BBC Studios Strengthens Factual Team

BBC Studios has expanded The Documentary Unit and welcomed the arrival of new senior hires across both documentary and digital.

As part of the reorganization, Factual Salford is to be merged with The Documentary Unit. This will result in factual being comprised of three distinct genre areas—The Documentary Unit, The Natural History Unit and The Science Unit. Amy Flanagan will continue to work as head of The Documentary Unit.

Tom McDonald, director of Factual at BBC Studios Productions, and Flanagan are appointing a number of creatives into The Documentary Unit. Cate Hall, who joined BBC Studios Productions earlier this year, will take on the role of creative director for development. Alan Holland, currently creative director for Factual Salford, will take on an expanded role as creative director for Scotland and Salford. Kirsty Cunningham, meanwhile, has been appointed as head of programs for London and Cardiff, overseeing programming from those creative bases.

Additional people joining The Documentary Unit include executive producer Joe Mather and producer Juliet Piper, who will both join factual from BBC Studios Factual Entertainment, building on their roster of crime programming from Cardiff. Carl Doran will also be joining The Documentary Unit on attachment from BBC Public Service as executive producer for sport, starting in January 2021.

For the Factual Digital team, which works collaboratively across the genre units to win commissions from digital and audio platforms, Molly Milton has been hired as executive producer for on-screen talent and Arif Zaman will join as executive producer for originals, partnerships and talent.

McDonald, said: “Both the Documentary Unit and the Digital Team have had significant success this year despite the challenges of a global pandemic, so this is the perfect moment to strengthen the creative leadership in both teams. As well as ensuring there will be senior editorial and production staff in each of our bases, evolving into three factual units also presents us with a clearer face to market. I’m thrilled that these new senior hires will be bringing their ideas, energy and creativity to BBC Studios Factual.”