Amy Flanagan appointed to Deputy Head of Factual

Ralph Lee, Channel 4's Deputy Chief Creative Officer & Head of Factual has promoted Amy Flanagan to be Deputy Head of Factual.

With the editorial leadership of the channel's digital output and All4 programming making increasing demands on his time, Lee has created this role to help support him in his dual Head of Factual role.  Flanagan will report directly into and deputise for Lee across Factual programming and will take a lead on talent management across both Documentaries and Specialist Factual output. She will continue to be the lead commissioner for the 9pm documentaries series slate - overseen by Head of Documentaries Nick Mirsky.

Ralph Lee says: "Amy is a brilliant, instinctive commissioner who has helped shape the direction of our documentaries output and develop innovation in form, often working with colleagues from other genres to deliver consistently outstanding programming from Hunted to the Bafta-winning The Murder Detectives and My Son The Jihadi. This new role will allow her to focus on further identifying, nurturing and developing key programme-making talents to ensure a steady supply of ground-breaking ideas."

Amy joined Channel 4 as Documentaries Commissioning Editor in January 2014 before being promoted to Deputy Head of Documentaries in November that year. In this role Amy has been responsible for a range of programming that has included major series 24 Hours in Police Custody, First Cut film Muslim Drag Queens and the Broadcast-Award-winning series The Romanians Are Coming. In addition she has established and overseen the Cutting Edge Directors Training Scheme – the recent graduates of which have making their mark on the television industry and beyond - directing primetime documentaries, working on major series and winning industry awards and critical acclaim.

As a multi-award winning executive producer Flanagan has worked on a wide range of challenging and impactful content. Working for The Garden Productions she co-series produced and directed the first series of the critically-acclaimed and ratings hit 24 Hours in A&E, which won the Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for Best Documentary Series and went on to co-exec series two. She also was the executive producer for the Bafta-winning series Bedlam.

Previously, she spent six years at Blast! where she produced Victorian Sex Explorer (RTS Winner),The Artful Codgers and Last Days of the Raj (both Grierson-nominated) and factual drama Sex, the City and Me. Other credits include co-producer on the BAFTA-winning Feltham Sings for Century TV and series producer on the second series of The Hospital for North One.

Flanagan says: "There is great scope here at Channel 4 to back the most creatively ambitious ideas and I'm excited about working with the UK’s best established and up-and-coming talent across our Factual output."

Both Head of Specialist Factual John Hay and Head of Documentaries Nick Mirsky will continue to report into Ralph Lee and their roles remain unchanged.