Here Comes Pod

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest on Here Comes Pod, Marc Lorber, has a truly global perspective on the TV business. In a career that has included stints at some of the world's leading studios - Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Disney and WBD - Marc has produced both scripted and non-scripted TV series on every continent on the planet. Whether it was spotting the potential of original series l...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of Here Comes Pod I was joined by one of the titans of the global media industry, Hans-Holger Albrecht. We talked about his first TV job at CLT, forerunner of  German TV powerhouse RTL; his role as President and CEO of Modern Times Group overseeing the Nordic satellite broadcaster Viasat and launching Viaplay; his experience transforming telco Millicom into a lifes...

Send us Fan Mail This week's episode of Here Comes Pod tells the Legend of Lisa Opie, (un)charting her TV career that started at BSB and Sky and went through the levels at Flextech, Channel 5, Two Four and BBC Studios. Now MD of two of Ubisoft's UK studios Leamington and Reflections, Lisa shares her thoughts on her working life in TV and how her move across to the video games industry wa...

Send us Fan Mail Bobby Charlton was a legend on the pitch for Manchester United and England, a World Cup winner, European Cup Winner and England's leading goalscorer for decades. When his playing career ended he was a trusted advisor to the Manchester United board and a TV pundit. But one of his other lasting legacies was the Bobby Charlton Soccer Schools, which provided coaching and holiday...

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest on Here Comes Pod is a star of the big screen and the small screen. Billy Campbell's leading role in Cardinal reminded audiences of a talent seen in movies like The Rocketeer and Bram Stoker's Dracula as well as standout TV series like Dynasty, The 4400 and The Killing. His next role is in Canadian thriller Something Undone, once again portraying a...

Send us Fan Mail TV and football are passions for many, although few people have careers in both industries. But this week's guest on Here Comes Pod, Bernd Reichart, has been a senior executive in both TV and football. Bernd talks about his TV experience within the RTL Group, initially at Spain's Atresmedia Television before he returned to Germany to head up Vox and then become Group CEO...

Send us Fan Mail With a CV that includes overseeing massive hits like Dancing With The Stars, The Voice, The Apprentice and America's Got Talent, Paul Telegdy can rightly be called the King of entertainment programming. Paul joined me on Here Comes Pod to talk about life at the BBC, dealing with extraordinary people including a future President in his time as  Chairman of Entertainment at NBC...

Send us Fan Mail The Premier League is back this weekend, and Tottenham Hotspur have been dominating the headlines in the run up to kick off. Whether it is the battle to keep their talismanic striker Harry Kane or the federal charges levelled at the "owner" Joe Lewis, the Spurs hierarchy, led by chairman Daniel Levy, have their hands full. So it's an interesting moment to look back...

Send us Fan Mail Kevin MacLellan joined me on Here Comes Pod this week to talk about a career that  spanned the titans of the television industry - MTV Networks, HBO, Sony Pictures, Comcast and NBC Universal, where he oversaw annual income of $5bn and 2,500 employees. That was a massive job and Kevin shares the inside track on how to steer a business of that size, the dynamics of Comcast's ac...

Send us Fan Mail There is no better person to explain the current turmoil gripping Hollywood than Puck News co-founder and former Hollywood Reporter editorial director Matt Belloni. Matt's newsletter What I'm Hearing is the definitive insider's guide to the latest buzz in Tinseltown and his podcast The Town is a must-listen for anyone interested in the entertainment business. We dis...

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest on Here Comes Pod is Sky entertainment supremo Zai Bennett. In a career that has spanned ITV, C5, the BBC and Sky, Zai has been involved in some of the most important moments in British broadcasting in the last quarter of a century. So we had a lot of ground to cover, from the birth of reality TV with TOWIE, navigating the creative and organisational juggern...

Send us Fan Mail Claire Enders joined me on this week's episode of Here Comes Pod to talk about her eponymously named company Enders Analysis. As you can imagine the interview turned into a whirlwind tour de force of anecdotes from Claire's unique career spent analysing the media industry, campaigning to protect democracy and the plurality of information options available to the public,...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week is Sara Johnson, whose career in the TV business has encompassed script editing, drama producing and series commissioning. Whether it was honing material at Eastenders, heading up drama at Sky and Fox UK, or bringing the transformative BBC series The A Word to the screen at Keshet, Sara has always been associated with best in class material. She is now using tha...

