RTS Programme Awards – Meet The Winners!

This year’s RTS Programme Awards, long considered the gold standard of achievement in the television community, took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London this week.

In partnership with Audio Network and hosted this year by Richard Madeley, the awards celebrate excellence across all genres of television programming, with prizes in twenty five categories. In honour of another year of outstanding British television, let’s have a closer look at some of the big winners.

The winner in the Documentary Series category was The Romanians Are Coming, produced by Keo Films for Channel 4, which beat competition from Reggie Yates’ Extreme Russia and The Detectives.

The Romanians Are Coming

With the number of immigrants rising in the UK and laws changing around the possibility of work, this documentary series explored the lives of Romanians trying to make a new life in Britain.

Meet The Speakers: Fi Cotter Craig & Anthony Owen

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.

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.

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.

Events Worth Talking About

I wanted to highlight some of the events we have been hosting recently in conjunction with Channel 5’s Head of Development, Beren Money.

To date, we’ve had a brilliant, diverse selection of speakers – from producers, directors, writers and talent to technical geniuses who are changing the whole landscape of the medium. And all in the comfort of a great venue with a drink in hand.

Series Producer of Emmerdale, Kate Oates, gave the audience a great insight into the success of this 42 year old series, and how the gruelling schedule is managed. Partick Spence, the Executive Producer of Sky Atlantic’s Fortitude, took us through this gripping drama from concept to screen, with a few very illuminating stories on some of the technical problems they had to overcome – like having to import fake snow from London to, of all places, Iceland!

How To Become an Art Department Assistant

What is an Art Department Assistant?

Overseen by the Production Designer, the art department is responsible for the aesthetic choices of everything within a film. The roles are split between designing and selecting off-set, and those working on set. The art department is usually the largest on set.

Kate Oates & Patrick Spence At The Hospital Club

The PB Team returned to The Hospital Club this week, where we were joined by another full house in The Oak Room for the latest in our Turn On, Tune In series of events. We were once again joined by two top speakers from the world of TV, revealing the secrets behind the success of their shows.

Kate Oates At The Hospital Club

First up was Kate Oates, Series Producer on ITV’s now 42 year old soap, Emmerdale. The show’s now well beyond it’s 7,000th episode, and she discussed the huge challenge of putting together 312 half-hour episodes every year, with a minimum of six episodes completed every week. Producing such a huge volume of content in such a short space of time requires an army of more than 300 production staff, working in three separate units. Emmerdale is filmed across five studios in Leeds, and separate location set in the Yorkshire Dales, and with such a tight schedule, Kate also discussed the need to balance studio and location time – with an around 16 minutes of completed footage per day in the studio, versus only 8 on location.

Get It Covered

Your cover letter is your first chance to shine – so make sure it’s done right to give you the best chance of landing that role.

I see hundreds of CVs that are very well put together – hours have been spent on layout and design…only for the cover letter to be a huge let down. And that’s a shame, as I’ve been told on numerous occasions that employers will not even look at a CV if the cover letter is rubbish!

Many potential candidates are falling at the first hurdle by using bland, generic letters for every application. It’s essential that each cover letter is tailored to the role you’re applying for.

Is Loving Your Job Losing You Pay?

As always, it was very interesting to read the latest salary survey conducted by Televisual recently.

I was hoping to hear the long awaited news that production budgets were rising, working hours were being reduced, people had their weekends back and were feeling richer than they were this time last year.

Wishful thinking. It’s almost becoming the norm for many freelancers that their salaries really haven’t risen for at least 6 years or more. And of course, with inflation, this means in real terms they are worse off than they were. I guess if you’re a high flying exec within the comfy confines of a broadcaster or big indie, you might be immune to all this as salaries seem to be increasing or at least moving along in the right direction.

Turn On, Tune In: Tiger Aspect Duo At The Hospital Club

Tiger Aspect Duo At The Hospital Club

It was another busy night in The Oak Room at The Hospital Club on Tuesday night for our latest Turn On, Tune In event, where we once again hosted a top line-up of industry speakers.

Sebastian Grant & Andy Brereton on stage at The Hospital Club.

We were joined by Tiger Aspect duo, Andy Brereton (Head of Comedy Entertainment) and Sebastian Grant (Executive Producer), discussing their innovative BBC Three reality-horror-gameshow hybrid, I Survived A Zombie Apocalypse, where 10 members of the public are left in an abandoned shopping centre overrun by zombies. The aim for contestants is to survive for seven days until help arrives, with an array of tasks and games to complete in the meantime. One bite from a zombie and they leave the show in grisly style! Andy & Sebastian took us through the development and pitching process, the challenges of filming with such a large cast, and dealing with the aftermath for the traumatised contestants!

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