True North's Jess Fowle's TV Diary

True North's Jess Fowle's TV Diary

By Jess Fowle,
Friday, 10th February 2017
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Jess Fowle celebrates a historic week for True North, which seems to have grown too big for its pizzas

An auspicious start to the week. The news breaks that Sky has taken a majority stake in True North. Our baby, born 16 years ago, is all grown-up. What started with three people, one desk and one computer regularly employs more than 150 talented programme-makers across bases in Leeds and Manchester and has 11 series in production.

The deal with Sky has been a long time in the making and it’s both exciting and a relief to finally tell our team. We’re all fiercely proud of our independent Northern roots and massively invigorated by what the future holds.

 *

 I’m woken slightly befuddled after last night’s fizz. Our development WhatsApp group is going crazy. My co-creative director, Andrew Sheldon, is at Realscreen with executive producer Fiona O’Sullivan - creator of our toe-curlingly honest relationship show, The Lie Detective. Three US networks are fighting over the format.

Andrew and I have been partners in crime for 23 years and he had felt torn – having to be away from base for our Sky announcement. He seems to have cheered up now.

 *

Try to run off the hangover with a headtorch-lit riverside run at home in Hebden Bridge, before setting off on the four-hour train ride to pitch in London. There are times when I board the East Coast main line from Happy Valley to Medialand slightly resentfully.

But, today, I’m feeling philosophical. The post-Brexit world presents an enormous challenge to all of us media luvvies, and something tells me that those 200 miles that separate us from the metropolis are going to give us a creative edge in years to come.

Rather than seeing the M62 as a long, thin car park, we’re now ­reimagining it as a cultural fault line across modern Britain. And we’re perched right on top of it.

 *

One of our shows, Building the Dream, is exactly half way through a five-year, 100-part order. We want to make sure that we’re not missing any tricks. Thankfully, we have some dedicated viewers inside the company.

Today, we’re running a programme review. It’s like a book group but without the wine. The brilliant series producer is remarkably resilient as his colleagues analyse and question every part of the format.

We come away with lots of tweaks – all within budget – that will give the show even greater production values and creative edge.

 *

We’re developing a dramatic transformation show with a BBC commissioning editor and I’m taking heart from tales of Bake Off’s drawn-out gestation. In the meantime, we’re determined to prove the concept works.

 *

Our development exec is teaching herself piano and I am training for a particularly masochistic challenge called Up the Buttress (The Buttress being a ridiculously vertiginous, slimy, cobbled local “snicket”, to be conquered on a mountain bike).

The only way I can train is to do it secretly – at 6:00am – while no one is watching. Today I manage 25 metres before coming off. Tomorrow, I am determined it will be 30.

 *

The week that started so well has ended even better. True North is named as one of the best places to work in TV. A near crisis is averted after Dominos says our celebratory order is too big to deliver.

Our brilliant office manager heads into town to pick up the pizzas and we finally celebrate with a Skype hook-up between the teams in Leeds and Manchester.

 *

Various members of the True North cycling team nobble me – to ask if Sky will provide brand new Pinarellos for our little team or if Chris Froome can be our coach. I say I will investigate. Maybe some jerseys, perhaps?

Jess Fowle is creative director and co-founder of True North.