Meet The Speakers: Karl Warner, Jes Wilkins & Jamie Campbell

Meet The Speakers: Karl Warner, Jes Wilkins & Jamie Campbell

With just over a week to go until our latest TV Networking event at The Hospital Club, we profile our latest group of top industry speakers, who’ll take us behind the scenes of their hit shows.

Karl Warner
Our first speaker for the November edition, taking place on Tuesday 14th, is Electric Ray Founder, Karl Warner, revealing the secrets behind this autumn’s latest high-concept reality show, Bromans.

Karl is now running Electric Ray, his own production company and home to E4’s Carjackers and BBC’s Prized Apart. Before launching the company he was a Commissioning Editor at the BBC, where he was involved in the development of hit shows including Strictly Come Dancing.

He also held senior roles at Endemol, where his credits included Big Brother and Soccer Aid, as well as a number of other independent production companies.

Karl is credited on a range of other shows, such as Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Russell Howard’s Good News, Junior Doctors, Back Chat with Jack Whitehall, Live at the Apollo and The Undercover Princes, winning him numerous awards and breaking ratings records in a variety of genres along the way.

Read More

Meet The Speakers: Simon Heath

Meet The Speakers: Simon Heath

The next event in our run of sold-out TV Networking events at The Hospital Club takes place on Thursday 12th October. Our second speaker on the night will be World Productions’ award-winning Creative Director, Simon Heath, who will discuss his work on hit BBC Two crime series, Line of Duty.

Simon Heath
Starting off his career in 1993 as a script editor and writer for Byker Grove and Ant & Dec, Simon Heath joined World Productions 20 years ago, as a script editor on Channel 4’s Ultraviolet, before working his way up to Producer (Attachments for BBC Two, Men Only for Channel 4), and then becoming Head of Drama.

Heath’s credits as Executive Producer in the following years include BAFTA-nominated dramas such as Outlaws and Hancock & Joan, and RTS-nominated films Ahead of the Class and United.

In 2011, now as Creative Director of World Productions, Heath executive produced the five-part police corruption thriller, Line of Duty, which at the time was BBC Two’s highest-rating drama for more than 10 years. The following year his show The Fear won two BAFTAs and a RTS Award.

Read More

Meet The Speakers: Richard Cowles & Tom Gould

TV Networking – Meet The Speakers: Richard Cowles & Tom Gould

Our next TV Networking event is fast approaching, and for the October edition, taking place on the 12th at The Hospital Club, we’re delighted to be hosting two top speakers from ITV Studios, who were behind one of this year’s most successful reality series: ITV2’s smash-hit summer sensation, Love Island.

Richard Cowles and Tom Gould
ITV Creative Director Richard Cowles started his career in documentaries, before becoming a Producer/Director and then Series Producer on a range of award-winning factual entertainment series, including Ibiza Uncovered and Airline.

In 2002 he co-created and produced the global hit format, I’m a Celebrity… Get me out of here!. The survival reality show has topped more than 10 million viewers in most of the 16 series aired to date. The final episodes of the 2nd and 3rd series were viewed by more than half the total TV audience at the time.

Read More

Meet The Speakers: Laura Greene & Matt Nida

Turn On, Tune In

We’ve got two more great speakers lined up for the latest in our Turn On, Tune In series of events at The Hospital Club on Thursday 9th February. Find out more about Laura Greene (Casting Producer, First Dates) and Matt Nida (Series Producer, Big Fat Quiz of the Year), who will take us behind the scenes of their hit shows, and reveal a few of the secrets of their success!

Read More

Meet The Speakers: Ralf Little, Zoe Rocha, Nick Catliff & Stuart Elliott

Meet the Speakers: Ralf Little, Zoe Rocha, Nick Catliff & Stuart Elliott

We’ve got more top speakers lined up for the latest in our series of sold-out Turn On, Tune In events at The Hospital Club this Thursday! Find out more about LittleRock Pictures’ Ralf Little & Zoe Rocha and Lion Television’s Nick Catliff & Stuart Elliott. We’ll be taken behind the scenes of their ground-breaking shows, and find out a few of the secrets of their success!

