BBC Studios Production Taps New Head of Doc Unit

BBC Studios Production has appointed Amy Flanagan to be the head of The Documentary Unit.

Flanagan will lead the creative team and strategy for The Documentary Unit, which is merging with Pacific Quay Productions in Glasgow and Aberdeen and the digital team in London. She will start her new role in December and report into Tom McDonald, BBC Studios’ new factual director.

Flanagan joins BBC Studios from Expectation, where she has served as co-creative director for factual, commissioning such titles as the BAFTA- and Grierson-nominated arts documentary Superkids—Breaking Away and the returning series Travels in Trumpland with Ed Balls. She was previously deputy head of factual at Channel 4, promoted from deputy head of documentaries and having joined as a documentaries commissioning editor in 2014.

Ralph Lee, director of content at BBC Studios, said: “Amy Flanagan is a highly respected and awarded specialist factual and documentary maker, who is great at empowering and nurturing filmmaking talent. I’m thrilled she is joining BBC Studios to build on our strong heritage and creativity in this area.”

Flanagan added: “The Documentary Unit at BBC Studios has an extraordinary history of working with some of the best off-screen and onscreen talent in the industry. I’m really excited to build on that history and reputation to help deliver the best of British documentary making to audiences in the U.K. and around the world.”