Lorraine Heggessey
Encyclopedia
Lorraine Heggessey is a British
television producer
and former Chief Executive of the production company Talkback Thames. Prior to that, she was the first ever woman to be Controller of BBC One
, the primary television channel
of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Honours degree in English Language & Literature from Durham University
(Collingwood College
), before beginning her career in local newspaper journalism. She worked initially for the Westminster Press Group, where her first job was as a trainee reporter on the Acton Gazette local newspaper.
In 1978 she applied for a BBC News
traineeship, but was rejected without an interview. She then worked voluntarily in hospital radio
and gained a paid job on a local newspaper, before re-applying for the BBC traineeship the following year, this time successfully. She spent the next fifteen years working in current affairs
programming in television.
, before she left the staff of the BBC to join Thames Television
's This Week
, broadcast on the rival ITV
network. She then moved on again, this time to the small independent production company Clark Productions, for whom she worked on Channel 4
's current affairs programme Hard News. In the early 1990s, she and the film director
Ken Loach
collaborated on an edition of Hard News which investigated the treatment of trade union
ist leader Arthur Scargill
by The Daily Mirror
newspaper and investigative journalist
Roger Cook
. When Cook declined to be interviewed for the programme, Heggessey employed one of his own tactics from his television series The Cook Report
, "doorstepping" him outside of the Birmingham
hotel in which he was staying and pursuing him, with a camera crew and asking questions, down the street as he walked away.
She also worked on another Channel 4 documentary series, Dispatches
, before returning to the BBC, where she founded the viewer feedback series Biteback. She also secured another notable television moment when she obtained the first interview with the notorious criminal "Mad" Frankie Fraser
, for The Underworld documentary series. Working in the science department, she became Editor
of the BBC One series QED
, and then executive producer
of the documentary series Animal Hospital
and The Human Body
.
, this was the next best job for them." She took up this post in 1997.
It was as Head of Children's BBC that she became involved in the dismissal of Blue Peter
presenter Richard Bacon
. In October 1998, the News of the World
newspaper revealed that Bacon had taken cocaine
, and he was subsequently sacked from his job as a presenter on the high-profile children's programme. Heggessey appeared on-screen in a specially-recorded one-minute address to viewers shown directly before the first episode of Blue Peter to be screened following Bacon's sacking, on 19 October 1998, to explain to young viewers why Bacon had been dismissed, claiming that he had "not only let himself and the team on Blue Peter down, but he has also let all of you down badly."
's departure, but had turned down the opportunity as she felt she was then not yet experienced enough.
During Heggessey's five years in charge, BBC One's audience share fell by 19.9%, to 23%, although this was in the context of declining audience figures across all British television channels due to increased competition from multichannel digital television
. However, in 2001 BBC One overtook its main rival ITV1
in terms of annual audience share for the first time since the rival channel had launched in 1955, although much of this was down to the success of the channel's daytime television
line-up, which had its own Controller in Jane Lush
.
When Heggessey arrived at the channel in November 2000, she inherited two controversial schedule changes which had been implemented the previous month, at the behest of Director-General of the BBC
Greg Dyke
; the main evening BBC News
bulletin had been moved from 9pm to 10pm, and Panorama moved from a Monday night prime time slot to a later slot on Sunday nights. The moving of Panorama attracted criticism that BBC One was sidelining serious programming in favour of more populist output. Heggessey publicly defended the decision despite it not being hers, claiming that Panoramas ratings would have "dwindled" in its previous slot.
Heggessey and the BBC's Controller of Drama Commissioning, Jane Tranter
, took advantage of the weekday 9pm slot opened up by the moving of the news to commission new popular drama output, such as the successful Waking the Dead
(2000–present) and Spooks
(2002–present). Celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing
(2004–present) was also a popular success on Saturday nights, although another Saturday night entertainment series, Fame Academy
, faced accusations of being too derivative of the output of commercial rivals, and during Heggessey's era the channel frequently came under attack for being too populist and not providing enough serious programming.
Heggessey did later concede in a 2005 interview with The Independent
newspaper that arts
programming had suffered a cutback under her control of BBC One. However, she did respond to this omission following criticism from the Board of Governors of the BBC
by commissioning programmes such as the arts documentary series Imagine...
(2003–present) and A Picture of Britain
(2005).
In 2002, Heggessey took the decision to abandon the traditional "Globe" idents the channel had used in a variety of forms for its between-programme idents since 1963. They were replaced by a new style of on-air identity for the channel, the "Rhythm & Movement" idents. The new idents attracted some criticism for going against the traditions of the channel and pandering to political correctness
, as they featured activities performed by people of various ethnicities.
