Plimsoll bolsters creative team

Former Zodiak USA CEO Grant Mansfield has promoted three members of the creative team at his UK indie Plimsoll Productions.

Plimsoll founder Grant Mansfield

Martha Holmes becomes head of wildlife, Karen Plumb has been named head of features and daytime, and Kate Beetham has been upped to head of development and executive producer. All three continue to report directly to Plimsoll’s founder Mansfield.

In her expanded role, Holmes will continue to focus on landmark wildlife shows having been ITV’s Life at the Extreme with Davina McCall, Predators Up Close (Discovery), Life of Dogs (Discovery) and Deadly Instincts (Nat Geo).

Meanwhile, Beetham will lead an expanded development team focused on factual entertainment, features and specialist factual. In her new role, Plumb will take on the additional responsibility for overseeing daytime development and production while continuing to serve as factual entertainment showrunner for Plimsoll.

“Martha, Kate and Karen have all played key parts in Plimsoll’s successful launch,” said Mansfield. “In their new positions, they will take on increasingly influential roles in developing new shows for clients in the UK and the US.”

Last week, Plimsoll took a minority stake in Magnify Media, the distributor founded by former DRG MD of acquisitions and formats Andrea Jackson.

Mansfield launched Plimsoll in September 2013, opening offices in Bristol and London. The firm focuses on reality and wildlife programming for UK and US broadcasters.

Plimsoll is currently producing 23 series and more than 125 hours of programming for both domestic and international networks, including ITV’s The Story of Cats and the 50-hour Camp Zambia initiative alongside Love Nature, Smithsonian and Blue Ant International.