Ackley Bridge - Series 5 Preview and Q&A

Ackley Bridge is back for more high-jinx plans, scams, and mad-cap adventures in school and on the estates. We’ll pick up with our trio - Johnny, Kayla and Fizza - as they try to navigate the second half of the school year. A year already jam-packed with love triangles, catfishing, compulsive liars and one utterly joyous (albeit failed) Romany wedding. But it’s not over until the last school bell rings, and there’s still plenty of time for fervent new teacher Asma Farooqi to cause a stir with the students and teachers alike before the sun breaks on the summer holidays…

F1 On Screen

What is the relationship between Formula 1 and television? How is the "Drive to Survive" effect changing the audience for the sport? And how does commentary and production for F1 work?

Rosanna Tennant of F1 TV fame hosts a panel of TV and Formula 1 experts including Ted Kravitz from Sky Sports F1, Dean Locke, Director of Broadcast and Media for F1 and Alex Jacques, Channel 4's F1 commentator. 

Dolly Alderton talks female friendships, getting through your twenties and Everything I Know About Love

Credit: Alexandra Cameron

It’s during this year that the adaptation of Dolly Alderton’s memoir Everything I Know About Love takes place.

Tackling heartbreak, friendship, relationships and love, it focuses on four friends living in a Camden house share, trying to find their place in the world together. 

The drama explores the question: can platonic love survive romantic love as we grow up?

The series focuses on childhood best friends Maggie (Emma Appleton) and Birdy (Bel Powley), who are based on Alderton and her real-life best friend Farly. 

Channel 5's controller Ben Frow: An audience with the outsider

Jay Hunt and Ben Frow (credit: RTS/Paul Hampartsoumian)

Ben Frow is nothing if not candid. During a high-energy RTS two-way with Jay Hunt, the architect of Channel 5’s revival gave an insight into how he’s turned around a broadcaster that last year enjoyed its strongest performance since 2009.  

“Quite a few of you turned up thinking this would be the channel controllers’ version of Fight Club,” joked Hunt, one of British TV’s most successful content supremos, most notably at Channel 4 – she is now creative director, Europe, worldwide video at Apple. 

"It’s the closest I'll ever get to being on Big Brother”: Big Boys creator Jack Rooke on freshers, grief and growing up

Jack Rooke (centre) with Dylan Llewellyn as Jack and Camille Coduri (credit: Channel 4)

It’s 2013, and the characters in Jack Rooke’s new sitcom Big Boys are navigating the first night of freshers at a typically terrible student bar. Apologies to any millennials horrified to hear their recent university experience described as a period piece, but Rooke’s sharp observations of early 2010s British culture are viscerally transportive to those halcyon days of Tumblr, Cherry Sourz and Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’.

Getting Intimate: The Evolution of the Intimacy Coordinator

In the wake of reports of #MeToo and on-set sexual harassment and bullying, the role of the Intimacy Coordinator in the film and television industry has become an imperative part of productions creating a safe and comfortable set for actors who are taking part in intimate and sensitive scenes. With producers, broadcasters and streamers more commonly working with intimacy coordinators, the role has continued to evolve over the years.  

Summer Indie Networking Event with Liam Keelan

Liam Keelan will address the indies and discuss his ambitions for Disney and the opportunities for indies across all genres. The event will be an opportunity for indies to connect with one another and the we recommend attendees also buy a ticket for a future star within their organisation; this we believe will ensure the event will create greater opportunity for interaction and exchange of ideas. RTS NW Student Awards winners will also be invited to attend the event. Ticket price includes a drink and light supper. 

Kiell Smith-Bynoe on the acting grind, Ghosts series four and his new Comedy Blap Red Flag

It was the last day of Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he was performing in the improvised comedy show BattleActs! for the third year in a row, and he was trying to buy some drinks at the bar. But far from ruing the loss of the round, he was jubilant. “It’s the happiest card decline I’ve ever had,” he says, “because I remember just knowing […] that I was going to be in a show that I really loved.” You see, earlier that day, he was told he had been cast in Stath Lets Flats.

In conversation with Ben Frow

What does it take to turn a channel around? Jay Hunt, Creative Director, Europe, Worldwide Video – Apple, and former Chief Creative Officer at Channel 4 and Controller of BBC One, will explore that question with Ben Frow as Channel 5 marks its 25th year with a remarkable change in perception and a growth trajectory which out-performed all other UK PSBs in 2021.