One of Heggessey's most notable decisions and last major success at the channel was the re-commissioning of the science-fiction drama series Doctor Who
, which had been a popular hit in previous decades but ceased production in 1989. Heggessey and Jane Tranter commissioned a new version of the series in September 2003, after Heggessey had spent two years persuading the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide
, to abandon their attempts to make a feature film
version of the programme and allow it instead to return to BBC One. The new version of Doctor Who (2005–present) debuted on 26 March 2005 and became a critical and popular hit, with Paul Hoggart
of The Times
newspaper describing the series as "a joyful, exuberant reinvention and a fine legacy from Ms Heggessey."
On 14 February 2005 it was announced that Lorraine Heggessey was to leave the BBC to take up the post of Chief Executive at production company Talkback Thames. She left on 15 April. Five months after her departure, BBC One was named "Channel of the Year" at the Edinburgh Television Festival
, primarily on the strength of Heggessey commissions such as Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who.
and The X Factor
, BBC One
's QI
and Channel 4's Green Wing
. She was also responsible for delivering to BBC One in early 2006 two Stephen Poliakoff
dramas that she herself had commissioned before she left the channel, Friends and Crocodiles
and Gideon's Daughter
, the latter of which went on to win two Golden Globe Awards (Mini-series, Best Actor for Bill Nighy
and Mini-series, Best Supporting Actress for Emily Blunt
) in 2007.
In June 2010 it was announced that she was leaving her post of Chief Executive with Talkback Thames.
United Kingdom
The 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
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and former Chief Executive of the production company Talkback Thames. Prior to that, she was the first ever woman to be Controller of BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, the primary television channel
Television channel
A television channel is a physical or virtual channel over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the broadcast or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with carrier frequencies of 55.25 MHz for NTSC analog video and...
of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Education & early career
Heggessey was educated at a state grammar school in Middlesex and later earned an Upper Second Class BABachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
Honours degree in English Language & Literature from Durham University
Durham University
The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...
(Collingwood College
Collingwood College, Durham
Collingwood College is a college of Durham University in England. It is the second largest of Durham's undergraduate colleges. Founded in 1972 as the first purpose-built, mixed-sex college in Durham, it is named after the mathematician Sir Edward Collingwood , who was also for a time Chair of the...
), before beginning her career in local newspaper journalism. She worked initially for the Westminster Press Group, where her first job was as a trainee reporter on the Acton Gazette local newspaper.
In 1978 she applied for a BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
traineeship, but was rejected without an interview. She then worked voluntarily in hospital radio
Hospital radio
Hospital radio is a form of audio broadcasting produced specifically for the in-patients of hospitals. It is primarily found in the United Kingdom.-History:...
and gained a paid job on a local newspaper, before re-applying for the BBC traineeship the following year, this time successfully. She spent the next fifteen years working in current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
programming in television.
Current affairs career
By the early 1980s she had become a producer on the BBC's flagship current affairs series PanoramaPanorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
, before she left the staff of the BBC to join Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
's This Week
This Week (ITV TV series)
This Week was a weekly current affairs series first produced for ITV in January 1956 by Associated-Rediffusion , running until 1978, when it was replaced by TV Eye...
, broadcast on the rival ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network. She then moved on again, this time to the small independent production company Clark Productions, for whom she worked on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's current affairs programme Hard News. In the early 1990s, she and the film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
collaborated on an edition of Hard News which investigated the treatment of trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
ist leader Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill is a British politician who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1982 to 2002, leading the union through the 1984–85 miners' strike, a key event in British labour and political history...
by The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror
The 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...
newspaper and investigative journalist
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
Roger Cook
Roger Cook (journalist)
Roger Cook is an investigative presenter, reporter and broadcaster.- Early life :His parents were New Zealanders, but he was was brought up in Australia, and began his career with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a reporter and newsreader on both radio and television.In 1968, he moved to...
. When Cook declined to be interviewed for the programme, Heggessey employed one of his own tactics from his television series The Cook Report
The Cook Report
The Cook Report was a British current affairs television programme shown on ITV, produced for the network by Central Television from 1987 to 1998.-History:...
, "doorstepping" him outside of the Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
hotel in which he was staying and pursuing him, with a camera crew and asking questions, down the street as he walked away.
She also worked on another Channel 4 documentary series, Dispatches
Dispatches (TV series)
Dispatches is the British television current affairs documentary series on Channel 4, first transmitted in 1987. The programme covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, usually featuring a mole in an organisation.-Awards:*...
