What does the job involve?

Making TV and film. We have a small team to originate and develop projects, then we build relationships and work with writers, talent, broadcasters and film financiers to get them made.

How many projects do you have on the go?

Around 30 or so at any one time, across comedy, drama and film. Development can be a thankless process, but if it’s an idea you believe in, sometimes you just keep going – The Phantom of the Open took 14 years to bring to the screen.

How do you come up with ideas?

When we started, we didn’t have a reputation or many contacts, so the ideas came from us. That could be true stories, like The Phantom of the Open [with writer Simon Farnaby], or from our own imaginations, like the Sky comedy-drama Code 404 and A Thousand Blows.

The latter idea came from a Water & Power researcher, Verity Simpson, who showed us a picture of the bare-knuckle boxer Hezekiah Moscow, and everything flowed from that. We’re currently developing a TV drama with Suranne Jones and Laurence Akers about witchcraft, which was originated by our development producer, Lauren Yeates.

Increasingly, as we build a reputation, we get sent books and scripts, though developing them can be expensive. We don’t have backers – we’re completely independent – so we have to bear development costs.

Is being independent a good thing?

Good … and bad: we have freedom and can follow our own passions. The negative is that we’re completely on our own financially.

Did you always want to work in TV?

I was a film and TV addict in my teens. After studying history at university, I took a film course at the New York Film Academy, then worked on the academy’s summer school in London. Then I got a job as a runner at the post-production house Editworks, but soon realised I didn’t want to be an editor.

What was your first proper job in the industry?

Editworks worked on Channel 4’s So Graham Norton, and I got work experience on that. I was taken on as a runner, moved up to researcher and then assistant producer. It was exciting but it wasn’t why I got into TV – I wanted to make scripted comedy and drama, so I had to move away from non-scripted into scripted TV.

You made your way in comedy…

I’d had a dream of working on a sketch show, a sitcom, a drama and a film, which I’ve managed to do. I produced an anarchic sketch show for CBBC called Sorry, I’ve Got No Head with Mel Giedroyc and Marcus Brigstocke,  which was a great way to learn about making scripted TV. There were so many costumes and sets, and budgets were tight. I then went on to produce Horrible Histories and the Channel 4 sitcoms Temp and Lee and Dean.

Did you always want to run your own indie?

It was the only way I was going to be able to make the TV drama and films I wanted. Three of us set up Water & Power a decade ago. We’re old friends: James Swarbrick is from a film finance background; I’m a traditional TV producer, used to working in a creative environment; and Sam Myer is somewhere in between – he came up with the ideas for Code 404 and is the creative lead on our new film, The Scurry.

Has it been worth it?

Absolutely. We’ve worked with brilliant people, in front of and behind the cameras, over the last few years: Disney+’s A Thousand Blows with Stephen Graham and Steven Knight; Code 404 with Stephen Graham, Danny Mays and Anna Maxwell Martin; Sky’s Mr Bigstuff with Ryan Sampson and Danny Dyer; and The Phantom of the Open with Mark Rylance and Craig Roberts.

What’s the biggest difference between TV and film?

With independent film, producers’ fees are not guaranteed and, whenever budgets are squeezed, it’s always the producers who are expected to defer their fees. It’s hard to earn a living out of film; they hardly ever go into profit. Making a film is a labour of love.

Producers’ fees are protected in TV.

What are the best and worst parts of the job?

The best is when something pays off – A Thousand Blows started in a small room with a picture of a boxer, and then I found myself standing on a huge set with 500 people at the old Budweiser brewery in Mortlake. That was mindblowing.

The worst is the risk you have to take on to get things made and the stress that comes with it.

What qualities do you need to run an indie?

You need to be positive and follow your gut feeling. You also have to be flexible and open to new ideas.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in TV now?

Be really clear about what you want to do, stay focused on it and follow it through.

What are your career highlights?

I’ve got three. The first time I got a joke in Graham Norton’s monologue at the start of his Channel 4 show: “The Queen attended the 50th anniversary of The Mousetrap last night and was presented with a model of a golden mousetrap – it’s a good job she didn’t go to The Vagina Monologues!” It got a laugh, believe it or not!

The second was going to the premiere of The Phantom of the Open at the London Film Festival. It was my first proper film and the most personal thing I’ve done. I responded to [wannabe golf pro] Maurice Flitcroft as a character because he reminded me of my grandad.

The third was walking on to the set of A Thousand Blows for the first time.

What show would you love to make?

I’ve always loved crime, so I’d like to come up with and make a brilliant new crime procedural. Shows like Cracker and Inspector Morse were fantastic and are why I’m doing what I am now. I also love an obscure book called Q, written by a group of Italian anarchist writers who took the name Luther Blissett after the football player – that would be my bucket list project.