Ralf Little & Zoe Rocha
LittleRock Pictures was launched in 2015 by actor Ralf Little and executive Zoe Rocha, in partnership with Sky Vision. Prior to launching LittleRock, Zoe was COO of Sprout Pictures, where she worked as comedy and drama executive producer on several projects, including Emmy award-winning Sky 1 comedy Moone Boy.

Ralf is a well-known actor and writer who was cast in acclaimed comedy The Royle Family at the age of 18 and has since taken on many acting roles, including long-running BBC Three sitcom, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and Factory Records biopic, 24 Hour Party People. He has also written and starred in series such as The Ralf Little Show, and Sky 1 comedy The Café, as well as penning a one-off episode for the Sky Arts Playhouse Presents strand.

Read More

Meet The Speakers: Gary Monaghan & Andy Brereton

We’ve got two more top speakers for our latest sold-out Turn On, Tune In event at The Hospital Club tomorrow night! Find out more about Tiger Aspect’s Head of Comedy Entertainment, Andy Brereton, and one of the UK’s most innovative producers, Gary Monaghan. We’ll be taken behind the scenes of their ground-breaking shows, and find out a few of the secrets of their success!

Read More

Meet The Speakers: Karen Smith & Paul Stead

Turn On Tune In May 2016

Tonight at The Hospital Club we’ll again be joined by some great speakers from the telly world, for our latest Turn On, Tune In event. We’ll be taken behind the scenes of their ground-breaking shows, and find out a few of the secrets of their success!

Karen Smith
Our first speaker is Karen Smith, Managing Director of leading independent production company, Tuesday’s Child, which launched in 2012 and specialises in entertainment and popular factual formats.

Read More

Meet The Speakers: Fi Cotter Craig & Anthony Owen

Turn On Tune In - March 2016

This Thursday night at The Hospital Club we’ll once again be joined by some great speakers from world of TV, at our latest Turn On, Tune In event, taking us behind the scenes of the ground-breaking shows they’ve worked on. There are now only a handful of places remaining, exclusively for PB members, so don’t miss out! Register your free place on the PB Events pages.

Read More

The Secrets Behind The Secret Life

The Secrets Behind The Secret Life

We were delighted to welcome more great speakers to our latest Turn On, Tune In event at The Hospital Club earlier this month including RDF Television duo, Teresa Watkins & Sam Burr, discussing the making of the hit Channel 4 show, The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 Year Olds.

The observational documentary, which followed the antics of nursery-aged children using hidden cameras, pulled in more than 2.5 million viewers for an initial one off show, which lead to the commissioning of a 6-part series later in 2015. Teresa (Executive Producer) and Sam (Development Producer) shared how they brought Channel 4’s most popular factual show of the year to the screen, and shed light on the many pitfalls and ethical dilemmas that working with such young children can bring.

Read More

Creating a Drama Out of Serious Programmes

Creating a Drama Out of Serious Programmes

There is no doubt that serious factual is on the rise and fast becoming a regular fixture of audience’s weekly viewing habits and, if Twitter is anything to go by, really capturing the public’s imagination.

Producers now treat documentaries like they would a cutting edge drama; it’s compelling story-telling with strong narrative arcs. Whilst a swath of rig shows such as 24 Hours in A&E, One Born Every Minute, and The Catch are pulling in big audiences, there’s still room for the more traditional approach.

At our recent Turn On, Tune In event at The Hospital Club, we were delighted to welcome James Newton, series director of the gripping and dramatic three part series, The Detectives. The critically-acclaimed BBC Two series gave a close-up view of the day-to-day operations of the Serious Sexual Offences Unit of Greater Manchester Police, the first dedicated rape investigation team in the UK.

Read More