The BBC‘s storied documentary strand Storyville is restructuring and seeking a new head.
A trio of roles have been closed including Lead Commissioning Editor Emma Hindley’s post and a new Head of Storyville is being sought from today, while the number of films commissioned per year will drop by 20%, although annual budget remains the same. The new chief will be joined by an assistant commissioner and team assistant. Alongside Hindley’s, the other two roles to close are Commissioning Editor and Commissioning Co-ordinator.
Initial news of the restructure was announced in an internal email sent round several months back by then-BBC unscripted boss Kate Phillips, who has since taken on the Chief Content Officer role.
A job ad was then posted this afternoon seeking a Head of Storyville, who will be “responsible for developing, directing and deploying the strategy for this genre in line with the BBC’s broader digital first strategy, and will represent the BBC within international markets with documentary film makers.” The job pays up to £167,000 ($230,000) per year dependent on experience.
The new Storyville structure will sit under Fiona Campbell, the BBC’s Controller of Youth Audience, BBC iPlayer & BBC Three. Films will be reduced by 20% per year “due to the pressures of global financing,” according to Phillips’ email, but the annual undisclosed budget remains the same. Moving into Campbell’s team will “enable Storyville to capitalise on synergies with the acquisitions team in how we build relationships with distributors and content partners,” added Phillips.
The BBC’s documentary strand is hugely respected, winning awards aplenty and recently airing the likes of White Man Walking, The Wolves Always Come At Night and October 7 doc We Will Dance Again, the latter of which just won a News & Documentary Emmy.
Former Brook Lapping creative chief Hindley took over from Philippa Kowarsky in early 2023, having done the job temporarily for several months. She has been involved with plenty of respected docs during her tenure but also courted controversy. In late 2023, she was reported to have embraced the director of a Storyville-backed film on stage at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam after he had made remarks deemed by some to be antisemitic. At the time she said she had hugged Mohammed Almughanni because he “was visibly distressed,” adding: “Hugging him wasn’t a political statement or an endorsement of anybody’s views, it was an instinctive human reaction. I’m sorry if my actions have upset anyone – my intentions were quite the opposite.”
