For most of those who work in the TV industry, the old cliché is true: no two days are the same. But when you’re responsible for ITV’s lunchtime, evening, and 10:00pm news, there’s a structure that can’t bend, not even when the world enters lockdown and changes life as we know it. Welcome to the working world of Rachel Corp.
Thirty-five years since he last reported from Poland, the first domino to fall in the gradual collapse of the Soviet Union, Ewart has returned to find uncertainty and unrest in the air.
Poland’s ruling right-wing populist Law and Justice party is seen by many to be “too authoritative, too right-wing,” he explains.
“My job involves any graphics for online, [as well as] design, any development, [and] any apps we choose to try and do. Pretty much everything,” he says.
Like many people in television, what started out as a hobby turned into a full-time career. The good thing about interactive design, unlike print, is that you “can make as many mistakes as you want and it doesn’t cost you. It’s entirely trial and error.”
Speakers included:
Rupert Houseman, an editor on cutting-edge documentaries such as Life and Death Row with Yan Miles, a drama editor who has worked on shows such as Game of Thrones and Sherlock.
This is a three year project undertaken by Channel 4 and ITN Productions, which gives them unprecedented access into the Big Ben refurbishment. The world famous landmark will disappear from view behind scaffolding for the next three years, and will undergo an extensive £29 million refurbishment in its 157 year history.
It will be documented in 3x60 minute programmes, with the first in 2017 to introduce audiences to the current state of Big Ben, as well as the dedicated architects, engineers, clock makers, stonemasons and scaffolders who will repair it.
Tom is the CEO of Virgin Media and a member of the Executive Leadership Team of parent company Liberty Global, the world’s largest international TV and broadband company. Tom joined Liberty Global in June 2013 following the acquisition of Virgin Media. During the previous two decades he worked for News Corporation in a variety of senior roles across the world. He started his career as a newspaper journalist in his native New Zealand, then in Australia, before becoming an adviser and spokesperson for the Federal Treasurer, the Honourable Paul Keating.
The company no longer wishes to be seen solely as a news specialist, and has announced it will be producing more dramas based on real-life events.
“Our biggest challenge is getting people to understand ITN Productions," said managing director, Mark Browning. "The scale of the genre and programming we do is both a blessing and a curse.
"Our brand says that we do news, but actually our volume of output says that we are a big production company.”
The production company has announced record revenues of £120m in its sixth consecutive year of operating a profit growth.
Also historically known for its TV journalism, ITN has built upon its traditional territory in areas including advertising, sports journalism, current affairs and documentaries - including the RTS award-winning documentary for Channel 4, Dispatches: Escape from ISIS.
The company reported that operating profit on ordinary activities increased by 19% year-on-year to £6.9m (2014: £5.8m), a threefold increased from 2011.
Currently under the working title of Children on the Frontline: The Escape the film revisits a middle-class family from northern Syria whose lives have been destroyed by the ongoing civil war.
"The whole tragic story of the civil war from the initial uprising against the Syrian regime, the emergence of Islamic State and the ensuing refugee crisis is captured through the story of four young children and their parents," said Executive Producer Chris Shaw. "It's a deeply personal account of life turned upside down by the Syrian conflict"
