Abigail brings 4 years of experience as a BBC Commissioning Editor to her role as Creative Director for Specialist Factual. Her previous credits include BAFTA-winning The Yorkshire Ripper Files, Chris Packham: Asperger’s & Me, Princess Margaret: Rebel Royal, and My Family The Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder. Prior to this, Abigail was a Director making a wide range of factual programming from acclaimed documentaries including The Met and 24 Hours in A&E, to popular returners including Back in Time and Hunted.

Amanda is an Executive Producer in The Documentary Unit at BBC Studios. Her previous credits include BBC2’s Inside the Factory and factual hits including World’s Busiest Railway and New York: America’s Busiest City.

Students were taught what it takes to create a TV series during this G-talk. From having the production company pitching their ideas to the likes of BBC, Netflix, and ITV to the consumers seeing it on our screens. Abigail and Amanda talked in detail about what their job roles consists of and students helped to build a campaign called ‘Inside Cakes’, which was a fictional spin-off from the BBC show Inside the Factory, a show both Abigail and Amanda had worked on together in the past. Students were asked to think about three different elements that make up a TV show. This included editorial, production, and technical. With this, we then explored the different job roles within each section and how Global Academy students could get into said roles.  This ranged from executive producers, line producers, and production managers to runners. As well as this we explored the importance of following a brief and understanding what your commissioner wants, understanding the budget, and the team you will need to ensure this is a successful production.

Abigail and Amanda allowed our students to have an open floor for Q&As. This was really helpful for our students as they are starting to explore their next routes after Global Academy. The question of whether you should go to university or head down the apprentice route was brought up. Abigail and Amanda stated, “There is no right way to get into the industry, it is about what works for you and knowing how to get the best out of your skills and abilities as an individual”.

Thank you to Amanda Lyon and Abigail Priddle for taking time out of their busy schedules to talk to our students about what a career in TV is really like.