Here Comes Pod

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back podlers. My guest this week is another legend of the UK acquisitions business: Jay Kandola. Jay has worked at every one of the UK main terrestrial broadcasters, ultimately heading up acquisitions at both Channel 5 and ITV. She is now an acquisitions consultant, working with Australian platform Foxtel amongst others. Jay shares her thoughts on her career to date, on wo...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week is Glen Marques, one of the most experienced, highly respected and liked executives in African and international TV. Glen draws on his decades of experience in South African Pay TV at DSTV, having worked across both of the sports (Supersport) and general entertainment (M-Net) operations, and explains the many challenges facing international streaming operations...

Send us Fan Mail The script was incredible, the shoot went perfectly, the show is ready to hit the airwaves or the digital pipe. But how do you get viewers to find this masterpiece? Through publicity and promotion, which is where journalists have such a crucial role in disseminating culture. So who better to offer us an insight into this world than writer Stephen Armstrong. Stephen writes on film,...

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest on Here Comes Pod is writer-director Gavin Hood. Growing up in South Africa, Gavin fell in love with the silver screen and followed his dream to Hollywood. In the podcast Gavin shares his experiences of an Oscar win, directing an X-Men franchise movie, and the skills required to get the best out of acting superstars like Harrison Ford and Sir Ben Kingsley. ...

Send us Fan Mail In the next episode of Here Comes Pod, writer-director Gavin Hood shares his experience of directing a diverse slate of movies including Oscar-winning Tsotsi, X-Men franchise movie Wolverine and political thrillers like Rendition and Official Secrets. Coming soon on all platforms! You can find Here Comes Pod on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon or most other podcast outlets. If you...

Send us Fan Mail When the great and the good of British television have a problem that needs solving, a business to run or a channel to launch, there is one executive that they keep turning to - Sophie Turner-Laing OBE. She tells the pod about her time at Henson, Flextech, the BBC, Sky and Endemol Shine and some of the deals, channel launches and initiatives that she has intimately been involved i...

Send us Fan Mail In the next episode of Here Comes Pod, I'm joined by Sophie Tuner Laing. Here's a sneak peek. 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 wherever you listen to your podcasts 

Send us Fan Mail He's the man who put the F in Five, who turned programme buying into an artform, and who is equally at home with billionaires and the customers in his local shop. Jeff Ford has been an icon of the international TV business for the last 40 years. Every UK terrestrial broadcaster has made use of his talents, and he shares his memories in this week's pod. Enjoy! You can fin...

Send us Fan Mail It's the pod that everyone has been asking about. Jeff Ford will be talking about his storied career and memories from the TV business. Here's a sneak peak of what's coming up. 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...

Send us Fan Mail Here Comes Pod is back, this time with a special edition that takes a deep dive into the movie business - specifically why so many movies are going direct to streaming, the impact of Covid and lockdowns, what is the future of cinema release windows and how will the content eco system shape up. I was lucky enough to interview some amazing guests and their contributions make for liv...

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest is true multi-hyphenate. Ged Doherty started his career booking bands in Sheffield, moved into artist management with Paul Young and never looked back. Ultimately he ended up as Chairman of Sony Music UK, where he launched the careers of an amazing array of world famous artists including Dido and Calvin Harris into a Sony firmament which included Beyonce and...

Send us Fan Mail This week's guest is a legendary executive in the international film and TV business, in more ways than one. John McMahon's career at Sony Pictures spanned TV production, channels and distribution before he segued into running the EMEA Home Entertainment business, eventually joining Legendary Entertainment to return to his distribution roots. He talks about contract nego...

Send us Fan Mail He's the executive who helped to pioneer the launch of DVD and went on to become COO of two studios, so Adrian Alperovich is the perfect guest to share thoughts and insights into Hollywood over the last three decades. He talks about the evolution of the Home Entertainment business, the challenges of releasing movies at an indie studio, what Mel Brooks thought when Sony rename...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week is the master of reinvention. David Smyth's career has taken him from scheduling at the BBC, heading series acquisitions at Sky, distribution at 20th Century Fox and he has now launched a new AVOD service called YouLook. He shares his experiences of jumping into a cold bath at Sky, selling spy drama The Americans to Russia, and his attempts to get arrested...

Send us Fan Mail It's lockdown 3.0, where we all stay inside and communicate with the outside world via video chat. Sounds a lot like Big Brother, one of the world's most successful TV formats, so it's a good time to chat to one our leading entertainment format producers, Danny Fenton, who is CEO of UK indie powerhouse Zig Zag Productions. Danny talks formats, sports programming, pr...

Send us Fan Mail Discovering Dragons Den, going on the road with the Fonz and Captain Kirk and checking on Burt Reynolds - such is the life of the international TV formats professional. In this week's episode, Tim Crescenti shares his experiences and insights and talks about the innovation we are seeing in response to the pandemic and lockdown. You can find Here Comes Pod on Apple Podcasts, S...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week is documentary filmmaker Steven Leckart . After starting his career as a journalist, Steven made the move in to documentaries. He wrote the Emmy-winning HBO two-parter What's My Name: Muhammad Ali and his four part series, Challenger: The Final Flight, has been a breakout success on #Netflix . We talked documentary techniques, helping to bring the seminal T...

Send us Fan Mail Here Comes Pod...again! With lockdowns, travel bans and new restrictive tiers in place, it felt like the perfect time to bring back the podcast, and to look at the world of sports broadcasting. My guest this week is Caj Sohal, head of sport at UK broadcaster Channel 5 and a man with a fascinating history in sports broadcasting. I hope you enjoy the chat. You can find Here Comes Po...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week is documentary filmmaker Steven Leckart. After starting his career as a journalist, Steven made the move in to documentaries. He wrote the Emmy-winning HBO two-parter What's My Name: Muhammad Ali and his four part series, Challenger: The Final Flight, has been a breakout success on Netflix. We talked documentary techniques, helping to bring the seminal The...

Send us Fan Mail He's the TV executive who grew up without a TV in the house, but that only inspired A+E's Dan Korn to become a documentary director and producer, before becoming a senior programming executive. In this week's pod, Dan shares his experiences of building an indy programming portfolio, a slate of shows for broadcast, the challenges of lockdown and the value of channels...

Send us Fan Mail Who's Calling Christian? It's high profile media executive Rob Atkinson, although we were calling him for this week's pod. Rob shares his experiences from 30 years in the media industry, with highly successful stints at national newspapers, out of home media owners and radio in the UK and abroad; signing up Christian O'Connell for radio in Melbourne; and develo...