acting controller, BBC1.
Speaking at Question Time
Richard Klein
Richard Klein has now been commissioning factual at the BBC for 12 years, as commissioning editor for docs for the last three. Recent commissions include the White Season on BBC2. Upcoming commissions include Morgan Matthews’ directed feature-length film The Fallen in which every British serviceman and woman who died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will be remembered to mark Remembrance Day 2008.
Interviewed in On the spot: Richard Klein
Dan Korn
Before being made head of factual in September last year, Dan Korn was previously vice-president of production and development at Discovery’s UK division. Korn concentrates on programming strategy and execution across Discovery Network’s UK’s factual portfolio of channels, including Discovery channel, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Civilisation, Discovery science and Discovery HD. Korn helps drive Discovery’s investment in global content by collaborating with US networks. He also develops acquired and commissioned programming.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Digital channels
Stephen Lambert
Stephen Lambert is one of Britain’s best known creative TV executives, having brought Wife Swap, Faking It and most recently The Secret Millionaire to screens around the world. Lambert spent the first 16 years of his career working in the BBC’s documentaries department. He launched and edited Modern Times, BBC2’s flagship contemporary documentary strand in the 1990s. He joined RDF Media as its first director of programmes and spearheaded its editorial development in Britain and America as the company saw seven years of tremendous growth. Last year his gittering career hit the rocks over the Crowngate affair, which cost Lambert and BBC1 controller Peter Fincham their jobs. Now Lambert is back having launched Studio Lambert in March with the backing of independent powerhouse All3Media.
Interviewed in On the spot: Stephen Lambert
Ralph Lee
Head of specialist factual, Channel 4
Ralph Lee recently returned to Channel 4 to take up his current role after just six months as Five’s head of factual. Before Five he was the deputy head of the department. He originally joined C4 in September 2002 as specialist factual commissioning editor. He was responsible for a broad range of commissions including That’ll Teach ’Em, Never Did Me Any Harm, Empire’s Children, Not Forgotten, The Somme, Time Team Worst Jobs in History. Prior to joining Channel 4, Lee was a freelance director and he made a number of documentaries and biographies for Channel 4 including RTS award winning The Real John Curry.
Speaking at Meet the Commissioners - Specialist factual
Anthony Lilley
Chief executive Magic Lantern
Anthony Lilley is executive producer/co-creator of C4’s broadband offering FourDocs and consultant producer with ABC Australia on user- created content. Established in 1996 Magic Lantern is an independent production company for a web 2.0 world offering creative consultancy, service design and digital media production for clients such as the BBC, BT, Google, Tiscali, Discovery, the Guardian, C4, Top Gear and Kudos.
Speaking at Where next for factual
Matt Locke
Matt Locke is commissioning editor for Education and New Media at Channel 4. He works with the Education team to commission online services that will deliver informal learning in innovative ways to teenage audiences. Before C4, he was head of innovation for BBC New Media & Technology, responsible for developing and running research programmes within the BBC and with external partners. Before joining the BBC, Locke worked as a curator and writer, specialising in the social adoption of technology and the cultural impact of digital technology, and still continues to write regularly about these themes for journals, websites and his own site at www.test.org.uk
Speaking at The three hundred and sixty degree spin
Kim Longinotto
Director, Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
Kim Longinotto has been making documentaries for over three decades. Her awards studded cv includes many films tackling difficult, issues, many set abroad. They include a trio of films about Japanese women: Eat the Kimono, Hidden Faces and The Good Wife of Tokyo. Other projects include Rock Wives for C4, followed by Divorce Iranian Style with Ziba Mir-Hosseini. Gaea Girls, Runaway and The Day I Will Never Forget about young girls in Kenya challenging female circumcision all followed. Sisters in Law set in Cameroon, won two prizes at Cannes. Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go is set in a school for excluded children.
