The Edinburgh TV Festival has appointed Niall Flanagan to the newly created role of Head of Editorial.
The TV Festival has decided to restructure the Creative Director role and create two new positions: Head of Editorial and Editorial Manager, both roles being fixed term contracts for this year’s Festival. In addition, strand producers responding to specific programme needs will be appointed later in the year.
Former Acting Deputy Editor of BAFTA-nominated daytime show, Lorraine, Flanagan has extensive experience working on some of the UK’s biggest shows within ITV Daytime having produced 1000+ hours of live TV covering events such as the coronavirus pandemic, Brexit, the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the ongoing cost of living crisis. Flanagan will be responsible for working with this year’s Advisory Chair, Adam Hawkins, to shape the creative direction of the Festival and pull the overall programme together.
Flanagan has a long-standing relationship with the Festival, having been part of the Changemakers programme in 2024 and nearly two decades previously, was part of TVYP programme – the TV Foundation’s forerunner to The Network – where he got his break into television as a teenager.
Flanagan said: “As the evolution of our industry continues apace, with viewing habits ever-changing and diversifying, the TV Festival’s role in celebrating, challenging, and inspiring our industry has never been more important. And as a proud alumnus of the TV Foundation it’s thrilling to find myself returning to the Festival as Head of Editorial to lead the execution of this year’s programme.”
Campbell Glennie, CEO of the TV Foundation and TV Festival added: “As what we know as TV evolves and expands at an accelerating pace we have to cover more ground than ever to deliver the very best sessions for our delegates. Reshaping the programming function into a team structure will give us a more diverse range of expertise and viewpoints. I’m delighted Niall is joining us as the lead of this new approach: he is a proven editorial powerhouse and the fact that he has such close links to the TV Foundation, from the very start of his career, feels like a serendipitous moment. We are already looking forward to what is going to be a brilliant Festival this year.”
The Festival’s Town Hall meetings will return this year giving attendees the chance to put forward the industry themes and topics that they would like to see discussed at this year’s event. These will run alongside the online submissions portal which opens today (Wednesday 18 February), which gives anyone from the industry access to put their ideas for discussion subjects forward.
Jon Creamer
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