Over almost two decades at the BBC and Sky, Lucy Lumsden has commissioned some of the country’s best-loved comedies, including Outnumbered, Miranda and Moone Boy.
But the commissioner has recently swapped sides – having made her first short film last year, Lumsden is now in the business of creating comedy.
The seeds of her future career were sown at Edinburgh University, explained Lumsden, who was giving the RTS comedy masterclass.
Siobhan Mulholland is the Commissioning Editor of Factual at Sky.
Here she explains what she looks for when someone pitches an idea for a documentary.
As a child, Jack Thorne was a devoted TV viewer who’d some-times risk compromising his personal hygiene – all for the sake of his favourite programmes. He was reluctant to leave the box’s magical embrace and delayed taking a shower until the commercial break rolled round.
“That’s fine when you’re eight, but less good when you’re 14,” says Thorne. He has a wide, open face, which lights up like a Belisha beacon when he recalls his childhood and adolescent TV addiction.
Bill Hobbins is the commissioning editor at Sky Factual. His commissions include Sky 1’s Freddie Flintoff fries again and Wild Things, which won Best Entertainment Programme in the Broadcast Digital Awards 2015.
Here he explains how to grab his attention when pitching an idea.
W1A’s Ophelia Lovibond will star alongside Michael Landes, best known for appearing alongside Tamsin Grieg in Love Soup, in new Sky 1 drama Hooten & The Lady.
Landes will play Hooten, an adventurer, who teams up with Lady Alexandra Lindo-Parker (Lovibond) from the British Museum to go in search of lost treasures, from the tomb of Alexander the Great to the Buddha’s missing scroll.
“This is an incredibly ambitious show which I hope will be appointment to view television for a discerning drama audience on Sky 1,” said showrunner Tony Jordan.
The BBC is to launch a children’s iPlayer app which will be available for kids on Apple and Android devices.
The new service, with the working title "iPlay," will be an on-demand partner to CBBC and CBeebies.
There were over 500 million downloads of children’s content on iPlayer from January to June 2015, the BBC revealed, while 75% of children have access to a tablet.
The new app will give children a personalised menu of their favourite programmes including Blue Peter and Bing.
The RTS Cambridge Convention 2015 took place from Wednesday 16 to Friday 18 September, seeing senior leaders from the television industry on both sides of the Atlantic converge on the city.
The topics covered over the three days ranged from the importance of the BBC worldwide, to a debate about the lessons learnt from the General Election 2015, to the continued challenge that the television industry faces with the rise of video content emerging on digital platforms.
9pm
Television and radio presenter Alice Levine finds girls who complete computer coding in a male dominant industry. She takes Ellie, Daisy, Neelam, Tolani and Arooj to meet the UK’s most powerful women in technology. The girls are given a five-day task to invent a start up piece of technology.
8pm
Sky Sports has been awarded exclusive rights to the NFL’s Sunday night football games for two years.
Previously broadcast by Channel 4, Sky Sports will now air two early kick-offs on Sunday at 6pm and 9pm culminating with a midnight game.
In addition to this are the Monday Night football games alongside regular Thursday games.
(Picture from Channel 4: Nat Coombs, left, and Mike Carson host Channel 4's NFL coverage)
Viewers will now be able to watch over 100 games each season on Sky Sports with additional digital and On Demand offering.
When Tony Hall was appointed BBC Director-General, he pledged to widen the corporation’s recruitment net by ensuring that 1% of its public-service workforce were apprentices by 2016.
He reached the target two years ahead of schedule. By the end of 2014, 177 apprentices were employed across the UK in departments ranging from local radio to business management.
BBC apprenticeships last between 12 months and three years. Participants on the production scheme undertake placements on programmes in addition to training with the BBC Academy.
