UKTV has promoted Helen Nightingale and Mark Iddon to Head of Factual and Factual Entertainment and Senior Commissioner for Comedy Entertainment respectively.

Nightingale and Iddon will report to Hilary Rosen, UKTV’s Director of Commissioning, with Nightingale overseeing all factual and factual entertainment commissions across the network, and Iddon leading on the comedy entertainment genre. Iddon will also oversee the hiring of a new Commissioning Executive for comedy entertainment, who will take ownership of digital short form content and podcasts alongside linear titles.

Hilary Rosen said, “Helen and Mark are both brilliant champions for their respective genres so it is fantastic to be able to start 2023 by sharing this news. I have no doubt that they will continue to commission innovative and engaging series of the highest quality and strengthen UKTV’s reputation for making unique and unmissable content.”

Helen Nightingale said, “I’ve had an absolute blast working at UKTV and now I’m very much looking forward to heading up the Factual and Fact Ent team and working with the talented commissioners.  We have a fantastic slate and I’m excited about growing that as we continue to collaborate with producers to get the very best, most ambitious ideas to our channels.”

Mark Iddon said, “I’m looking forward to taking the reins of comedy entertainment at UKTV as we continue to be a home for the best talent to come and do their best stuff.”

Since joining UKTV in 2015 as Commissioning Editor, Helen Nightingale has executive produced shows across the network and has commissioned the award-winning Emma Willis: Delivering Babies and Women On The Force for W, French and Saunders: Funny Women for Gold and Hornby A Model World for Yesterday, and was promoted to Senior Commissioning Editor in 2018.

Prior to joining UKTV, she was Head of Factual at Gogglebox Entertainment where she executive produced Singing In The Rainforest for Watch and Young War Widows for ITV. Before that, she was Head of Popular Factual at IWC Media executive producing shows such as Location, Location, Location for Channel 4, Extreme Fishing with Robson Green and Rory and Paddy’s Great British Adventure for Channel 5.

Since joining UKTV as Commissioning Editor in 2020, Mark Iddon’s UKTV credits to date include Comedians Giving Lectures, Late Night Mash, Outsiders and Live At The Moth Club.

Prior to joining UKTV, he worked at Avalon where he spent most of his career as a producer and series producer working on shows including Russell Howard’s Good News, Unspun with Matt Forde and Rob Delaney’s Stand Up Central. Before joining Avalon he worked as a development producer at BBC Multiplatform Studio, consulting and developing television and online projects across BBC Drama, Factual, Comedy & Entertainment.