Skins - production team

11 January 2012

Toby Welch

Producer

Toby Welch worked as a runner and as an assistant to creator Bryan Elsley on Skins series 2, before producing all cross platform content for Skins series 3 and 4 and by series 5 progressing to Assistant Producer. Series 6 is Welch's first year as producer.

 

Neil Duncan

Producer

Neil studied at Glasgow and Robert Gordon University. He joined the BBC as an archive researcher before moving into production as a researcher. In 2003 he joined River City as a trainee script editor and then series script editor. He subsequently worked on ‘EastEnders' between 2005 and 2007, producing a week of EastEnders before his departure (Martin and Sonia's exit story). Other credits include ‘The Bill' and series 5 of ‘New Tricks'. He joined Skins in 2008, script editing series 3 and 4 before taking on the script executive role for series 5.

 

John Griffin

Executive producer

Before becoming a successful writer and producer, John Griffin was an actor for nearly 20 years.

In 2001 he became a script editor working with Paul Abbott on his ITV drama  ‘Alibi', before joining Company Pictures as one of the original creative team on ‘Shameless'. On series two of ‘Shameless', John wrote an episode as well as continuing to script edit. He then went on to produce the third series becoming series producer on series four and five. After producing series 4 of Skins, John is now Executive Producer for Series at Company Pictures.

 

Bryan Elsley

Co-creator / Executive Producer

Bryan spent most of his childhood in the Edinburgh satellite town of Dalkeith before going on to study English and History at York University. It was there he met a young student named Harry Enfield. The two of them shared a passion for taking the mickey and decided to form a comedy duo - which became known as Dusty and Dick. ‘Dusty and Dick's Lucky Escape From The Germans' proved a sell-out hit at the Edinburgh festival.  After parting from Enfield, Elsley took up a career in theatrical direction before going on to write, first for the theatre then for television. His seminal short film ‘Govan Ghost Story' paved the way for other writing jobs on British serials.

In 1996 he wrote the award-winning adaptation of Iain Banks' ‘The Crow Road' and two years later ‘The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star'.  Since, Elsley has written several original series and films, including ‘40' with Eddie Izzard, ‘Nature Boy' and ‘Rose and Maloney' with Sarah Lancashire.

 

Jamie Brittain

Co-Creator

After studying English Literature at King's College London, Jamie began to collaborate with Bryan Elsley on the creation of Skins.  As co-creator, Jamie has written episodes on series one to five.

 

Jack Clough

Director - Episodes 1 & 6

Jack started out as a production runner on commercials and music videos. With the proceeds he bought his first professional camera and editing software and began to make small films and animations.

For the ‘Skins Secret Party', Jack asked if he could film a ‘Behind the Scenes' style short film. As a result of its success, Jack was commissioned to direct, film and edit all the DVD Behind the Scenes Extras for Series two. Jack also filmed all of the mini-dramas (platforms) and titles for Series two.

Jack went on to direct the series three platforms, make the series three behind the scenes, and shooting the titles for series three and four. He has since progressed to the role of director, directing ‘Nick' and ‘Alo' for Skins series five.

Jack has also directed three episodes of E4's drama ‘Beaver Falls'.

 

Sam Donovan

Director- Episodes 2 & 3

Sam began directing in 2007 with the Screen Yorkshire / UKFC digital short ‘King Ponce'. In 2008 he directed ‘Unite', which was a regional winner and national finalist in the Orange 60 seconds of fame competition at BAFTA. His previous TV credits include the final 4 ever episodes of ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl' for ITV2 and Showtime (USA).

In 2009 he directed Andrew Yerlett's short film, ‘Hammerhead', and the following year  was selected for the prestigious Channel 4 Coming Up scheme, where he directed the ‘TV half hour Half Term'. After screening on C4 the film went on to play at selected festivals and also picked up the Press Critics Award at the Brest European Film Festival, France.

 

Ian Barnes

Director - Episodes 4, 5 & 9

Writer/director Ian Barnes entered the world of drama with his controversial short film ‘SWING'.  Since then Ian has directed and produced a multitude of TV dramas and comedies and has twice been BAFTA nominated for his television work. 

Among other accolades, his 2009 short film WISH143 was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award.

 

Ben Caron

Director - Episodes 7, 8 & 10

Ben Caron has been directing drama and commercials accumulating a number of awards and nominations including Campaign, the DD&D's, BTA's, and the Cannes Lions.

Ben gained early directorial prominence with ‘Derren Brown: The Heist'. It won multiple TV awards, including a BAFTA Nomination. Ben's directorial style was stamped on the award winning video for JAY-Z and the BAFTA-award winning ITV1 game show ‘The Cube'. More recently he completed the ITV1 drama, 'Scott and Bailey.'

 

Company Pictures

Company Pictures was established in 1998. Other television production highlights include: ‘Elizabeth I'(winner of 3 Golden Globes); all nine series of ‘Shameless' (Channel 4: BAFTA and RTS Awards); seven series of ‘Wild at Heart' (ITV); ‘George Gently' (BBC1); ‘The Devil's Whore' (Channel 4); ‘Generation Kill' (HBO); ‘Mansfield Park'; ‘The Palace' (ITV1), ‘The Take'; ‘The Runaway' (Sky1 HD) and ‘Beaver Falls' (E4).

In the past Company Pictures has produced: ‘The Lakes' by Jimmy McGovern; ‘A Young Person's Guide to Being a Rockstar‘ (Channel 4 and Warner Bros: RTS award Best Serial); ‘North Square' (Channel 4: winner Best Series Press Guild);  ‘Not Only But Always...' (Channel 4: BAFTA winner: Rhys Ifans Best Actor); ‘The Rotters' Club' (BBC); and ‘Life and Death of Peter Sellers' (HBO: winner of two Golden Globe Awards for Best TV Movie and Best Actor for Geoffrey Rush and 15 Emmys).

Company has made five feature films with some of the UK's leading directing talent including Roger Michell, Stephen Hopkins, Penny Woolcock, Shane Meadows and Lynne Ramsey.

Amongst its numerous awards Company Pictures won Best Independent Production Company at the 2005 and 2008 Broadcast Awards and the European Producers of the Year Award at the 2004 Monte Carlo Awards.

Since October 2004 Company Pictures has been a part of the All3 Media Group.