ITV signs up Savile investigator

Shiver, the factual arm of ITV Studios UK, has received two commissions from ITV and agreed a programme deal with criminologist and investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas.

The deal with Williams-Thomas will see him work on a series of undercover investigations to be broadcast on ITV from later this year.

Williams-Thomas, a former police officer, was behind the Royal Television Society award- and Peabody-winning doc Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile.

The programme, aired last year, exposed the late BBC presenter as a paedophile and uncovered a catalogue of failings at the corporation. In the ensuing scandal, BBC director general George Entwistle was forced to step down after just 54 days in the job.

In related news, Shiver has been commissioned by ITV Daytime to produce home makeover series Peter Andre’s 60 Minute Makeover (30×60′) and is also working on a 90-minute special for ITV primetime called The Nation’s Favourite Elvis Song.

The programme will profile 20 of Elvis’s best-loved songs, was commissioned by factual commissioning editor Diana Howie and is being executive produced by Shiver creative director Mark Robinson.

ITV Studios’ factual slate is now all produced under the Shiver label following a consolidation of the operation led by Shiver director Alexander Gardiner in January.