Channel 4 appoints Tessa Ross as Head Of Film And Drama

27 January 2005

Tessa Ross, Head of Film and Drama

Channel 4 has today announced that Tessa Ross is to take up a newly created role as Head of Film and Drama for the broadcaster. The position has been designed to allow Ross to oversee Channel 4's drama output alongside her current role as Head of FilmFour.

As Head of Film and Drama, Ross will continue to oversee an annual production and financing budget of £10 million for FilmFour as well as having editorial responsibility for the channel's expanding drama portfolio. She will report to Channel 4 Director of Television, Kevin Lygo.

Coinciding with her own appointment, Ross has recruited two new commissioning editors to the Channel 4 drama department. Francis Hopkinson will join Channel 4 in March in a senior commissioning role with special responsibility for commissioning and developing returning drama series, alongside commissioning single dramas and events; and Liza Marshall will join in September, after maternity leave, with a brief to develop drama singles, serials and films. Both commissioners will report directly to Ross.

Lygo said: "Creating this new role seemed obvious as few can match Tessa's passion for and knowledge of both filmmaking and drama. She is taking FilmFour forward in giant leaps and will continue to attract the industry's foremost innovators as well as finding its newest talents. We remain as committed as ever to both areas independently but believe they stand to be creatively enriched by a shared overview."

Ross said: "I am delighted to be given the challenge of overseeing both these exciting divisions in what I believe will be a mutually beneficial relationship. I want to continue to make Channel 4 the first stop for Britain's most creative and original drama and film talents. I look forward to finding more entertaining, challenging and groundbreaking stories to tell and know Francis and Liza will both bring great vision, experience and energy to this process. They have exceptionally strong and complementary track records and a genuine passion and instinct for what makes contemporary drama powerful and exciting."

Hopkinson, who is currently an executive producer at Granada, has extensive experience in drama production. His credits include: Bafta award winning The Cops; Little Bird; The Jury; the BAFTA and RTS nominated Danielle Cable: Eyewitness; and, most recently, the International Emmy award winner, Henry VIII, with Ray Winstone.  He has also produced the upcoming ITV drama Planespotting and executive produced Colditz.

Marshall, who currently works for BBC drama, has a string of recent drama production successes to her name including: The Long Firm, written by Joe Penhall and starring Mark Strong; Eroica, a feature length film about Beethoven for BBC2, starring Ian Hart and a winner of a Prix Italia; Alan Rusbridger and Ronan Bennett's conspiracy thriller Fields of Gold; and, the seven-part series The Sins, written by William Ivory and starring Pete Postlethwaite, which was nominated for three Baftas and won Marshall RTS Best Network Newcomer: Behind the Scenes. She has recently executive produced A Thing Called Love and Dirty War a HBO / BBC film.

Notes to editors:

• Ross joined Channel 4 as Head of Drama in Autumn 2000 and during her time in the role she oversaw a significant increase in the channel's drama output. Her commissions included the TV adaptation of Zadie Smith's White Teeth; Ken Loach's The Navigators, Tony Garnett's hard-hitting prison series Buried; 40, written by Bryan Elsley; as well as the channel's longest-running drama series, Teachers.
• As Head of Drama, Ross helped identify and put in place a new original drama strategy for Channel 4 combining original and returning drama series - including Paul Abbott's Shameless, No Angels and Teachers - with major single and event dramas like Paul Greengrass' Omagh, Abi Morgan's Sex Traffic and Peter Cook biopic Not Only But Always.
• In January 2003, Ross moved to take charge of the channel's filmmaking activities as Head of FilmFour and in the last two years has successfully remoulded the division. FilmFour remains one of the biggest investors in British films with an impressive slate of forthcoming features. Most recently Ross has been responsible for bringing last summer's hit film Motorcycle Diaries to the big screen as well as Shane Meadow's Dead Man's Shoes and Enduring Love, based on the Ian McEwan novel.
• Prior to joining Channel 4, Ross was Head of Drama for the BBC's Independent Commissioning Group where she commissioned and executive produced amongst others: Billy Elliott, Clocking Off, In a Land of Plenty, Playing The Field, Our Boy, The Gift, Stone Scissors Paper and Eskimo Day. She spent three years as Head of Development for British Screen in the early nineties.

New dramas to be transmitted on Channel 4 in 2005 include: Margaret Rose, a one-off royal romp through the colourful and troubled life of Princess Margaret; Julie Burchill's late-night teen drama series, Sugar Rush; and from the makers of Shameless, Ghost Squad, a series which blows the lid on modern policing in the UK.