ITN Productions Hires Factual Creative Director

ITN Productions' factual arm has hired former Sky One and Discovery commissioner Emma Read to be Creative Director - Factual, Features & Factual Entertainment.

Emma is tasked with building on ITN Productions' considerable strengths as a specialist factual producer and growing the business in features and factual entertainment. She will report in to Philip Armstrong-Dampier, Head of Factual, Factual Entertainment & Corporate at ITN Productions.

In her most recent role, Emma was Commissioning Editor of Factual & Features at Sky One where she commissioned a number of ground-breaking programmes, winning two RTS awards for Brainiac: Science Abuse and Big Ron Manager. She also commissioned programmes such as Fat Families, UK Border Force and Bill Bailey's Bird Watching Bonanza.

Prior to working at Sky, Emma set up the UK factual commissioning arm of Animal Planet followed by a stint heading up factual commissioning at Discovery Channel UK and EMEA. In her time at Discovery she was first commissioner to enlist comedians to front documentaries and commissioned Heston Blumenthal's first ever TV show - Kitchen Chemistry. Throughout her career Emma has also produced a variety of cutting edge, award-winning shows for BBC, ITV and Channel 4 including Video Diaries, Adult Lives and Tomorrow's World.

Philip Armstrong-Dampier, Head of Factual, Factual Entertainment & Corporate, ITN Productions, said: 'Having worked with Emma for a number of years, I'm delighted she has joined us at ITN Productions. Her vast experience in factual commissioning and production will be a real asset and build on our established reputation as a leading provider of first class factual content.'

Emma Read, Creative Director - Factual, Features & Factual Entertainment, added: 'It is a fantastic time to join ITN Productions, now a fully-fledged multimedia content producer. I'm looking forward to working with the team to develop exciting new factual programming strands for broadcast and online clients globally.'

The factual team at ITN Productions has produced a raft of critically-acclaimed programmes such as Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel and the six-part HD series Pandamonium. It currently has a number of programmes in production including The Real Old Bill (Nat Geo), 100 Greatest Stand Ups (Channel 4) and Building Britain's Ultimate Warship (Channel 4). Nat Geo recently broadcast Flying Squad: The Real Sweeney.

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