Speaking at Big screen stories
Andrew Mackenzie
Head Of Factual Entertainment
Andrew Mackenzie was appointed Head of Factual Entertainment in May 2007, having joined the Channel four years earlier as a Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment. Andrew’s forthcoming commissions include Don’t Blame The Builders, where building expert Jeff Howell will attempt to reconcile warring builders and home renovators, and Extreme Wife, an immersive four series where Dawn Porter explores the world’s most extreme ways of getting, and being, married. Prior to joining Channel 4 Andrew was an award winning programme maker. His credits include The Showbiz Set, The Real Brian Clough and The Real Texas Chainsaw Massacre for Channel 4; Clash of the Titans: Benn V Eubank documentary for the BBC won an RTS Award (2000) and The Real Brian Clough won a Broadcast Award (2001).
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Factual Entertainment
Angus Macqueen
Angus Macqueen resigned as C4 head of documentaries in February to return to film making. He started his career as a freelance director and producer working on award winning series such as Death of Yugoslavia, The People’s Century and Gulag. Then he joined October Films in 2000 where he made a number of films for C4 including Dancing for Dollars, The Last Peasants and Cocaine.
Chairing Ob docs: Trade secrets
Anna Maloney
Writer of Falling Apart and Consent
Speaking at Real cinema: Can fiction get closer to the truth?
Richard Melman
Channel director – History Channel, History Channel HD, Biography Channel, Crime and Investigation Network
Richard Melman started his career as a runner and then worked as a director, producer and head of production where he made everything from commercials to music videos and from drama to documentaries, including the multi-award winning 24-part Cold War series for Ted Turner. Since his move into broadcasting, he’s been instrumental in launching 12 cable and satellite television channels in Latin America, Africa, Greece, the Middle East, Northern Europe and the UK. All of which are currently on-air. As a broadcaster, he’s worked for the BBC, Discovery and Artsworld.
Speaking at Meet the Commissioners - Specialist factual
Nick Mirsky
Editor Wonderland, BBC2
Nick Mirsky edits BBC2’s Wonderland, a strand of eight single films “about anything” that launched in January. Mirsky started out in the BBC some 19 years ago and in that time has garnered a breadth of experience across ob docs, drama and constructed factual. He produced and directed Bafta award winning Blood on the Carpet and My Brilliant Career. His executive producer credits include The Experiment, When Michael Portillo Became a Single Mum, The Waiting Room, The Week the Women Went, The Secretary Who Stole Four Million, The Armstrongs, Louis Theroux and Maxwell.
Speaking at Ob docs: Trade secrets
Hamish Mykura
C4 head of documentaries
Hamish Mykura replaced Angus Macqueen as head of documentaries in February 2008 seven years after he joined the broadcaster as commissioning editor, history. By 2004 he was head of history, religion and science programming which became Specialist Factual last year. Mykura’s commissions include the much talked about Diana: The Witnesses In the Tunnel, Great Global Warming Swindle, Richard Dawkins’s Enemies of Reason, historical parenting series Bringing Up Baby and feature-length historical drama The Relief of Belsen. The Bafta awarding winning Nuremberg: Goering’s Last Stand and Bafta nominated 9/11: The Falling Man were both commissioned by Mykura. Before joining C4 Mykura was head of programmes at Blakeway Productions, a series producer at Mentorn, and prior to that he worked for 10 years at the BBC.
Interviewed in On the spot: Hamish Mykura
Simon Nelson
BBS head of multiplatform
Simon Nelson is responsible for BBC Vision’s multiplatform strategy – allocating budgets, commissioning content and overseeing technical production. He sits on the Boards of both BBC Vision and Future Media and Technology. His team is at the heart of the BBC’s multiplatform approach to scheduling and windowing, extracting maximum value from creative programme ideas and developing digital services. He was previously controller, Radio and Music Interactive. Responsible for the creation of the BBC Radio Player and the first UK radio podcasts, his team built radio and music brands and content across digital platforms and devices. Nelson’s teams have won awards including the Prix Europa, Sony Awards, BAFTA, RTS, BPG and Webby Awards.
