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BBC’s Darke launches Nature prodco

The former head of the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU) has launched an indie to produce content for the international market and appointed two executives to the fledgling firm.

Wendy Darke

Wendy Darke

Wendy Darke’s True to Nature will be based in Bristol and will specialise in the development and production of natural history content for global broadcasters and platforms.

Darke has appointed fellow BBC veteran Helena Berglund to join the fledgling prodco as head of production. Berglund managed the Natural World strand for the BBC and developed CBBC’s Deadly brand.

Jody Bourton, who was behind River Monsters for Animal Planet and Nature’s Weirdest Events for BBC2, has also joined as development producer and further appointments are in the pipeline.

The prodco “aims to deliver ground-breaking new formats utilising the most innovative production techniques” and will also explore the specialist factual, drama and entertainment genres as well as multi-platform content.

Darke left the BBC in April after 25 years having overseen shows including Africa, Life Story and Big Blue Live. She launched online portal earth.co.uk and earth.com in 2014 and before taking over at the NHU had been an executive producer for NHU Children’s, overseeing more than 485 programmes including the Bafta-winning Deadly 60.

Darke was one of a number of genre heads to leave the pubcaster after moving to BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s new production subsidiary.

Her departure followed that of entertainment chief Katie Taylor, factual and daytime boss Natalie Humphreys and scripted boss Mark Freeland. Freeland left after new head Mark Linsey took over from Peter Salmon, who moved to Endemol Shine Group.

Darke said: “My passion is to use great storytelling to build life-long relationships between people and the natural world. I am also excited about opportunities to expand the portfolio to include Earth sciences that relate to the natural world and also topics that capture our curiosity around human nature and relationship with our planet.

“With my team, I will continue to invest time and energy in building longstanding relationships with our commissioners and stakeholders to ensure that together we deliver outstanding content and stories with the highest factual integrity and production values.”

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