Drag racing, aerobatics, rally driving and land speed record attempts might seem like the perfect training ground for a would-be James Bond, but Luther star Idris Elba has denied that he will be taking that baton from Daniel Craig.
Researchers help form the backbone of any production. Along with producers, they are the ones finding case studies, booking contributors, scouting locations and most importantly, researching facts.
Ayo has been a BBC researcher for two years. Before his current role as shooting researcher on Building Cars Live for BBC Two, Ayo worked as a researcher for Red Bee Media and as a runner on The One Show. In this video he talks about the skills needed to be a good researcher and how to progress to the role from being a runner.
Writers of contemporary media history need to be brave. They also, of course, want to be read. Professor Jean Seaton, the official BBC historian, has a crisp style, a fine grasp of the period 1974-87 and has authored an absorbing book, with the power to annoy and stimulate debate.
As the title, Pinkoes and Traitors (taken from the Dear Bill letters of Private Eye), announces, the prose is leavened by light touches.
For an insight into the day job of the BBC Director-General two years into his role, I pop into Tony Hall's plate-glass eyrie at New Broadcasting House. I arrive in the aftermath of one of the regular encyclicals that DGs dispense.
He's sung the praises of the BBC's place in a "thriving, free and competitive market", an alternative to what a colleague terms the "Joni Mitchell" school of heartstring-tugging about the Beeb's innate brilliance.
Michael Jackson's stellar career encapsulates much of the creative history of TV during the past 30 years. He was an innovative independent producer back in the 1980s, reinvented BBC Two in the 1990s, and went on to run Channel 4. There, he launched Queer as Folk, Ali G and Big Brother, before crossing the Atlantic to work for the legendary mogul Barry Diller.
Today, still based in New York, his career has swung full circle. Jackson is once again working as a producer.
When Tony Hall needed someone to investigate Jeremy Clarkson's attack on his producer, he looked north and summoned Ken MacQuarrie, the calm and reserved Director of BBC Scotland.
As an experienced member of the Editorial Standards Committee, MacQuarrie was an obvious choice. His terse report sealed Clarkson's exit. What the Top Gear presenter made of the enigmatic Scot, his polar opposite, remains the stuff of speculation.
With Team 56 – as SNP MPs call themselves – forming the third-largest party in Parliament, the impact on broadcasting in the UK is likely to be profound. And the effects are certain to spread beyond the BBC Charter debate.
The economist Jeremy Peat, a former BBC Scotland Governor and Trustee, observes that the general election outcome "represents a massive vote for change," requiring "not sticking plaster, but fundamental change." He adds: "We are miles away from a stable equilibrium."
"I’d rather have internet than running water," declares Dan Snow, broadcaster, historian and self-confessed digital obsessive. Not content with making history programmes for broadcasters on subjects as diverse as China’s Terracotta Army and the D-Day landings, Snow is now building an online empire. His new tools are apps, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter (where he has a whopping 100,000 followers) and, most recently, Periscope, the Twitter-owned live video app.
A survey by diversity campaign group The TV Collective has found that 83% of people believe recent diversity initiatives will not make a difference to the industry.
Last year, TV and film in the UK introduced a range of initiatives to improve diversity both on and off screen with broadcasters such as BBC, Sky and ITV implementing new measures.
The purpose of the poll, taken by 170 people, was to investigate the impact the diversity drive had on those from varied backgrounds and highlight problems that may still occur.
The awards were hosted by comedian Josh Widdicombe at The Brewery in East London.
E4, which plays hosts to TV favourites Big Bang Theory and Made in Chelsea, beat off competition from CBBC, BBC and Sky Atlantic to win Best Entertainment Channel.
Soap Hollyoaks secured the Best Social Media and Digital Marketing campaign for its use of Snapchat in the ‘Who Killed Fraser?’ storyline.
Vice News gained the accolade for Best Original Channel while BBC Three drama Murdered By My Boyfriend won Best Scripted Programme.
