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BBC bolsters commissioning team in Northern Ireland with Jason Butler, Guy Phenix hires

Jason Butler, left, and Guy Phenix

The BBC has bolstered its commissioning team in Northern Ireland with the addition of execs focusing on comedy and children’s content.

Writer, director and producer Jason Butler has joined as commissioning editor for BBC Northern Ireland (NI).

Reporting to Eddie Doyle, BBC NI’s senior head of content commissioning, Butler will be responsible for leading the strategy, development and delivery of new comedy output, including scripted comedy and sitcoms.

He will join the commissioning team responsible for a range of television programmes from BBC Northern Ireland across multiple genres, which appear on BBC NI television and across the UK on BBC iPlayer.

Doyle said: “This is an exciting opportunity to broaden our comedy offering to bring audiences new comedic voices, characters and scenarios they won’t have seen before. We welcome Jason to the commissioning team and look forward to harnessing his wealth of experience in this genre.”

Butler, who will take up his new role in the coming months, directed and produced two seasons of The Paddy Raff Show comedy sketch show for BBC NI.

Recently Butler produced a series of short comedy films from emerging Northern Ireland comedy writers/performers for Nice One Productions for BBC NI, and worked on developing a new comedy project written by Daniel Peak for Nice One/Birdie Pictures commissioned by BBC comedy.

He directed, co-wrote, and produced four seasons of sitcom Bridget & Eamon and directed the factual entertainment comedy series The 2 Johnnies Take On… and The 2 Johnnies Do America 2, all for RTÉ.

He also worked as an assistant producer, series producer and head writer, writing and directing comedy sketches on 80 episodes of RTÉ’s Republic of Telly. He produced and co-wrote Owen Colgan Around The Fire, a comedy chat show for RTÉ Player, and in 2019 wrote, directed and co-produced a 20 minute dark drama for RTÉ Storyland – Skip To The End.

Guy Phenix, meanwhile, has re-joined the UK pubcaster as commissioning executive for animation for 0-6 year-olds, based out of Belfast and responsible for projects across the UK and internationally.

As part of the commissioning and acquisitions team at BBC Children’s, Phenix will identify and secure a wide range of animation from both the UK and internationally for the Beeb’s 0-6 audience.

Phenix recently left his role as business development manager at Derry-based producer Dog Ears, which he joined in 2022 after a stint at the BBC as a development producer.

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