Speaking at The three hundred and sixty degree spin
Andrew O’Connell
In his three years at Sky One, Andrew O’Connell has commissioned a range of entertaining factual series including Wives, Ross Kemp on Gangs, Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, Who killed Diana?, Premier League All Stars, Badger or bust, Michael Owen: A year in the life of, Sport Uncovered and Football Icon. Prior to joining Sky, O’Connell worked as a freelance series producer and producer director, working for all the major UK networks.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Digital channels
Lucy Pilkington
Senior commissioning editor – factual and factual entertainment, Virgin 1 and Bravo
Lucy’s commissions for Virgin 1 include shock-docs 100 Men Own My Breasts and The Sex Secrets of Twins. She is responsible for a number of Bravo’s factual successes, such as The Real Football Factories and Brits Behind Bars : American’s Toughest Jail. She joined Virgin in 2003 as commissioning editor on Trouble, where she ordered entertainment series Bump n Grind and High School Project. She joined Flextech from Keo Films where she was an exec producer on series like Ayia Napa, Lesbian Love Stories and Shadow People. Prior to that she worked as a BBC producer and presenter.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Digital channels
Leo Regan
Director
Leo Regan’s latest C4 documentary The Doctor Who Hears Voices charts the true story of junior doctor Ruth’s unorthodox struggle to return to work after she begins to hear a voice telling her to kill herself, and her treatment by unconventional clinical psychologist, Rufus May. Although in most respects an observational documentary, to protect her anonymity Ruth is played by actress Ruth Wilson and some details changed. Regan’s other films include Kudos produced drama Comfortably Numb, set in an addiction rehabilitation centre, and multi awarding winning 100% White about a group of neo-nazis who Leo had photographed a decade before.
Speaking at Real cinema: Can fiction get closer to the truth?
Gillian Reynolds
Journalist and broadcaster
Radio critic of the Daily Telegraph, Gillian Reynolds has made television documentary and features programmes for BBC1, 2, 3 and 4, the ITV network and Channel 4 as well as radio programmes for BBC Radios 2, 3, 4 and digital network BBC7. Winner of the Media Society’s Gold Award, she is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and the Radio Academy. She is an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, Oxford, of Liverpool John Moores University and a Visiting Fellow of Bournemouth University.
Interviewer for On the spot: Stephen Lambert
Jane Rogerson
Head of commissioning, factual and factual entertainment, UKTV
Prior to UKTV, Jane was features controller at ITV where she was responsible for shows including Trinny and Susannah, Ladette to Lady, Prehistoric Park and Confessions of a Diary Secretary. Prior to ITV, she was creative director at Mentorn where her credits included Human Face Transplant, Take My Mother in Law, Born with Two Heads and Ulrika Johnsson: the Trouble with Men. She began her career as a BBC production trainee and has worked in current affairs, on the Late Show and Edinburgh Nights. She’s been commissioning editor for Newsnight and has been head of factual at Wark Clements.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Digital channels
Alison Sharman
Alison Sharman joined ITV in January 2006 as director of factual and daytime from the BBC where she was the controller of CBBC. Her role covers current affairs, arts, religion, children’s, daytime programming and the ITV Factual output across all channels. Previously Sharman was controller of daytime at the BBC, where she maintained audience share and loyalty while bringing distinctive award-winning programmes to the portfolio with the current affairs series Britain’s Secret Shame; popular drama series Doctors, the Afternoon Plays and Beaten, starring Robson Green. Alison started her career as a BBC secretary on consumer affairs programme Watchdog, going on to series produce the BBC Holiday programme and then to become creative director, General Factual in Birmingham. She has also worked at BSkyB; TV-am and has made programmes for C4.
