C4’s Ramsden finds Love position

Love Productions, the UK indie behind The Great British Bake Off, has poached an executive from the show’s new broadcaster Channel 4 to be its joint creative director.

Sara Ramsden

Sara Ramsden, currently commissioning editor for science and specialist factual events at C4, will join Love Productions in December.

Reporting to founder and creative director Richard McKerrow, Ramsden will work alongside fellow joint creative directors Anna Beattie and Kieran Smith plus executive editor Simon Evans and MD Letty Kavanagh.

Ramsden has had two stints at Channel 4, during which she brought factual entertainment programmes The Secret Life of 4, 5, and 6 Year Olds to screen.

Her exit continues something of an exodus of senior executives from C4 following the departures of CEO David Abraham, chief creative officer Jay Hunt, deputy head of features Alex Menzies and Laura Franses, head of the channel’s indie growth fund. Last week specialist factual boss John Hay also jumped ship, joining ITV Studios-owned prodco The Garden.

Former Shine Group CEO Alex Mahon has been appointed to succeed Abraham but the search for Hunt’s successor is ongoing.

Ramsden was also previously channel controller at Sky1, commissioning science show Brainiac and David Blaine’s Above the Below – an endurance stunt that saw the magician seal himself in a transparent case suspended above the south bank of the River Thames. She has also served as creative director at Cheetah Television, part of Endemol UK.

Ramsden said of Love Productions: “It is a company at the top of its game, having pulled off the almost impossible task of transferring the nation’s favourite show from one channel to another.

“Above all, it cares about the quality of its programmes and is always searching for innovative ways to bring content to screen that touches people’s lives.”

The Great British Bake Off appears to have made the transition from BBC1 to Channel 4 successfully, following its £75m move last summer.  Despite losing all but one of its original hosts, the show was C4’s most watched of the year when it premiered last week with an average of 6.5 million viewers and a 30.4% audience share.