Meet the BBC commissioners

TIME & LOCATION

Thursday 14 November, 11:45 am

End Time: 12:45 pm

Downstairs Theatre

About

Find out what BBC Unscripted commissioners are looking for now, with insider tips to help steer upcoming pitches as well as insights into the successful hothouse co-commissioning scheme between BBC NI and BBC Network.

 

 

Chair

Eddie Doyle

SPONSOR

Panel

Eddie Doyle (Chair)

Head of Content Commissioning, BBC Northern Ireland.
Eddie Doyle is BBC Northern Ireland’s Head of Content Commissioning. Reporting to the Director BBC NI, Peter Johnston, Eddie leads BBC NI Commissioning in providing audiences with television and digital content that reflects all aspects of life in Northern Ireland. The role sees Eddie commission content across a range of genres outside of news and current affairs, including factual, entertainment, comedy, music and events. He provides strategic and editorial leadership to the BBC NI commissioning team and works closely with external partners, BBC network commissioning, independent production companies and the wider Northern Ireland creative sector. Eddie Doyle joined BBC Northern Ireland as Head of Content Production in February 2018. In this role, Eddie has worked with BBC Three and Northern Ireland Screen to develop a new strategy for the Northern Irish sector, in the production of digital content for younger audiences. He has also restructured in-house production teams, launched new programming in the sport, documentary, arts and comedy areas and has worked to deliver change to the BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle schedules. Prior to joining the BBC, Eddie was Head of Factual, Comedy, Talent Development and Music at RTÉ where he commissioned Comedy, Drama and Entertainment programmes such as Mrs Brown's Boys, The Young Offenders, and The Tommy Tiernan Show. His documentary commissions, include Whistleblower: The Maurice McCabe Story, The Man Who Wanted to Fly, and The Notorious Conor McGregor. He launched the 'Prime Time Investigates' series, the ‘Format Farm’ commissioning scheme and the Reality Bites youth documentary series. He devised and delivered the RTÉ Cross Platform Strategy on Comedy in 2014 and RTÉ2 Channel Strategy in 2012 and the RTÉ/Irish Film Board Export Initiative in 2017.

Clare Sillery

Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, BBC
Clare Sillery is the Head of Documentary Commissioning output for BBC One, Two, Three and iPlayer. Recent series include Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, Parole, The Detectives and Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams. Single films include Our Falklands War and The Real Mo Farah

Rob Unsworth

Head of Daytime and Early Peak Commissioning, BBC
Rob Unsworth is the BBC’s Head of Daytime and Early Peak, heading up the team commissioning everything from long-runners such as Escape to the Country and Homes Under the Hammer to newer shows like BAFTA-winning Scam Interceptors. Before taking up his current role in 2022, he ran The One Show for several years, during which time he launched Morning Live. Prior to that he was Head of Factual Salford for BBC Studios, and at other points in his career has had stints as Editor of Watchdog, as a Senior Adviser in Editorial Policy, and as an Executive Producer on a wide-ranging mix of series and docs.

Patrick McMahon

Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment
Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment