Hot 100 2012 PRODUCERS


speare, which Harris is exec pro- ducing. If she can popularise The Bard in the way she did Midwife, Harris really does have the golden touch.


1 Sue Vertue


Hartswood Films


As the producer of the latest reimagining of Sherlock Holmes, Su Vertue is responsible for argu- ably the most striking piece of tele vision drama in recent times – and for keeping writer husband Steven Moffat’s pet project on target while he juggles it with Doctor Who. Gripping, stylish, clever and funny, Sherlock was well cast, brilliantly acted and slick enough to become a hit on PBS in the US. It won Baftas, has been the most requested show ever on iPlayer, and brought a remarkable 10.7 million viewers to BBC1 on New Year’s Day. And now she’s making a return to comedy with the commission of BBC1 sitcom Me And Mrs Jones – could it be as big as her previ- ous credits Coupling or The Vicar Of Dibley?


Sherlock


on the idea with their maternity ward rig on One Born Every Minute. Since leaving to launch The Garden, they’ve brought us the RTS Award-winning 24 Hours In A&E and Channel 4’s much talked-about Seven Dwarves, and even secured a BBC4 drama com- mission in fact-based Hotel Taliban. Innovative and original just about sums them up.


it has become one of the most high-profi le programmes in the country. Its creator, Sarah Dillis- tone, is the woman we can thank/ blame. And now she’s exec pro- ducing Made In Chelsea. To say she is ‘of the moment’ would be an understatement.


5 Gareth Neame NBC Universal 4 Pippa Harris 3 Sarah Dillistone


Executive producer, Made In Chelsea


2 Nick Curwin and


Magnus Temple The Garden


Inventing a whole new TV sub- genre takes some doing. Sarah Dillistone (see right) arguably managed it when she conjured up constructed reality for British viewers. And Nick Curwin and Magnus Temple, creators of The Family, did so when they decided to use a static multi-camera rig to discreetly fi lm a family home for 24 hours a day. With that, the ‘fi xed rig’ documentary genre was born. At Dragonfl y, the duo built


10 | Broadcast | Hot 100


Some people base TV success on awards. Some base it on ratings fi gures. Others consider critical acclaim. The true test of a show, however, is how it enters the human psyche. And one series has done that more than any other in the past few years. ITV2’s real-life drama The Only Way Is Essex might not be every- one’s cup of tea, but by spawning countless tabloid headlines, a host of spin-offs and a clothing range, and by introducing a host of new words to the English language,


Neal Street Productions


By pulling in an average of 8.7 million viewers per episode across its six-part run, Call The Midwife surprised everyone to become BBC1’s biggest drama launch on record. Pippa Harris, head of TV at the show’s producer, Neal Street, was the one to spot the book’s poten- tial as a series. Its fi nal


episode peaked at 11.4


million viewers, eclipsing the cliffhanger fi nale of Sherlock. A second series was, unsurpris- ingly, swiftly greenlit, putting


Neal Street on the map in TV, having previously produced single drama Stuart: A Life Back- wards. This month, BBC2 airs four Sam Mendes-directed fi lms based on the works of Shake-


6 Nicola Shindler Red Production Company


It’s hard to imagine a time when Nicola Shindler and Red were not hot but it has been a sizzling 12 months for the Manchester indie. Programming hours have doubled and are spread across


www.broadcastnow.co.uk


Such has been his success in recent years, the write-up for Gareth Neame could just read thus: “Executive producer, Downton Abbey. Sold his company to NBC Universal. Managing director of Broadcast Indie of the Year”. For the man now in charge of NBC Universal’s UK TV prod uction is currently one of the hottest drama produc- ers on the planet. Downton Abbey won a Golden Globe and six Primetime Emmy Awards, while Neame himself was recognised by The Producers Guild of America with an ‘outstanding producer of long-form television’ award. And that’s before we mention Any Human Heart (C4) and ITV1’s Whitechapel, and his hand in funding Neal Street’s ambitious Shakespeare fi lms for BBC2.


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