THE PRODUCERS

Jayne Chard.

Jayne is an award-winning producer working in TV and film. She has produced TV for SKY Studios and the BBC. Currently producing SILENT WITNESS for BBC 1.

Feature film producing: TWO HEADS CREEK (2020) shot in Australia and the UK, directed by Jesse O’Brien; B&B (2017), starring Tom Bateman (“Murder On The Orient Express”), Sean Teale (“Gifted”) and Paul McGann, (Dr Who”), written and directed by Joe Ahearne. (“Trance”, “The Replacement”), won ten awards including Best LGBT Thriller at the London Independent Film Festival (2017); DARTMOOR KILLING (2015) which won Best Thriller at the 2016 National Film Awards and also Best Premier (Under 99 screens) at the 2016 Screen Awards. 

Before working in drama Jayne produced and directed documentaries for BBC, ITV and Channel Four.

As a director Jayne’s drama directing credits include HOLLYOAKS, GRANGE HILL, BROOKSIDE and single dramas THE BENCH and THE ANORAK. Jayne started her professional career as a theatre director and after winning the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Buzz Goodbody Award and went on to direct at the Royal Court, Soho Poly and Riverside Studios.

Jayne is represented by Georgina Carrigan at United Agents.

Kate Cook.

Kate has worked in production for the past 20-years, alongside an array of critically acclaimed Filmmakers. She has produced cutting edge stories from the multi-award winning BBC musical drama “Glasgow Girls” (Scottish BAFTA/RTS/Broadcast/CIVIS Media Prize) featuring Gary Lewis and an ensemble cast of young actors, to the political thriller “Julius Caesar” directed by Gregory Doran of the RSC. 

In 2014 she saw the theatrical release of her first feature “Leave to Remain” – a coming of age drama about the lives of teenagers seeking asylum in the UK, featuring Toby Jones and a soundtrack by the multi-award winning band Alt-J.

Her most recent work includes RTS West winning The Interrogation of Tony Martin, played by Steve Pemberton, Unspeakable– starring Indira Varma and Luke Treadaway, Broadcast nominated thriller The Watchman starring Stephen Graham and The Cure for Channel 4 – the inspirational true story of Julie Bailey, an mother who exposed one of the worst scandals in the history of the NHS.

She runs Bristol based Indefinite Films with Film maker Bruce Goodison and is an RTS West committee member.

Tom George.

Tom has 20 years’ in production, post and finance. Originally working for indie commercials and film companies, Tom founded Happy Hour Productions in 2003, to focus on commercials and film production. Happy Hours grew to be the leading commercials agency in the South West and ranked #2 of all creative agencies outside of London (Campaign magazine, 2019). In 2015, Tom co-founded Principal Film Finance, providing debt finance for film and TV projects.

Tom produces and co-produces commercial films, most recently WW2 action drama “ENEMY LINES” (Ed Westwick, John Hannah), spy thriller “LEGACY OF LIES” (Scott Adkins) and LA set comedy “MADNESS IN THE METHOD” (Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Stan Lee, Teri Hatcher, Vinnie Jones, Danny Trejo). 

Other titles include “ALLIES”, released by Entertainment One, “FEED THE DEVIL”, a Canadian 35mm coproduction, and supernatural thriller “THE HAUNTING OF ELLIE ROSE”.  

In 2015, Tom produced football comedy “KICKING OFF” (Warren Brown, Greg McHugh, Alastair Petrie), winning Best Film at Raindance International Film Festival, plus Best Production and Best UK Film at the Oxford International Film Festival, and made official selection at major festivals worldwide. Tom later co-produced the revenge thriller “TWO GRAVES” (Katie Jarvis, Cathy Tyson, David Hayman, Dave Johns), winning Best Film at the British Urban Film Festival and a BIFFA nomination.

Ben Greenacre.

Ben has been a Producer, Line Producer, Co-Producer and UPM on both films and TV Drama over the last 12 years and before then was working in the industry in various guises and departments.