, before returning to the BBC, where she founded the viewer feedback series Biteback. She also secured another notable television moment when she obtained the first interview with the notorious criminal "Mad" Frankie Fraser
Frankie Fraser
Francis Davidson Fraser is a former British criminal and gang member who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences.-Early life:...
, for The Underworld documentary series. Working in the science department, she became Editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of the BBC One series QED
Q.E.D. (BBC TV series)
Q.E.D. was the name of a strand of BBC popular science documentary films which aired in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1999.-Format:...
, and then executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of the documentary series Animal Hospital
Animal Hospital
Animal Hospital was a television show starring Rolf Harris that ran on the BBC from 1994 until 2004. The story showed animal welfare stories from RSPCA hospitals.-Location:...
and The Human Body
The Human Body (TV series)
The Human Body is a seven part documentary series, first shown on 20 May 1998 on BBC One and presented by medical scientist Robert Winston. A co-production between the BBC and The Learning Channel, the series looks at the mechanics and emotions of the human body from birth to death.The series was...
.
Children's BBC
Heggessey was considering leaving the BBC again and returning to working in the independent sector, when she was offered the position of Head of Children's BBC. As her daughters were at the time aged four and eight, she decided to accept the role, later explaining that "Short of taking over HamleysHamleys
Hamleys is one of the world's largest toy shops. Its flagship store is in Regent Street, London. Major stores worldwide are in Dublin, Dubai, Amman, Glasgow, Mumbai and Chennai....
, this was the next best job for them." She took up this post in 1997.
It was as Head of Children's BBC that she became involved in the dismissal of Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
presenter Richard Bacon
Richard Bacon (television presenter)
Richard Paul Bacon is an English television and radio presenter.Bacon's first high-profile media role was as a presenter of Blue Peter, from which he was sacked in 1998 following newspaper reports of him taking cocaine...
. In October 1998, the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
newspaper revealed that Bacon had taken cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, and he was subsequently sacked from his job as a presenter on the high-profile children's programme. Heggessey appeared on-screen in a specially-recorded one-minute address to viewers shown directly before the first episode of Blue Peter to be screened following Bacon's sacking, on 19 October 1998, to explain to young viewers why Bacon had been dismissed, claiming that he had "not only let himself and the team on Blue Peter down, but he has also let all of you down badly."
BBC One
In 1999 she was promoted to Director of Programmes and Deputy Chief Executive of the BBC's in-house production arm, BBC Production, responsible for supervising in-house output across all the various genres. She was in this role for little over a year however before she was promoted to Controller of BBC One, a post she took up on 1 November 2000. In this position she was responsible for co-commissioning the channel's output with the various heads of department — drama, news, etc. — and deciding the channel's overall strategy and schedule. She had previously been sounded out about the job in 1997, after Michael JacksonMichael Jackson (TV)
Michael Richard Jackson is a British television producer and executive. He is notable for being one of only three people to have been Controller of both BBC One and BBC Two, the main television channels of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and for being the first media studies graduate to...
's departure, but had turned down the opportunity as she felt she was then not yet experienced enough.
During Heggessey's five years in charge, BBC One's audience share fell by 19.9%, to 23%, although this was in the context of declining audience figures across all British television channels due to increased competition from multichannel digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
. However, in 2001 BBC One overtook its main rival ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
in terms of annual audience share for the first time since the rival channel had launched in 1955, although much of this was down to the success of the channel's daytime television
Daytime television
Daytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours on weekdays. This article is about American daytime television, for information about international daytime television see Daytime television....
line-up, which had its own Controller in Jane Lush
Jane Lush
Jane Lush left the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2006, after a career spanning over 35 years. Having started at the age of 18 as a trainee secretary, she worked her way up the company, with jobs including heading the BBC's daytime department and later becoming the Entertainment commissioner...
.
When Heggessey arrived at the channel in November 2000, she inherited two controversial schedule changes which had been implemented the previous month, at the behest of Director-General of the BBC
Director-General of the BBC
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and is now appointed by the BBC Trust....
Greg Dyke
Greg Dyke
Gregory "Greg" Dyke is a British media executive, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing 'tabloid' television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am...
; the main evening BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
bulletin had been moved from 9pm to 10pm, and Panorama moved from a Monday night prime time slot to a later slot on Sunday nights. The moving of Panorama attracted criticism that BBC One was sidelining serious programming in favour of more populist output. Heggessey publicly defended the decision despite it not being hers, claiming that Panoramas ratings would have "dwindled" in its previous slot.
Heggessey and the BBC's Controller of Drama Commissioning, Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter is an English television executive who has been the executive vice-president of programming and production at BBC Worldwide's Los Angeles base since January 2009...
