RTS Futures

Edi Smockum was offering advice on how to break into the television industry at an RTS Futures webinar in mid-May, held during the coronavirus lockdown.

The Managing Director of ThinkBigger!, which runs new entrant schemes for the independent producers’ association Pact and Channel 4, admitted that entry schemes are highly competitive. But she urged people to apply, arguing that the process of applying will help “you understand what television’s looking for”.

Smockum reckoned that, with her colleague Sam Tatlow, she reads up to 1,000 applications a year for entry schemes.

“I’ve seen a tonne of people in these last few weeks reinvent themselves and how they’re doing things … At Nutopia, we’ve been working on amazing remote filming kits.

“Creative people are the most adaptable, so I’m very optimistic.”

The head of talent at factual producer Nutopia​ was part of a panel of talent executives talking at RTS Futures’ inaugural Zoom event – “Ask me anything” – in early May.

Futures members had emailed questions to the panel, including how to stand out at an interview with a production company for a TV-entry job.

“Drag queens and TV are like peanut butter and jelly – the perfect combination,” added the show’s creator Fenton Bailey.

McCoy and Bailey – executive producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race, both here and in the US – were talking at a lively RTS Futures event in November that looked at how the show was brought to the UK.

“We need more voices on telly – there’s not enough working-class people in telly and not enough diversity,” said UKTV head of comedy entertainment Iain Coyle.

“All the different voices that make up this country need to be working in television – not just the poshos who’ve been to Cambridge and Oxford,” said Sohail Shah, the MD of new indie King of Sunshine Productions.

He added: “Without new talent you don’t get any kind of progression in TV.”

Arguably, the world has rarely been more in need of investigative journalism. Corrupt politicians; election meddling, state repression, business shenanigans, cheating in sport.… the list is endless. An RTS Futures event in May was therefore timely, with leading journalists discussing how they seek to right wrongs and bring the powerful to justice. 

Truth seeking is not for the faint-hearted: it requires exhaustive research and dogged patience – and, for those journalists investigating the world’s most oppressive regimes, bravery. In truth, it’s probably a young person’s game. 

Over the past few years, UKTV channel Dave has notched up an impressive series of hits with home-grown comedies such as Taskmaster and Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish.

Now it has high hopes for Sliced, a sitcom based on Samson Kayo’s crazy experiences as a South London pizza delivery driver, launched this month.

“When you’re young, you’re going to do your best work – you’re fearless and you take risks that you wouldn’t take when you’re older,” said David Henshaw, a former BBC reporter and producer who has run his own indie, Hardcash Productions, for almost three decades.

"It’s always going to be risky and you only get the really good stuff by taking risks"

Henshaw was speaking at an RTS Futures event on investigative journalism in London. The multi-award-wining film-maker received an RTS Fellowship in 2009.