Television Magazine

Pam Downe designed the fabulous 1960s outfits for BBC One drama The Trial of Christine Keeler, a new take on the Profumo affair, the sex scandal that rocked a British government and was a defining moment in that influential decade.

She began her career as assistant to Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell on Derek Jarman’s The Last of England.

What does the job involve?

Preparation time is anything from six weeks for contemporary drama to 12 weeks for period pieces. Scripts, though, are often written to the wire.

Fings ain’t wot they used to be for the traditional television industry. Netflix and Amazon are already affecting viewing levels, with Apple and Google set to join Facebook at the feast. Will it be fangs for the memory for telly?

Faangs, an acronym for the US tech and media giants Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, offer TV the modern way – streamed over the internet and watched when and where the viewer wants. Television, meanwhile, is lumbered with old-fashioned schedules.

Daniel Battsek landed the Film4 top job in July 2016. His friend David Abraham, then Chief Executive of Channel 4, had brought him in to spearhead the broadcaster’s feature-film strategy.

But less than a year after Battsek arrived, Abraham announced that he was leaving. In the ensuing management changes, former Shine Group CEO Alex Mahon was hired to replace Abraham. Battsek, flush with the success of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is unfazed by the shake-up.