Channel 4 appoints Ralph Lee to new Head of Factual role

10 November 2011

Ralph Lee

Channel 4 today announced the appointment of Ralph Lee to the newly created position of Head of Factual.

The appointment follows a change to the structure of factual commissioning which brings the documentary and specialist factual teams together into one enhanced department. 

Jay Hunt said, ‘We have been working hard to make Channel 4 more accessible to suppliers and this new structure will streamline the factual commissioning team and speed up the time it takes to get back to producers. Previously there was considerable overlap between departments with suppliers often pitching the same ideas to a number of teams. The new structure creates a one stop shop for factual and ensures there is more coordination, as well as cross-fertilisation, between the different genre areas within it.'

Channel 4 will advertise for a Deputy Head of Factual, a new role created to support the Head of Factual.

Lee originally joined Channel 4 in September 2002 as specialist factual commissioning editor and was subsequently promoted to Deputy Head of Specialist Factual.  He was responsible for a broad range of commissions from the living history format That'll Teach ‘Em to acclaimed feature Deep Water, about tragic round the world yachtsman, Donald Crowhurst.

Lee left Channel 4 at the end of 2007 to take up the post of Head of Factual at Five before returning to 4 as Head of Specialist Factual in March 2008. Recent notable commissions from Lee's department have included Inside Nature's Giants, The Truth about Race and IQ, Four Rooms and Food Hospital. 

Jay Hunt said: ‘Ralph is a formidable creative leader and a superlative manager. His knowledge and enthusiasm across a wide range of specialisms as well as his substantial track record for bringing fresh approaches to factual television make him the ideal person to take Channel 4 Factual on to the next level.'

Prior to joining Channel 4, Lee had been a producer/director both as a freelance and at BBC documentaries.