Brindley takes Twofour creative lead

The BBC’s head of commissioning for popular factual and factual entertainment, David Brindley, is moving to ITV-owned producer Twofour as chief creative officer.

David Brindley

Brindley will join the label next year with responsibility for devising and implementing its creative strategy.

At the BBC, he oversees commissions for BBC1, BBC2 and BBC3 totalling more than 350 hours of content a year. His department’s credits over the past three years include Race Across the World, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out, The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan, The Murder of Jill Dando and War on Plastic with Hugh & Anita.

Prior to the BBC, Brindley was a documentary commissioner at Channel 4 for three years, and before that was a doc maker for more than a decade. In that role he worked with Twofour when co-series director on the Emmy-winning Educating Yorkshire.

The appointment follows the departure of Twofour CEO Melanie Leach and previous chief creative officer Andrew MacKenzie in October to launch another prodco, which is in advanced discussions with ITV regarding financial backing.

Tim Carter, CEO of ITV-owned MultiStory Media (fka Shiver) added the Twofour CEO responsibilities to his brief and unveiled his new senior management team today, led by Brindley.

Dan Adamson (The Hotel Inspector, Beat the Chef), group director of programmes at Twofour since 2010, has been promoted to MD and will work alongside Brindley across the label on strategy. Twofour’s off-shoots, Boomerang and Twofour West, will report to him.

Creative director David Clews (Educating, Real Marigold Hotel, Ibiza Weekender) will continue working across Twofour in a new consultancy role, remaining exclusive to the label in non-scripted programming but with the flexibility to pursue broader scripted opportunities.

The new look team is completed by newly promoted director of programmes for Twofour West, Rachel Innes-Lumsden (Save Money: Lose Weight, Matt Allright’s Housing Scandal), with Sam Grace, director of programmes, leading the charge at the Cardiff-based Boomerang.

Group director of production is Shireen Abbott, while Jake Roberts has been promoted to financial director.

Carter has also appointed Pukar Mehta to work alongside him as chief operating officer of MultiStory Media and Twofour, with responsibility across areas including production, finance, business affairs, HR and technology.

Mehta joined ITV in 2010 as the group’s head of business development before moving to commercial director of ITV Studios in 2014, leading on acquisitions and investments alongside his portfolio responsibility over ITV Studios’ labels.

Twofour and Multistory Media retain their separate identities. Acquired in 2015 by ITV Studios, Twofour has a regional base in Plymouth and a nations base in Cardiff.