, took advantage of the weekday 9pm slot opened up by the moving of the news to commission new popular drama output, such as the successful Waking the Dead
Waking the Dead (TV series)
Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case Unit comprising CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000 and there have been a total of nine series...
(2000–present) and Spooks
Spooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...
(2002–present). Celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing is a British television show, featuring celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with an allusion to the film Strictly Ballroom...
(2004–present) was also a popular success on Saturday nights, although another Saturday night entertainment series, Fame Academy
Fame Academy
Fame Academy is a televised competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner received a chance to become a successful music artist. The prize consisted of a £1m recording contract with a major record company, plus the use of a luxury apartment in London and a sports car for one...
, faced accusations of being too derivative of the output of commercial rivals, and during Heggessey's era the channel frequently came under attack for being too populist and not providing enough serious programming.
Heggessey did later concede in a 2005 interview with The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper that arts
The arts
The arts are a vast subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "art", which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. The arts encompass visual arts, literary arts and the performing arts – music, theatre, dance and...
programming had suffered a cutback under her control of BBC One. However, she did respond to this omission following criticism from the Board of Governors of the BBC
Board of Governors of the BBC
The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...
by commissioning programmes such as the arts documentary series Imagine...
Imagine (TV series)
Imagine is a wide ranging arts series first broadcast on BBC One in 2003, hosted and executive produced by Alan Yentob. Each series usually consists of 4 to 7 episodes, each on a different topic...
(2003–present) and A Picture of Britain
A Picture of Britain
A Picture of Britain is a 2005 BBC television documentary series presented by David Dimbleby, which describes the British landscape and the art which it has inspired...
(2005).
In 2002, Heggessey took the decision to abandon the traditional "Globe" idents the channel had used in a variety of forms for its between-programme idents since 1963. They were replaced by a new style of on-air identity for the channel, the "Rhythm & Movement" idents. The new idents attracted some criticism for going against the traditions of the channel and pandering to political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
, as they featured activities performed by people of various ethnicities.
One of Heggessey's most notable decisions and last major success at the channel was the re-commissioning of the science-fiction drama series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which had been a popular hit in previous decades but ceased production in 1989. Heggessey and Jane Tranter commissioned a new version of the series in September 2003, after Heggessey had spent two years persuading the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
, to abandon their attempts to make a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
version of the programme and allow it instead to return to BBC One. The new version of Doctor Who (2005–present) debuted on 26 March 2005 and became a critical and popular hit, with Paul Hoggart
Paul Hoggart
Paul Hoggart is an English television critic and columnist. He is the youngest son of Richard Hoggart and brother of political journalist Simon Hoggart. His sister, Nicola, is a teacher.-Early life and Career:...
of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper describing the series as "a joyful, exuberant reinvention and a fine legacy from Ms Heggessey."
On 14 February 2005 it was announced that Lorraine Heggessey was to leave the BBC to take up the post of Chief Executive at production company Talkback Thames. She left on 15 April. Five months after her departure, BBC One was named "Channel of the Year" at the Edinburgh Television Festival
Edinburgh International Television Festival
The Edinburgh International Television Festival, founded in 1976, is held annually over the British August bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre....
, primarily on the strength of Heggessey commissions such as Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who.
Talkback Thames
At Talkback Thames, Heggessey has been responsible for overseeing the production of high-profile programmes such as ITV1's The BillThe Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
and The X Factor
The X Factor (UK)
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international X Factor franchise. The seven series of the show to date...
, BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
's QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
and Channel 4's Green Wing
Green Wing
Green Wing is a British sitcom set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital. It was created by the same team behind the sketch show Smack the Pony, led by Victoria Pile, and stars Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Julian Rhind-Tutt....
. She was also responsible for delivering to BBC One in early 2006 two Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff, CBE, FRSL is an acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists.-Early life and career:...
dramas that she herself had commissioned before she left the channel, Friends and Crocodiles
Friends and Crocodiles
Friends and Crocodiles is a one-off British television drama production, written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff and first broadcast on BBC One on 15 January 2006.-Overview:...
and Gideon's Daughter
Gideon's Daughter
Gideon's Daughter is the second of two linked BBC television dramas written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff.Produced independently for the BBC by Talkback Thames and starring Bill Nighy, Miranda Richardson, and Emily Blunt, it aired in the UK on BBC One on 26 February 2006 and in the US on BBC...
, the latter of which went on to win two Golden Globe Awards (Mini-series, Best Actor for Bill Nighy
Bill Nighy
William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof...
and Mini-series, Best Supporting Actress for Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
) in 2007.
In June 2010 it was announced that she was leaving her post of Chief Executive with Talkback Thames.