Channel 4 promotes John Hay to Head of Specialist Factual

24 May 2016

Channel 4 has appointed John Hay as Head of Specialist Factual, replacing David Glover who left the channel last month to launch an independent production company. Hay will report to Deputy Chief Creative Officer and Head of Factual Ralph Lee.

Lee says: "John has a great combination of real intellectual firepower and an innate populism and love of TV. He's the ideal person to lead the Specialist Factual team as it continues to evolve and innovate in the heart of the Channel 4 schedule. "

Hay says: “I’m delighted to have been given the chance to lead such a talented team.  The culture here at Channel 4 and the kind of creative collaboration with brilliant colleagues and producers it’s enabled has led to a real breakthrough in this genre in recent years -  I look forward to working with the people behind that success to build on it.”

John was named as Channel 4 Commissioning Editor, Arts in November 2013. In this role he has overseen Grayson Perry: Who Are You?  and Grayson’s Dream House and commissioned Grayson Perry: All Man, as well as the unique live theatrical event The Vote, the Grierson, Prix Italia and Rose d’Or-winning Our Gay Wedding: The Musical and the recently expanded Random Acts shorts strand. He has continued to work more broadly across Specialist Factual, commissioning the ratings hits SAS: Who Dares Wins and Walking the Himalayas.

John first joined Channel 4 in August 2012. He oversaw the world exclusive Richard III: King in the Car Park and went on to commission Richard III: The Reburial of the King. He commissioned the multi-award-winning 24-hour real-time multiplatform event D-Day: As It Happens, Flying to the Ends of the Earth with Arthur Williams, the world record-breaking attempt Walking the Nile, and revived the Secret History strand.

John began his career as a runner in the BBC Arts Department and went on to spend nearly 13 years at the corporation as a programme-maker. He was a producer on Newsnight, part of the launch team for Newsnight Review and The Culture Show and developed and made films for several BBC landmark arts and history series. He series produced the BAFTA-nominated Art of Russia for BBC Four and ran the Arts and History development team for BBC London Factual before leaving to take up the role of Commissioning Editor, Factual, Channel 5.