News

Exclusive: The race to replace Ralph Lee at the helm of BBC Studios Productions is underway, with the studio signaling its ambition by approaching some of the UK’s top unscripted executives.

Lee will step down as the CEO of BBC Studios Productions next month after a six-year stint to “pursue a new challenge” but Deadline is told that headhunter Russell Reynolds Associates is already scoping out successors.

The successful candidate will run a production unit that contributed heavily to BBC Studios’ £1.6B ($2B) content revenue last year, overseeing hits including Good Omens, Strictly Come Dancing, and David Attenborough’s natural history tentpoles.

Deadline understands that Russell Reynolds has held tentative early conversations with potential candidates including Stv Studios managing director David Mortimer, ITV Studios unscripted director Angela Jain and Karl Warner, Channel 4’s outgoing head of youth and digital.

Fatima Salaria, who previously ran The Apprentice producer Naked,...

BBC Studios has merged three areas of its formats business to create a new global entertainment division led by Matt Forde.

International productions and formats (already led by Forde), factual entertainment and events (led by Hannah Wyatt) and entertainment and music (led by Suzy Lamb) are set to be united under the banner of Global Entertainment, which will also oversee BBC Studios’ network of production bases in L.A., India, Australia, South Africa and Europe.

In addition to his new role Forde will stay on as managing director of international production and formats, having doubled the department’s business over the last three years, while also putting together a leadership board for the new umbrella division.

Wyatt and Lamb will also stay on as MDs of their respective areas, reporting in to Forde.

Global Entertainment is set to launch on Oct. 1. As well as offering a single face to the...

BBC Studios has consolidated its production and content teams under the banner BBC Studios Productions.

The move is intended to “create a single content powerhouse for all the commercial arm’s productions, talent relationships, and content investment.”

BBC Studios Productions will oversee four genres – scripted, factual, global formats group and children’s – which will apply across all of BBC Studios’ wholly and partly owned labels as well as BBC Studios Productions and indies with which BBC Studios partners for content sales.

CEO of BBC Studios Productions, Ralph Lee, will oversee the company’s productions and content investment, supported by COO Martha Brass, whose purview is business development, production operations and strategy. Brass will also have overall responsibility for “content investment into distribution rights” for which she’ll collaborate closely across BBC Studios.

The managing directors for each genre, who will all report to Lee, will be Mark Linsey, who will oversee scripted,...

BBC1’s long-running business format Dragons’ Den is to shift production from Manchester to Scotland.

Producer BBC Studios’ factual entertainment team in Glasgow, which is run by former MasterChef and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares exec Adeline Ramage Rooney, will hire a number of editorial and production management personnel to work on the show.

Series 20 of Dragons’ Den will be the first to come from Scotland, although studio recordings will remain in Manchester for that run. The BBC’s forthcoming Weakest Link reboot is also being produced in Scotland.

The 19th series of business format Dragons’ Den kicks off in the new year on BBC1 and will see the youngest ever dragon, 29-year-old podcast host Steven Bartlett, join the show.

Hannah Wyatt, BBC Studios’ Managing Director for Factual Entertainment and Events Productions, said: “This is another really positive move for one of our factual entertainment jewels. I’m sure Scottish talent will...

BBC’s hit motoring entertainment show “Top Gear” is relocating from London to Bristol next year.

The move to the South West will take place in spring 2022. The show’s 33rd season will be the first to be produced solely from Bristol.

The BBC said the move would “create a number of openings for editorial and production management personnel based in the nations and regions,” in a statement.

BBC Studios Bristol is already the home to a number of the network’s best-known factual entertainment shows, including “Antiques Roadshow,” “Countryfile” and “DIY Sos.”

The Natural History Unit, which produces series such as “Blue Planet II” and “Springwatch” is also based there.

“Top Gear” fans can rest assured, however, that the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey — which the BBC calls the show’s “spiritual home” — will still be used.

“Top Gear,” which is currently in production on its 31st season, regularly films around the U.

Cannes Classics

Mark Cousins‘ documentary “The Storms Of Jeremy Thomas,” following the legendary “The Last Emperor” and “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” producer’s annual drive to Cannes, will be the pre-opener at the Cannes Classics selection this year.

