The Edinburgh TV Festival has announced further sessions for this year’s digital event with speakers including Greta Thunberg, Steve Coogan, Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon.
Comedian, writer, actor and presenter, London Hughes, has also been announced as this year’s Alternative MacTaggart speaker. She will talk to the Festival’s International Editor, Tan France, about her career, experiences in the UK vs US and what needs to be done to support women and inclusivity in the industry.
Hughes said: “It’s an absolute honour to be doing the Alternative MacTaggart this year. I have so much to say about the U.K. TV industry and I can’t wait to get into it with Tan. It’ll be fun, yet beautifully truthful. Expect to learn and to laugh A LOT!”
Climate activist Greta Thunberg and writer Jo Nesbo will be taking the Worldview Address slot. Thunberg and Nesbo will discuss the creative industry’s responsibility towards sustainability and a greener future; whether there should be emphasis on a storyteller’s role to highlight the climate crisis and how we can all affect change. Navdip Dhariwal will host the conversation between the pair.
Steve Coogan will be holding an exclusive This Time with Alan Partridge Masterclass discussing the show’s success and the Partridge phenomenon with Charlene White.
Writer-director Raisah Ahmed hosts a conversation between frequent collaborators Neil Gaiman and Douglas Mackinnon about their work together and individually – from Good Omens, Doctor Who and Sherlock, to American Gods and Anansi Boys – covering creativity, culture, living and working in Scotland, and bringing big budget fantasy drama to the screen.
In addition to the Spotlight On… sessions (the reimagined Festival’s flagship controller sessions which have changed to reflect the industry shift in commissioning), which will feature one-on-one interviews with creative content chiefs and bosses of all the major UK broadcasters and streamers, the Festival’s International Insight sessions will see similar examination of commissioning strategies from the International senior chiefs of Amazon Studios, Discovery+, NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia.
Jon Creamer
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