Ben recently produced ‘Tom Jones’ for (PBS/ITV) in Belfast, and has line produced ‘The Outlaws’ and ‘Pale Horse’ (both BBC/Amazon) and ‘The Trial of Christine Keeler’ (BBC), all of which were shot in Bristol. Currently Ben is producing Season 2 of ‘The Lazarus Project’ (Sky Max).

Ben is a Bristolian who is enjoying being back home after 20 years in London and is a (sometimes over-) enthusiastic advocate of drama production here in Bristol and the South West. Ben is a member of both the ‘RTS West of England’ and the ‘Production Guid GB - Bristol & SW’ committees.

Mike Riley.

One of the UK's most prolific independent film producers, Michael Riley was born in Nottingham, England.

His award-winning work includes WW2 drama CHOSEN starring Harvey Keitel, critically acclaimed sailing biopic CROWHURST, controversial action/horror THE SEASONING HOUSE (Sean Pertwee); migrant thriller OUTLANDERS, cult favorite VAMPIRE DIARY and black comedy LAVA (Tom Bell). His urban drama SUGARHOUSE (Ashley Walters) and romcom LOOP (Susannah York) both starred Andy Serkis. Recent films include thriller THE BALLAD OF BILLY McCRAE (David Hayman); comedy/farce SIDESHOW (Tony Head and Les Dennis); gothic thriller FEAR THE INVISIBLE MAN and WW1 supernatural romance CAN YOU HEAR ME? (James Cosmo and John Standing). Upcoming projects include fantasy adventure comedy LAND OF LEGEND (Rupert Everett, Emilia Fox and Tamsin Greig) and cerebral thriller JAGGED HONEYCOMB - the last feature to shoot in Ukraine before the war.

He is one of the youngest ever producers of a major BBC drama serial, the family saga IN A LAND OF PLENTY, starring Helen McCrory, Shirley Henderson and Indira Varma.

His factual work includes Sundance competitor CHINA'S WILD WEST studying the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Turner Prize installation WAITING for British artist Zarina Bhimji shot in Kenya, and the Sky documentary TIBET REPORT about Tibetan refugees in Northern India where he interviewed the 14th Dalai Lama at his palace in Dharamshala.

His production company Sterling Pictures is a London and Bristol based feature film development and production outfit established in 1995. He is also a founding partner of UK based production services company BritFilm Services.

Michael has three children: Evelyn, Edward and Elliott and is a voting member of BAFTA and the European Film Academy.

Alison Sterling.

Alison is a producer with credits in both television and film.

Currently she is producing  Challenge, a dark and political police drama for Apple TV. Recent credits include: The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, the hit 4-part true crime series for ITV and All3;  Close To Me, a 6 part psychological thriller, for ViaPlay and Channel4; The Windermere Children (Wall to Wall for BBC2 and ZDF), BAFTA-nominated and winner of the Prix Europa for Single Drama; Is This Sexual Harassment? (BBC3); The Interrogation of Tony Martin (as LP) (Story Films for Channel 4); Eric Ernie and Me (Objective Fiction for BBC4), Unspeakable (as LP) (Story Films for Channel 4) and We Can Be Heroes (as LP) (feature film).

Through her own company Ignition Films, she produced Flying Blind, a feature film directed by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz, (made for BBC Films and released by Soda Pictures) and is currently developing a slate of projects with female talent, including Katarzyna Klimkiewicz and Annemarie Jacir.

She previously produced numerous short films funded by BBC, Film4, Creative England and BFI, including Turning (BAFTA nominated 2011) and Flytopia.

She is an ACE producer and sits on the Board of Encounters Short Film Festival, and the Bristol Palestine Film Festival. She is represented by Independent Talent. 

Jenny Van Der Lande.

