Orchard Studios hires: (l-r) Nat Lippiett, Clare Mottershead, Dani Carpanen
Non-scripted indie Orchard Studios has signed a trio of “best in-class creative leaders” that includes BBC factual entertainment commissioner Clare Mottershead.
Joining as head of factual and formats, Mottershead has exited the BBC after six years in the role, commissioning Amanda and Alan’s Italian Job, The Fast and the Farmer-ish and Designing the Hebrides and overseeing staples The Antiques Roadshow and Countryfile.
Orchard has also brought in ITN executive producer Nat Lippiett as head of programmes. His credits include Amazon series The Confession, and ITV’s Harry: The Interview and The Queen’s Green Planet with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Sir David Attenborough.
Completing the trio is senior producer Dani Carpanen, who has worked on BBC3’s The Baby Borrowers (Love Productions), BBC2’s Hospital (Label 1), Save Our Squad with David Beckham (Twenty Twenty) and Nat Geo’s One Day in America (72 Films).
Orchard was set up last year by former Amazon Studios UK & Northern Europe chief Dan Grabiner and Nicola Hill, former co-chief executive of The Garden.
The company is focused on making fact-ent formats and premium box-set documentaries.
Grabiner, a former ITN head of development, said the new signings had “knockout track records in developing, producing and launching bold, innovative unscripted programming”.
Mottershead said she was excited to help Orchard “grow a slate of creatively ambitious and distinctive ideas of scale”.
