Zinc Media has established its first Bristol base with the launch of specialist factual label Atomic.
Stephen McQuillan has left his role as creative director at natural history specialist Humble Bee Films to establish the indie, which will span history, science, adventure and documentary, including international co-productions.
A former Panorama producer, McQuillan oversaw a string of David Attenborough-fronted shows at Humble Bee, including BBC/Netflix co-pro Attenborough: A Life in Colour and Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities, which has aired on both UKTV channel Eden and BBC2.
He was previously creative director at Icon Films, where his credits included Channel 5 strand Secrets of the Mega… and Science Channel’s Mystery of the Deep.
McQuillan’s first hire is his former Icon colleague Trevor Manning, who joins as development producer.
The move adds Bristol to Zinc’s nations-and-regions footprint, which already spans London, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Belfast, Manchester and Macclesfield.
Zinc Television managing director Tanya Shaw said the company could now “tap into the wonderful heritage the South West has for making premium, history, adventure and science programming and also help meet the demand from streamers for natural history programming from the region”.
