UKTV meet the Commissioners
16 March 2023
Create Central was delighted to welcome UKTV to the West Midlands to meet local creatives.
It was a great opportunity to engage directly and build relationships with senior commissioning editors at UKTV, which is part of BBC Studios, and gain insight into their content strategy across Dave, Yesterday, Gold, W and beyond.
We were joined by:
Helen Nightingale: Head of Factual and Factual Entertainment. Since joining the multi-channel broadcaster in 2015 as Commissioning Editor, Helen has executive produced shows across the network and has commissioned the award-winning Emma Willis: Delivering Babies and Katie Piper; Babies Behind Bars for W, French and Saunders: Funny Women for Gold and Classic Car Garage for Yesterday.
Sarah Asante: Scripted Commissioning Editor responsible for seeking out, developing, commissioning and executive producing scripted comedy shows for Dave and Gold. Her recent UKTV commissions include Sneakerhead plus four comedy pilots by diverse new writers on Dave, as well as Murder They Hope and Newark, Newark on GOLD.
Mark Iddon: Senior Commissioning Editor Comedy Entertainment, Mark has helped keep UKTV at the forefront of comedy entertainment, developing fresh formats and ideas to attract the next generation of talent and comedy-lovers to Dave. His credits to date include Comedians Giving Lectures, Late Night Mash, Outsiders and Live At The Moth Club.
Attendees were treated to in-depth information about each commissioner’s focus and what they are currently looking for.
Networking opportunities followed and there was also a chance to schedule 15-minute 1-2-1s with the three commissioning editors.