Factual TV indie, Candour Productions, has restructured its management following its first major series commission from BBC Two.
Anna Hall, founder, director and executive producer of the Leeds-based indie has promoted Julie Heselgrave, formerly Head of Production, to Managing Director.
Heselgrave has spent her 28-year career in television working for Leeds-based indies, including Chameleon Television and True North. She joined Candour in 2019, since when she has created a solid production infrastructure and attracted some of the UK’s top factual talent into the company. She also provided the financials to support Candour’s successful Live & Wild consortium bid, which resulted in the award of an 18-month R&D contract from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to investigate the benefits of 5G technology to the creative industries. Heselgrave will be replaced as Head of Production by Ali Hobbs, who moves up from Production Executive.
Hannah Demidowicz has been appointed as Candour’s first Director of Development, after working in a consultancy capacity for the past year. A former commissioner at National Geographic Channel and BBC Global Channels, Demidowicz has developed and commissioned hundreds of hours of television, from popular factual to award-winning documentaries. In 2018, she become the first-ever commissioning editor to work within a distributor when she joined TCB Media Rights, where she developed new funding models for factual content.
Anna Hall said: “We’ve come out of the shadow of the pandemic stronger than ever and with a host of really exciting commissions this year — and this change in management structure is a reflection of our growth and our business strategy going forward. Candour’s DNA is to make films with courage, truth and integrity both off screen and on screen – and I am so excited that as a female-led indie we now have a strong female senior management team that can help me take Candour to the next level. The commitment, energy and vision of Julie and Hannah, both of whom are the best in their fields, will help us to achieve that.”
The one year old indie is currently making Yorkshire Born, an 8 x 60 mins series follows the work of the midwives in Bradford who specialise in home births for BBC Two and BBC Nations.
Candour is part of the True Vision family of production companies. Candour recently received investment from the Channel 4 Growth Fund, under its former name of True Vision Yorkshire.
Jon Creamer
Share this story
