BBC Factual’s Emily Smith Joining Wall to Wall

Emily Smith, the commissioning editor of BBC Factual, is set to be the new creative director at Wall to Wall, a production company that is part of the Warner Bros. International Television Production group.

Taking up her new post in March 2022, Smith will focus on developing and delivering new factual formats and large-scale factual entertainment series for U.K. broadcasters and global streamers. She will also join the senior management team at Wall to Wall.

Smith will report to Leanne Klein, Wall to Wall’s managing director and head. The production company’s leadership team also includes Jeremy Dear, creative director for international; Helena Ely, director of production; Gavin Rota, director of development; and Craig Duff, director of finance.

Smith joined the BBC in 2018 and has commissioned such titles as Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make Up Star, Sort Your Life Out, Forensics: The Real CSI, The Grand Party Hotel, Inside the Supermarket, Miriam’s Dead Good Adventure and the forthcoming series Yorkshire Born, as well as singles including Abused by My Girlfriend and Bad Influencer. In her three years as commissioning editor, she also oversaw the returning formats Who Do You Think You Are? and The Choir (The Choir: Our School by the Tower, The Choir: Aylesbury Prison, The Choir: Singing for Britain).

Smith said: “It’s been a privilege to work with brilliant creatives in BBC commissioning and the indie world—and to launch and nurture so many different kinds of factual series and singles. But I’ve also missed creating new shows and being closer to production. Having always admired Wall to Wall as setting the gold standard in TV that is both entertaining and enriching, I’m really excited to join the team to build on their rich slate and deliver more successful formats and factual entertainment hits.”

Klein said: “I’m so excited to have Emily joining us. Having worked with her across multiple series over the past few years, I know she is a passionate and talented executive who is as smart in a pitch as she is in the edit. She’s proved herself to be a champion of the best sort of popular television and, as we super-charge our development of returning series for the U.K. and streamers, she’s the perfect person to take the lead.”

Patrick Holland, director of factual, arts and classical music at the BBC, said: “Emily has been a simply terrific commissioning editor, bringing huge passion, skill, heart and integrity to a vast slate of programs. She has innovated with new returning series like Forensics and Glow Up, brought fresh thinking with new popular formats like Sort Your Life Out and delivered stand-out documentaries like Abused by My Girlfriend and Bad Influencer. Emily has been a brilliant champion of smaller indies and producers from diverse backgrounds and leaves the BBC having made a real mark. We wish her all success in her new venture.”