It was announced today (03 October 2008) that former Director of Daytime and Lifestyle Programming at ITV Productions, DIANNE NELMES, will join Liberty Bell as Managing Director. The current Managing Director, STUART PREBBLE, will stay on as Creative Director of the company, while JUDITH HOLDER will originate and produce new programmes in Liberty Bell’s office in the North-East.
DIANNE NELMES has already had a hugely distinguished career in television, starting as a news and network current affairs journalist for both the BBC and ITV, before launching the successful ITV series The Morning. NELMES then went on to launch several groundbreaking factual entertainment series as well as hit ITV entertainment formats, Stars In Their Eyes and You’ve Been Framed. She was the first, and only, female executive producer of World In Action and was Controller of Factual Programmes at Granada Television. At ITV’s Network Centre, DIANNE commissioned Daytime, Documentaries and Features - creating the hit lunchtime show Loose Women and winning ITV every single British documentary award for the programme on child poverty, Kelly And Her Sisters.
NELMES returned to ITV Productions to oversee their Daytime and Lifestyle programming where she improved ratings, expanded output and won industry awards for This Morning and Loose Women.
STUART PREBBLE said: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome Dianne to our company. She and I have been friends and colleagues for many years. She will help us to expand and build upon the success we have enjoyed since we launched in 2002.”
JUDITH HOLDER said: “Dianne has a fabulous reputation and track record . She is known and respected throughout the industry, and will be a huge asset to the company.”
DIANNE NELMES said: “I am delighted to be joining Liberty Bell which has a reputation for delivering high quality programmes across a very wide range. I want to return to my factual and documentary programming roots and the chance to work with Stuart once again and to join his company, which has such a strong reputation and track record for quality factual programming, was impossible to resist - along with an opportunity to rejoin friends and former colleagues.”
Liberty Bell Productions, which was formed in autumn 2002, is based in Newcastle and London, and specialises in the production of television documentaries and features, factual entertainment, current affairs, drama-documentary and youth programming. Recent productions include: Life and Death on the NHS (ITV1), Willy’s Wonky Chocolate Factory (CHANNEL 4), Portillo on Thatcher: The Lady’s Not For Spurning (BBC FOUR), The Alastair Campbell Diaries (BBC TWO), Three Men In Another Boat (BBC TWO), The Grumpy Guides to… (BBC TWO), The Book Show Sky Arts, Songbook, Sky Arts, What the Dickens, Sky Arts, Why We Went to War (More 4), Don't Get Me Started (Five), Real Life: Beating Breast Cancer (ITV1), The Meaning of Life (BBC ONE) and The Widow’s Tale (BBC TWO). Liberty Bell is currently in production with new programmes for BBC TWO, Channel 4, Dave, and SkyArts.
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For more information please contact Dan Lloyd at Avalon on 020 7598 7222 / danl@avalonuk.com
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NOTES TO EDITORS
• DIANNE NELMES has strong roots in the North-East. Although born and bred in Berkshire, she graduated from Newcastle University and worked in both newspapers and television in the region.
• DIANNE NELMES has recently had the honour of being appointed a Visiting Professor in the University’s Department of Media and Journalism.
• Liberty Bell has been part of the Avalon Group since 2004.
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WHAT THE PRESS HAVE SAID ABOUT PREVIOUS LIBERTY BELL PRODUCTIONS:
Life and Death on the NHS
“A startling, beautiful documentary following the experiences of a clutch of patients in hospital: a simple idea related with colour and subtlety and it was incredibly moving without ever exploiting its subjects… This wasn’t a political documentary and it wasn’t a feather-brained confected set-up. It was sober and tightly edited documentary making. It didn’t patronise you, it simply showed three diverse experiences of patients and the professionalism and skill of those doctors and nurses who helped care for them - and O’Brien directed it with the brevity and sensitivity of whatever the television equivalent of fine short storytelling.”
Tim Teeman, The Times
Portillo on Thatcher: The Lady’s Not For Spurning
“Gordon Brown and David Cameron should watch it. Tony Blair should get a hold of a tape and reflect on what might have been. Media bosses who only commission films if they portray politicians as corrupt and mad should take note also… I know people with only a passing interest in politics who were gripped.”
Steve Richards, The Independent
The Alastair Campbell Diaries
“Just as DVD extras allow you to see the human fallibility that lies behind the polished exterior of the finished film, Campbell’s diary fills in the engrossing trivia of off-stage politics… it is completely engrossing.”
Thomas Sutcliffe, The Independent
The Widow’s Tale
“This complex and moving film is one of the television highlights of the year so far.”
Andrew Male, The Sunday Times
Grumpy Old Men
“The whole programme put me into an uncharacteristically, seethingly good mood… Wonderful stuff”
A.A. Gill, The Sunday Times
