Kate Harwood is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television producer. She is currently the Head of Series and Serials at the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Early life
Kate graduated from the
University of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
with a degree in
DramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
before becoming an Arts Council Trainee director with Century Theatre and then Literary Manager of the
Royal Court TheatreThe Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
.
Television career
She has spent over 15 years with a career at the BBC, and became an executive producer in the BBC Drama Serials department. As a Producer Kate has worked on dramas including
The Beggar BrideThe Beggar Bride was a British two-part television programme adapted from the Gillian White novel of the same name.-Cast:*Keeley Hawes as Angela Harper*Nicholas Jones as Sir Fabian Ormerod*Joe Duttine as Billy Harper*Kacey Ainsworth as Tina...
,
Close Relations,
The Echo,
David CopperfieldDavid Copperfield is a two part BBC television drama adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel David Copperfield, adapted by Adrian Hodges. The first part was shown on Christmas Day and the second on Boxing Day in 1999...
,
Man and Boy and BAFTA winner
Charles II: The Power and The PassionCharles II: The Power and the Passion is an award-winning British television mini-series, broadcast on BBC One in 2003, and produced by the BBC in association with the A&E Network in the United States...
(released in the US, under the title
The Last King: the Power and the Passion of Charles II, in a heavily edited version on the
A&EThe A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
cable network).
In her role as Executive Producer in BBC Drama Serials, she has been responsible for programmes including
Crime And Punishment, Daniel Deronda,
The Lost World, and
Final Demand.
EastEnders
Harwood was appointed the executive producer of
EastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
in February 2005, a position she retained until October 2006 when she was succeeded by
Diederick SanterDiederick Santer is a British television producer and is best known for his work on the popular BBC television soap opera EastEnders, a post which he assumed on 23 October 2006 and left on 1 March 2010...
. During her time, EastEnders started facing more media criticsm and ratings fell to 3.9 million - EastEnders' lowest ever ratings.
Family
Her grandfather, Commodore
Henry HarwoodAdmiral Sir Henry Harwood Harwood, KCB, OBE , was a British naval officer who won fame in the Battle of the River Plate.-Early life:...
, was commander of Force G during the pursuit which resulted in the scuttling of the German battleship
Admiral Graf Spee after the
Battle of the River PlateThe Battle of the River Plate was the first naval battle in the Second World War. The German pocket battleship had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September 1939...
, off Uruguay, in World War II (these events were later the basis of the 1956 film
The Battle of the River PlateThe Battle of the River Plate is a 1956 British war film by director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, starring John Gregson, Anthony Quayle and Peter Finch...
). Her brother, Anthony Harwood, is Head of News at the British newspaper
The Daily MirrorThe Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...
.
External links