Jenny lives in Bristol and is the Creative Director for London-based Bronte Film and TV and Snowed-In Productions. She established the development slate and is responsible for identifying and developing new projects. She sourced, developed and Executive Produced Joan (ITV), Too Close (ITV, BAFTA nominated) and You Don’t Know Me (BBC/Netflix, BAFTA nominated); developed and Story Produced the Cormoran Strike novels (The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil, Lethal White, Troubled Blood, The Ink Black Heart) and Mrs Wilson (BAFTA nominated); and Co-Executive Produced The Midwich Cuckoos (Sky).    

Before that, she spent three years as a Development Executive at Working Title TV where she developed London Spy (BAFTA nominated) and You, Me and the Apocalypse.  

Between 2000 and 2011, Jenny worked at the BBC. She started in Development in BBC Drama Series and BBC Wales and then moved on to Casualty where she worked on hundreds of hours of TV and was Series Editor on a BAFTA winning run. 

She has also worked as a freelance script consultant/script doctor. 

Born, bred and educated locally (Cotham Gardens/Cotham/Chew Valley), she’s passionate about telling propulsive, entertaining, quality stories which audiences will love.

Kate Byers & Linn Waite.

Kate and Linn have been producing independent cinema for over a decade FORMING Early Day Films to tell compelling original stories with social, cultural and dramatic significance and a vision of championing regional voices.

Beginning in Bristol’s vibrant short film scene, their early short September (dir. Esther May Campbell) received a BAFTA for Best Short Film.

Their awards success continued with their debut feature, BAIT (dir. Mark Jenkin), earning them an Outstanding Debut BAFTA and a nomination for BAFTA Outstanding British Feature and a BIFA for Kate and Linn with breakthrough producer 2019. 

Early Day Films was awarded a 2020/22 Vision Award, ushering in a diversification of their slate and the establishment of Horror West, a co-production with Grasp The Nettle to develop horror with regional teams. Kate and Linn were also selected for the 2020/22 BAFTA Breakthrough cohort, and Early Day selected as a Creative England CE50 Company.

UPCOMING, , Mooring, directed by  JODHI MAY. will star Niamh Algar (Raised by Wolves, Deceit), and Charlotte Rampling (Dune, Benedetta), AND MISSION PAUL WRIGHT.

Miles Bullough.

Miles set up Wildseed Studios in 2013 with business partner and creative director Jesse Cleverly with the mission to find, mentor and invest in new talent and develop projects with them that could be pitched to prime time and the outcome has been projects with new talent for Disney, Sky, Fullscreen BBC3 and most recently for Netflix in the form of a drama series for Netflix Kids and family entitled The Last Bus.

The launch of Wildseed Studios came after Miles left Aardman Animations where he was Head of Broadcast. He was responsible for setting up many shows there, including the hit series Shaun The Sheep, Creature Comforts in the UK and US as well as establishing Aardman’s Interactive and Rights divisions.

Before Aardman Miles was MD of talent-led, comedy production company ‘Absolutely’ whose stand-out shows included the sketch series ‘Absolutely’,  'Trigger Happy TV', C4's 'Armstrong & Miller' and 'Stressed Eric' for BBC2  (the UK’s first animated sitcom which Miles also sold to US Network NBC). Miles set up and exec-produced ‘The Jack Docherty Show’ for Channel 5, a 350 episode nightly chat show that ran from Channel 5’s opening night for 2 years.

Miles met the Absolutely team while working for IPH Westhall, a management company for producers looking to set up as indies and which took care of finance, production management and legal services for independent Producers. Notable clients included Charlie Parsons’ Planet 24 (Miles was line producer of series 1 of ‘The Word’) and The Walt Disney Company (Miles was a production accountant for the televised opening of Euro-Disney and helped Disney set up their Saturday morning programming for GMTV as Line Producer).

Before IPH Miles worked at After Image in Brixton, an arts programme producer, where he started as a runner and became production manager but along the way did camera, sound, post production, set building, catering, accounting, legal, make-up ...  etc. This was Miles’ first job in TV. He was terrible at make-up.