Restored titles this year include “Friendship’s Death” by Peter Wollen, starring Tilda Swinton; “F For Fake” by Orson Welles; “Mulholland Drive” by David Lynch (2001 U.S.); “I Know Where I’m Going!” by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; and “The Double Life Of Véronique by Krzysztof Kieślowski”.

The section will also celebrate the work of actor/director Bill Duke with a screening of “The Killing Floor” (1985); Japanese actor and filmmaker Kinuyo Tanaka’s “Tsuki Wa Noborinu”; Spanish actor and filmmaker Ana Marisca’s “El Camino” from 1964; French maven Marcel Camus’ “Orfeu Negro” and Italian master Roberto Rossellini’s “Francesco, Giullare Di Dio”.

Oscar Micheaux, the first African-American director in the history of U.

BAFTA pulled the curtain back on nominations for its TV and TV Craft Awards on Wednesday ahead of ceremonies that take place on June 6 and May 24 respectively. As always with award nominations, the list of those recognized had tongues wagging. Let’s walk through some of the biggest themes.

The snubs

There were some eyebrow-raising absentees among the nominations this year. Netflix’s The Crown scored a decent haul of 10 nominations, but none of them were for Olivia Colman, Gillian Anderson, and Emma Corrin, who played Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher, and Princess Diana respectively. The snubs were all the more notable given that all three were Golden Globe-nominated, while Anderson and Corrin were victorious at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association prizes. Other surprises included the absence of David Tennant for his role as serial killer Dennis Nilsen in ITV series Des, while critics also felt that series including ITV...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Sky commissions supernatural thriller “The Rising” and Channel 4 and Peacock wage “The Undeclared War”; The Garden, BBC Studios Productions and Constantin Film Development reveal senior appointments; Rakuten TV expands AVOD offering; and Disney India picks up kids series “Dr Tenali Rama Hmkd” from Cosmos-Maya.

Commissions

Sky original series, supernatural crime thriller “The Rising,” is the first series produced entirely in-house from Sky Studios, Sky’s production and development arm. It tells the story of Neve Kelly who discovers that she is dead, and is determined to find her killer and get justice, believing that it was someone she knew.

The cast includes Clara Rugaard (“I Am Mother”), Nenda Neururer (“A Brief History of Struggle”) and Solly McLeod (“Boxing Day”), alongside Daniel Ings (“I Hate Suzie”), Emily Taaffe (“Rare Beasts”), Alex Lanipekun (“Spooks”) and Robyn Cara (“Ackley Bridge”).

The eight-part drama was commissioned by Zai Bennett,...

BAFTA has pulled the curtain back on a raft of changes to its Television and Television Craft Awards that it hopes will increase diversity among nominees and winners, and reflect the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the industry.

The changes follow the publication of the BAFTA Review last month, a dramatic document that promised sweeping updates to the mechanics of BAFTA’s Film and TV prizes following the #BaftaSoWhite controversy. BAFTA also announced today that the 2021 Television and Television Craft Awards will take place on June 6 and May 24 respectively.

Among the measures unveiled today, BAFTA has increased the nominees in performance categories from four to six, while jury members will receive unconscious bias training, as previously announced in the review. Furthermore, as part of their two submissions after the first round of voting, broadcasters will be expected to put forward a candidate from an under-represented group in the performance and craft categories.

The BAFTA Television and Television Craft Awards are enforcing new rules from the 2021 edition of the awards, incorporating the findings of its wide-ranging diversity review carried out earlier this year and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of nominees in the performance categories will increase from four to six. The total number of nominees in all other categories will remain as four, though the number of named nominees or production company representatives for each entry will increase from four to six.

Hannah Wyatt, chair of BAFTA’s television committee, says that the rationale behind this move comes down to the volume of high-end drama being produced, which is reflected in the number of entries. The Academy wanted to reflect that by having more nominees, she says.

“And then, equally, [it is] also to help continue the progress we’ve made this year and get really good representation in terms of diversity and inclusion as well,...