Twofour pair launch ITV-backed prodco

Melanie Leach, CEO of UK prodco Twofour, and Andrew MacKenzie, the company’s chief creative officer, are launching a production outfit and are in advanced talks with ITV Studios about investment.

Melanie Leach

The pair have today unveiled South Shore, in which ITV Studios will hold a minority stake if agreement is reached.

South Shore’s output will span documentary, popular factual and entertainment. Its exact launch date is to be confirmed and Leach and MacKenzie will remain at the helm of Twofour until then. Twofour’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer Anthony Hughes will also join them at South Shore.

ITV-owned MultiStory Media MD Tim Carter will take on a newly created role that will place him at the helm of Twofour and MultiStory. Both labels will retain their separate identities and existing teams. MultiStory Media was known as Shiver prior to a rebrand earlier this year.

The existing Twofour senior creative team of Dan Adamson, David Clews, Rachel Innes-Lumsden and Sam Grace will stay and work with Carter.

Andrew MacKenzie

Leach and MacKenzie’s output at Plymouth and Cardiff-based Twofour, which was acquired by ITV Studios in 2015, includes the Emmy-winning Educating… series, The Jump and Sink or Swim, all of which air on Channel 4.

ITV’s This Time Next Year and Ibiza Weekender, Channel 5’s longest-running show, Hotel Inspector, and the BBC’s The Real Marigold Hotel are all also on Twofour’s slate.

“We’ve enjoyed every moment of growing Twofour into the brilliant brand that it is today. Now feels like the natural point to hand the company onto a new team and we’re leaving it in great hands,” said Leach and Mackenzie in a joint statement.

ITV Studios MD Julian Bellamy said: ”Mel and Andy have been the driving force behind Twofour’s huge success over the last few years and have been behind an array of brilliant shows from the Educating series to The Real Marigold Hotel.

“They’re a truly formidable creative partnership and leave the company in rude health with a great senior team in place, and I am looking forward to their next chapter and the immense potential of South Shore.