Mentorn MD leaves - and will not be replaced
Question Time indie Mentorn Media is retiring its managing director role as part of a Covid-19 related savings plan - with incumbent Celia Taylor leaving the company.
Chris Brodgen, director of content at parent company Tinopolis, will now assume responsibility for the flagship BBC1 current affairs show.
Taylor, a former Sky and BBC commissioner, leaves after three years in the role.
Mentorn's other shows include Traffic Cops, Robot Wars, Inside the Force: 24/7 and 2018's Grenfell: the First 24 Hours.
Blast! reshuffles creative team with new hires
Blast! Films is celebrating two Grierson awards as it restructures its senior team.
The indie’s Channel 4 series Jade: the Reality Star Who Changed Britain was named best documentary series and best historical documentary at the factual awards this month.
Meanwhile, Jago Lee joins Blast! as director of factual, after a six-months stint as creative director of Blakeway. He previously ran Antenna Pictures, which is no longer trading. His credits include Channel 4/National Geographic show Experimental, Vice’s How To Rob a Bank and C4′s Orangutan Jungle School.
Blast! creative directors James O’Reilly and David Hodgkinson are stepping down. Tanya Winston, who has worked with the indie for three years, is promoted into one role, alongside Graeme McAulay, who joins from The Garden, where was creative executive.
Life on Mars writers set up Bristol indie
The British showrunners of Starz drama Spanish Princess - Matthew Graham, the co-creator of Life and Mars and Ashes to Ashes, and Emma Frost, who also wrote on those shows and has created Apple TV+ spy drama Life Undercover - have launched a Bristol-based scripted indie.
Watford & Essex is a co-venture with Carnival Row producer Legendary Entertainment, run by former Starz chief executive Chris Albrecht.
The indie has unveiled a 10-strong development state, including The Alice [working title], a medical drama from Graham's Life on Mars collaborator Ashley Pharoah, a contemporary thriller from Stephen Butchard (Channel 4's Baghdad Central), and Hail, Satan! their own dark comedy-drama for Channel 4.
Directors, producers and actors from under-represented backgrounds will be a particular focus for the new outfit, which has signed New Pictures head of production Christine Healy, who worked with Graham and Frost on Spanish Princess, as its chief operating officer.
Spark TV folded into Woodcut brand
Bristol indie Spark TV is to merge with sister company Woodcut Media and rebranded as Woodcut West.
The regional offshoot of London and Hampshire-based Woodcut and will be headed by Spark creative director Paul Wooding and will span natural history and specialist factual.
Founded by Wooding in 2016, Spark has produced shows such as Science Channel series Black Files Declassified.
The indies are owned by the Anthology Group, which recently opened distribution arm Woodcut International.
BBC Studios merges factual divisions
BBC Studios is staffing up its unscripted arm The Documentary Unit after folding consumer and topical unscripted unit Factual Salford into the division.
The expanded Documentary Unit sits alongside established genre divisions The Natural History Unit and The Science Unit.
Amy Flanagan remains head of The Documentary Unit and will continue to work with BBCS Productions director factual Tom McDonald.
Joining them will be Kirsty Cunningham, who exits 72 Films to become head of programmes for London and Cardiff. Her London-based role will be complemented in Cardiff by two internal hires from BBCS Factual Entertainment: executive producer Joe Mather and producer Juliet Piper.
Meanwhile, another 72 Films alumnus, Cate Hall, who joined BBCS Productions earlier this year, becomes creative director for development.
Factual Salford creative director Alan Holland becomes creative director for Scotland and Salford and will oversee the Glasgow, Aberdeen and Salford hubs while securing new business.
Other moves comprise: Carl Doran, who joins The Documentary Unit on attachment from the BBC as executive producer for sport, plus digital appointments Molly Milton (executive producer for on-screen talent) and Arif Zaman (executive producer for originals, partnerships and talent).
UKTV commissioner joins Naked
UKTV factual and factual entertainment commissioner Natalie Rose is the latest senior signing at Naked Entertainment.
Rose joins in January as head of features, a new role created as part of recently-appointed managing director Fatima Salaria’s plan to transform the company into Fremantle’s ‘unscripted powerhouse’.
Rose’s commissions at UKTV include Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over (W) and Big Zuu’s Big Eats (Dave). Her production credits include a string of blue-chip shows including Gogglebox, I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, Big Brother and The X Factor.
Baby Cow chief exits to set up own indie
Baby Cow chief executive Christine Langan has struck out her own with the creation of her own scripted TV and film indie, Bonnie Productions.
The former BBC Films boss has headed up the BBC Studios-backed indie for four years, working on projects including founder Steve Coogan’s BBC1 comedy This Time with Alan Partridge and upcoming BBC2 comedy The Witchfinder
While it hunts for a full-time replacement, Baby Cow has handed Langan’s duties on an interim basis to managing director Sarah Monteith, who joined earlier this year.
Small Axe indie secures US investor
Blue-chip British scripted indie Turbine Studios has won investment from the producer of HBO drama Euphoria and Tom Hanks-starring Apple TV+ film The Greyhound.
Turbine is the driving force behind Steve McQueen's BBC1 anthology Small Axe and was set up by Tracey Scoffield and David Tanner with The Crown producer Andrew Eaton and Justin Thomson, who executive produced BBC2 crime drama The Fall.
Canada-based Bron Media Corp will work with the indie to develop original scripted IP from the UK and Europe, while Turbine will support some of Bron's European film and TV projects.
Repair Shop host ties with Hungry Bear
Hungry Bear Media has launched its second talent-led production label, this time with Repair Shop presenter Jay Blades.
The formation of Hungry Jay Media follows Hungry Bear's co-founding of Michael McIntyre's outfit Hungry McBear.
Blade, who trained as a furniture restorer with no formal training, said Hungry Jay Media would develop and produce factual entertainment formats that would attract fresh production talent.
Repair Shop became of one of the BBC’s biggest shows this year, transferring from BBC2 to a primetime BBC1 slot as lockdown hit and pulling in more than 5m viewers.
Hungry Bear is run by Dan Baldwin and Juliet Denison and produces comedian-fronted formats such as All Round to Mrs Brown’s, Judge Romesh and Bradley Walsh and Son: Breaking Dad.
Workbee development head joins emerging Zinc label
Zinc has signed Workerbee head of development Ben Smith to its new popular factual label Red Sauce.
Based in Manchester, Smith joins as executive producer and reports to creative director Tom Edwards.
At Banijay-owned Leeds and Manchester indie Workerbee, Smith managed a development team, generated formats and signed talent, picking up commissions from BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and international broadcasters.
Zinc has also moved freelance development exec Sefunmi Olatunbosun into the full-time London-based role of senior development producer. Olatunbosun has previously worked in development at Expectation, Dragonfly and Monkey Kingdom.
