ABSTRACT
Many innovations and initiatives that have contributed to the development of the television medium over its history have come from remarkable producers pursuing their own vision: people such as Tony Garnett who launched the celebrated Wednesday Play on the BBC in the 1960s; Phil Redmond who set up the Liverpoolbased Mersey Television to make the soap opera Brookside when Channel Four first began to commission independent production companies; Peter Bazalgette who innovated with audience participation and the multichannel experience for Big Brother in 2000. But being an established producer in a television organisation or a large independent company, with all the long-term responsibility that entails, is not necessarily the same thing as producing a single programme or series, which largely involves common sense, persistence and hard work.
