Channel 4’s science and specialist factual events commissioner Sara Ramsden is to join Bake Off indie Love Productions as creative director.
Ramsden, who joins the company in December, will report to Love’s chief creative officer Richard McKerrow and work alongside the other joint creative directors Anna Beattie and Kieran Smith, executive editor Simon Evans and managing director Letty Kavanagh.
Love said the appointment comes as it prepares for future growth in the area of brand new international factual formats and events.
Ramsden has worked at Channel 4 twice, most recently since 2012, where she brought The Secret Life of 4 ,5 and 6 year olds to screen. She also commissioned all Guy Martin’s programs including, Guy Martin’s Wall of Death and Our Guy in China. Other films include, Jamie’s Sugar Rush, Rupert Everett’s 50 Shades of Gay and Love for Sale, My Last Summer, Big Foot Files, Porn on the Brian and Super Orgasm.
Sara also worked at Channel 4 between 1994 and 2003, where she was a Head of Department and commissioned shows such as 1900 House, Scrapheap Challenge, Touching the Void, Equinox, and The Decision.
In between her two stints at Channel 4, she was channel controller at Sky One, where she commissioned Brainiac and David Blaine Above the Below, and was creative director at Cheetah Television, part of Endemol UK, where she made Fat Men Can’t Hunt, The Garage, Supersize Superskinny and How to have a Good Death.
Ramsden said: "I am so excited to be joining Love. It is a company at the top of its game, having pulled off the almost impossible task of transferring the nation’s favourite show from one channel to another. Richard McKerrow, Anna Beattie and I worked together at Channel 4 in the 1990s and have a long history of creating content together. Above all, Love Productions cares about the quality of its programmes and is always searching for innovative ways to bring content to screen that touches people’s lives. I’ll be sad to leave Channel 4 which for 15 years has been my spiritual home."
McKerrow said: “Sara is someone we have worked closely with in her various television roles on and off over 20 years. And there are very few people who can match the breadth of her vision and passion for ground-breaking factual programmes and events. From 1900 House and Scrapheap Challenge to the recent The Secret Life of, she is a champion of television formats that have been highly successful across the world. We’ve spent the last two years trying to lure her to join us at Love and it’s with much excitement that we can finally welcome her to join the Love senior creative team.”
News of Ramsden’s departure from C4 comes days after C4 head of specialist factual John Hay announced he is leaving to join The Garden as chief creative officer.
Staff Reporter
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