Speaking at Question Time
Chris Shaw
Senior programme controller, Five
Chris Shaw is responsible for Five’s news, current affairs and documentary output including prime time formats like Paul Merton in China, Banged Up and MacIntyre’s Underworld. He also commissions drama docs, fact-based dramas and various adventure series. He began his broadcast career in 1979 and has been home and foreign news editor on Channel 4 News, editor of News at Ten and the launch editor of Channel 5 News. He also devised and launched Big Breakfast News for Channel 4. In 1990 he became the first executive producer of ITN Factual. He also helped set up the fledgling Sky News service.
Speaking at Meet the commissioners - Current affairs
Simon Terrington
Director, Human Capital
Over the past ten years, Simon Terrington has led projects for TV broadcasters in the UK, US and Canada, many TV producers, radio broadcasters, regulators and Government departments. Before Human Capital he worked as a management consultant for the LEK partnership and the Kalchas Group. He has degrees in mathematics (Cambridge) and philosophy (London) and is working on research into social choice theory with London University.
Chairing Where next for factual
Helen Veale
Joint managing director and creative director Outline
Helen Veale set up indie Outline in 1999 with Laura Mansfield. As creative director she is committed to mixing strong factual narratives and real entertainment in order to engage audiences that might not come to traditional factual TV. This ethos is exemplified in the indie’s C4 factual entertainment event Dumped in which 11 unsuspecting members of the British public were stranded on one of the biggest rubbish dumps in Britain for three weeks. Other work includes The Big Experiment for Discovery Europe which aims to use the shock and awe of huge scale science experiments to get a bunch of disaffected and disadvantaged kids in Britain turned on to learning. Veale launched her TV career in 1992, initially in current affairs and journalism. At Juniper she produced and directed The Goldring Audit (Channel 4), The Baby Business (BBC2) and The Argument (BBC1).
Speaking at Gotcha! The rise and rise of tabloid TV
Stephen Walker
Director
It’s been a good year for director Stephen Walker. Not only was his Cutting Edge film A Boy Called Alex acclaimed critically, it also got an audience of 2.65 million for C4 in January this year. Then his feature-length documentary, Young@Heart, which was first broadcast in the UK on More4 and Channel 4 in November 2006 and later acquired by Fox Searchlight, was released in cinemas in the USA and Canada from mid April. The multi award winning film charts the fortunes of an American chorus of chiefly 80-somethings performing rock n’ roll.
Speaking at Big screen stories
Rachel Wexler
Bungalow Town Productions
Rachel Wexler specialises in producing international documentary projects for a worldwide audience. She has worked on ten films for BBC Storyville and has worked with many highly acclaimed filmmakers including Marc Isaacs, Phil Grabsky, Geoffrey Smith, Luke Holland and Oliver Hodge. Her recent producer credits include The English Surgeon which just won Best International Documentary at Hot Docs in Canada, feature doc Garbage Warrior and All White in Barking, which was part of BBC2’s high profile White season earlier this year. She set up Bungalow Town Productions with her partner producer/director Jez Lewis in 2004.
Speaking at Alternative sources of funding
Brian Woods
Co-director True Vision
After an early career in advertising and corporate video Brian Woods moved into docs and co founded True Vision which has become a multi award winning company and truly creative force in documentary, making films such as The Dying Rooms, Orphans of Nkandla, Dying for Drugs, A World Without Water and Evicted and in the last year China’s Stolen Children, Dispatches: Undercover in Tibet and Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children.
Speaking at Big screen stories and Ob docs: Trade secrets
Tom Ziessen
Public engagement advisor, The Wellcome Trust
Tom Ziessen mananges two grant schemes at the Wellcome Trust: Broadcast Development Awards, which support the development of brilliant early-stage ideas into full broadcast proposals in any genre that engages the audience with issues around biomedical science in an innovative, entertaining and accessible way and People Awards which amongst other things fund production and research costs of broadcast projects. He has a background in science and science communication, gainiing a PHD from University College London, studying female sexual arousal. He then spent several years at the Science Museum.
Speaking at Alternative sources of funding