Expectations’ Flanagan joins BBCS

BBC Studios (BBCS) has appointed Amy Flanagan, former co-creative director of factual at UK prodco Expectation, to head its documentary unit.

Amy Flanagan

Flanagan, who takes up the role in December, joined Expectation in 2017. Before that she worked at indie prodco The Garden before becoming deputy head of factual at UK pubcaster Channel 4.

Expectation was launched in 2017 by former ITV and BBC1 controller Peter Fincham and ex-Endemol Shine Group chief Tim Hincks

Flanagan will report to BBCS’s new factual director, Tom McDonald, who recently moved across to BBC Studios from a natural history and specialist factual commissioning role at the UK pubcaster.

She will lead the creative team and strategy for The Documentary Unit, which has brought together the Glasgow, Aberdeen and London operations to work from their respective locations.

“Amy Flanagan is a highly respected and awarded specialist factual and documentary maker who is great at empowering and nurturing filmmaking talent,” said Ralph Lee, who previously worked with Flanagan at Channel 4 before being appointed director of content at BBC Studios in 2018.

In related news, BBCS has secured a raft of pre-sales for its new landmark natural history series Seven Worlds One Planet ahead of the show’s launch at Mipcom next week.

Created by BBCS’s Natural History Unit and narrated by Sir David Attenborough, the show has been pre-sold into Sweden (SVT), Denmark (DR), Norway (NRK), Spain (Telefonica), Czech Republic (Prima and Czech TV) and Latin America (Discovery) as part of an existing multi-year partnership.

Coproduction partners on the series are BBC America, Tencent Penguin Pictures, ZDF, France Télévisions and CCTV9. Sony BBC Earth in India and BBC Earth channels in Africa, Canada, the Nordics, Asia, Poland and CEE will also be premiering the series.