Send us Fan Mail Look out for the upcoming episode of Here Comes Pod with Dan Chambers - we talked Big Brother, why Joey was not the best of friends, and the best place to create a TV series. Enjoy! You can find Here Comes Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon or most other podcast outlets. If you enjoyed this episode of Here Comes Pod please do leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherev...

Send us Fan Mail Dan Chambers joined me on Here Comes Pod this week to talk about his time commissioning factual series at C4, heading up all programming at C5 and making iconic shows at Blink Films, which he co-founded and where he is joint MD. We talked Big Brother, making good and bad decisions in the world of acquisitions, and producing extraordinary series for broadcasters and platforms aroun...

Send us Fan Mail It was a privilege to be joined by Jeffrey Schlesinger for this week's episode of Here Comes Pod. In a 37 year career at Warner Brothers, 26 of which were spent as President of International TV Distribution, Jeffrey not only helped to define the image of Warner Brothers in the international market, but he also helped to establish the way that the international TV distribution...

Send us Fan Mail Greg Brenman falls into that rare category of generational talent. With a CV that includes Billy Elliot, The Honourable Woman, Peaky Blinders, Fat Friends, Ripper Street and the recent hit BBC drama The English, Greg has produced some of the most iconic and lauded TV series of the last 25 years. We talked about his start in the TV business, establishing the Tiger Aspect drama oper...

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest on Here Comes Pod is Peter Taylor, one of the legends of the UK film business. We chatted about Peter's love of film as a young man, his start in the business on the set of Flash Gordon, and his long career at Sony Pictures, whether it was shepherding the studio's blockbuster releases like Spiderman, the talent-friendly culture created by studio he...

Send us Fan Mail Forget business school - this week's episode of Here Comes Pod is an education in how to run a massive organisation. Etienne de Villiers joined me to discuss a career spent at world famous media and sports operations like The Walt Disney Company, the ATP and the IPL, with some fascinating insights and stories from the front line. Born in apartheid-era South Africa, Etienne&ap...

Send us Fan Mail For me Pelé will always be The King of the beautiful game of football. Soon after retiring Pelé chatted to my dad Ken Goldman about what he missed from his playing days, the state of Brazilian football, soccer in the US and the opponents he rated most highly. In this long lost interview Pelé's warmth and generosity of spirit exude from every word he speaks. RIP Pelé, always T...

Send us Fan Mail His first three films - Con Air, The General's Daughter and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - all grossed over $100m at the US box office, so when it comes to directing blockbuster movies this week's guest, Simon West, is perfectly placed to explain how it's done. We talked about these films, the challenges of getting Blackhawk Down to the screen, working with the gods of a...

Send us Fan Mail He played Geordie handyman Michael in I'm Alan Partridge and is the voice of everyone's favourite meerkat Alexander Orlov in the famous TV advertising campaign. Simon Greenall's career as a writer, performer and voice talent has taken in some of the most iconic moments in recent TV comedy history, so it was great to have him on the podcast this week's guest. En...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week is comedy writer and broadcaster Paul Hawksbee, co-host of the Hawksbee and Jacobs daily show on Talksport. But before becoming a broadcaster, Paul had a stellar career as a comedy writer, working with some of the greats of British comedy including the Two Ronnies, Frankie Howerd, Al Murray and Harry Hill. Add in the co-creation of iconic football magazine 90 Mi...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week has his name above the door of his movie studio STX Entertainment. Bob Simonds built his career in Hollywood working with stars like Adam Sandler and Steve Martin and his movies have made billions at the global box office. Bob then founded STX using the same principle of casting stars in signature roles and that strategy has led to more box office and critical s...

Send us Fan Mail Adam Kirby has been a force on the British advertising and marketing scene for a generation. Working as an Account Director at leading advertising agencies like AMV, Lowe Howard-Spink, Bates Dorland and Saatchi and Saatchi, Adam worked on some of the most iconic campaigns in British advertising history, before he made a move to the client side at Diageo and now operates as a marke...