BBC to hire three more drama commissioners

Published Tuesday 5 September 2006 at 14:05 by Liz Thomas

The BBC is set to expand its drama commissioning team, making the genre as accessible as possible to programme makers and writers.

It is understood that Corporation drama head Jane Tranter is keen to hire three commissioners to deal with independents, taking the total number of executives to seven.

The plans follow the recent changes to the team structure, which saw John Yorke promoted to controller of in-house drama and current EastEnders executive producer Kate Harwood stepping up as head of series and serials. Nicolas Brown is now director of production, while next month Sally Woodward Gentle will become creative director, charged with all in-house development. There are also three commissioners for each of the nations.

Tranter said it was important that there were as many access points for producers to bring their ideas to the BBC, in order to ensure as wide a range of shows came through the net, and the variety of programming broadcast wasn’t hindered by individual taste. She also added that she felt there should be an upper limit of time that commissioners remained in their positions in order that output remained fresh and in touch with audience demands.

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