The Stage

BBC’s Mal Young in 19TV switch

Published Tuesday 28 September 2004 at 16:10 by Joanna Taylor

Mal Young, the BBC’s head of drama series who oversees its troubled soap EastEnders, is defecting to Pop Idol production company 19TV in order to lead its attempt to diversify into drama.

Young will take up the position of director of drama at pop svengali Simon Fuller’s company, which is known for its music entertainment formats, early next year.

Fuller, who also manages pop acts including Rachel Stevens and Will Young and was responsible for managing The Spice Girls, is understood to have made the BBC executive a six-figure offer.

Young said: “I have had the happiest and the most fulfilling seven years at the BBC, but when Simon approached me about he and I working together, it was a no-brainer.

“We both aspire to make ‘talk about TV’ for big, mainstream audiences and the time feels right for us to take advantage of the many exciting opportunities, both in the UK and the States. I wasn’t actively looking to leave the BBC but this felt like the perfect fit.”

The collaboration will see Young creating drama programmes that would be suitable for terrestrial and cable television in both the UK and US markets. His departure will come as a serious blow to the BBC, following so soon after EastEnders executive producer Louise Berridge announced she was leaving last week.

Young cut his teeth as a producer on former Channel 4 soap Brookside. He joined the Corporation seven years ago as head of continuing drama series. As well as EastEnders, he has ultimate control of Holby City, daytime drama series Doctors, Casualty and Silent Witness. He has been responsible for turning Holby into a continuing series and taking EastEnders to four nights a week.

Recently Young has been working more closely with the US market after negotiating a development deal with Universal Studios’ production arm Reville for reworkings of the Martin Shaw-fronted series Judge John Deed as well as Being April and Murder in Mind.

He also exclusively revealed to The Stage earlier this year that he would like to develop an American working-class soap.

Director of drama, entertainment and CBBC Alan Yentob and controller of drama commissioning Jane Tranter will be discussing who will replace him.

• EastEnders has triumphed over adversity to win Best Soap at the 2004 Inside Soap awards ceremony, in a month which has seen its lowest ever ratings and the resignation of its executive producer.

The BBC1 programme was crowned champion for the eighth year running at the awards by readers of the weekly publication dedicated to the genre.

It narrowly beat rival ITV1 show Coronation Street by 2% of the overall votes. EastEnders’ Nigel Harman - who plays Dennis Rickman - picked up two prizes for Best Actor and Sexiest Male.

The soap’s June Brown was named Best Actress for her character Dot Branning, while Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace won Best Couple as Kat and Alfie Moon.

Eleven-year-old Sam Aston - who plays Chesney Brown in Coronation Street - picked up two prizes for Best Young Actor and Best Newcomer while outgoing Suranne Jones won Sexiest Female for the programme and Sue Nicholls picked up this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award for her portrayal of Audrey Roberts.

Coronation Street was the favourite to win the Best Soap category after an unfavourable period for EastEnders which resulted in its beleaguered executive producer Louise Berridge quitting earlier this month. This was promptly followed by ratings figures of 6.2 million - the show’s worst to date.