BBCS rejigs after Keelan exit

BBC Studios (BBCS) is rejigging its senior management team ahead of the departure of scripted portfolio director Liam Keelan.

Liam Keelan

Keelan arrived at BBCS (aka BBC Worldwide) in 2013 after turning down the opportunity to run Sky1 and has worked on shows including Les Misérables, Pure and Dead Pixels.

His remit will be taken on by Martin Rakusen, who oversees BBCS’s drama production, and indie drama boss Caroline Stone, who will both continue to report to Mark Linsey, BBCS’s chief creative officer.

Further changes will see Linsey’s remit now including direct responsibility for international production and formats, which falls under BBCS’s content partnerships division.

It had previously overseen by Anna Mallett, who left her role as chief operating officer and MD of production at BBCS to join UK-based ITN late last year.
Unscripted chief Mark Reynolds, children’s lead Henrietta Hurford-Jones and comedy head Jonathan Blyth will also report to Linsey, along with Stone and Rakusen.

Meanwhile, Matt Garside, who was upped to director of independent production in 2017, becomes MD of content partnerships, working with director of strategy and business development Jasmine Wiltshire and content investment director Colin Waters.

Finally, all format-focused roles are being moved under Matt Forde, who heads international productions and formats and reports to Linsey.

BBCS said the “flatter genre head structure” would allow the UK pubcaster’s commercial arm to work more closely with its production partners “to make strategic, cohesive decisions that take us in the creative direction we want to go.”

Linsey added that Keelan’s “knowledge, leadership and passion for content has delivered sustained scripted success.”

“As well as that, he’s played an active and important part – supporting me, Content Partnerships and the business more broadly – in bringing together Production and Distribution to create the new BBC Studios.”