RDF Television | Executives

RDF Television Executives
Recruitment

Jim Allen
Managing Director

Jim Allen

Managing Director

Jim joined RDF in 2009 from ITV Productions where he held the position of Director, ITV Studios, Factual & Entertainment since 2003. At ITV his two genre section of the business had more than 500 staff and was responsible for a stellar slate of programming including I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, Dancing on Ice, Hell’s Kitchen, Come Dine With Me, Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Tonight with Trevor McDonald, Airline and the recent RTS Educational TV Award winner Words of War. Prior to this role he was Group Controller, Granada Factual (from 2001) and Controller of Factual Programmes, LWT (from 1997) who’s programmes included Ramsay’s Boiling Point, the first television vehicle for celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. He has worked in television production for over 25 years and personally created and devised a wide range of programmes including Britain’s Best Dish and Celebrity Fit Club

Will Smith
Director of Programmes

Will Smith

Director of Programmes

Will joined RDF from ITV Productions where he held the position of Controller, ITV Productions, Factual London. His department at ITV was responsible for a stellar slate of programming including I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, Dancing on Ice, Hell’s Kitchen and Come Dine with Me. Will’s department produced 400 hours of programmes a year and its formats broadcast in 40 territories around the world. Prior to this role he was controller of Factual at LWT for 6 years. He has worked in television production for nearly twenty years and executive produced a wide range of programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC. Will joined RDF TV in 2009 with a responsibility across all of RDF Televisions programming genres of Entertainment, Factual Entertainment, Comedy, Documentaries, and Daytime & Features.

Jane Wilson
Director of Production

Jane Wilson

Director of Production

Jane started her TV career in Manchester as a Post Production Manager for a facility company then moved to Mersey TV as Production Manager of Brookside. As a freelance PM, Jane worked for several companies on a variety of factual, entertainment and live shows. She was a Programme Finance Manager for Discovery and Channel Five before joining RDF in January 2002 as a Unit Manager. Now Director of Production, Jane oversees the busy and varied output of RDF and Touchpaper TV.

Mark Hill
Head of RDF Television West

Mark Hill

Head of RDF Television West

Mark joined RDF Television in 2006 from the BBC where he was Deputy Head of Network Factual in Bristol, creating and executive producing some of the BBC’s most successful shows across Daytime, BBC1, BBC2 & BBC3; including Bargain Hunt, Flog It, Antiques Roadshow, Holiday Swaps, 20th Century Roadshow, Antiques Inspector, The Curious Gardeners, Fresh Food & Desperate Midwives. Prior to the BBC, Mark worked in the independent sector for Pearson and for three ITV companies, including GMTV and five years at LWT Factual.

Teresa Watkins
Creative Director - Development

Teresa Watkins

Creative Director - Development

Teresa started out in radio at the BBC, joining RDF in 1997 to head up their radio department. She moved across to the development desk in 1999 where she has worked on ideas such as Faking It and Wife Swap, and executive produced Michael Jackson's Face and Plastic Surgery Ruined My Life.

Lynn Sutcliffe
Head of Development

Lynn Sutcliffe

Head of Development

Lynn started out in the theatre before going on to work for indies Hattrick, Wall to Wall, Action Time and MTV. She went on to join the BBC in 1999 where she co-devised The Weakest Link and Dog Eat Dog before joining RDF in 2006.

Tayte Simpson
Head of Factual Entertainment

Tayte Simpson

Head of Factual Entertainment

Tayte has been the head of factual entertainment since 2007. He was the executive producer on 4 series of the BAFTA nominated ‘Secret Millionaire’, and the 90 minute special in Mumbai. He also EP’d and helped develop C4’s ‘How The Other Half Live’, a formatted documentary series looking at child poverty. Other EP credits include 4 series of ‘Wife Swap’, ‘Wife Swap The Aftermath’ on E4, a C4 documentary on the fur trade, ‘Kill It, Skin It, Wear It’, and ‘Shipwrecked’ on T4. Tayte is also currently overseeing new peak time commissions for BBC1 and BBC3. As a series producer he worked on programmes such as ‘Holiday Showdown’ and ‘Rock School’, and as a producer/director credits include ‘Faking It’ (courier to polo player), the first series of ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ both in the UK and US, ‘Wife Swap USA’, ‘Temptation Island’, and ‘Survivor’.

Clelia Mountford
Head of Comedy

Clelia Mountford

Head of Comedy

Clelia joined RDF in November 2006 as Development Executive, Comedy. Previously, she spent eight years at TalkbackTHAMES, initially working with Griff Rhys Jones and then developing scripted comedy for television and radio. Before TalkbackTHAMES, Clelia worked in the theatre, as a freelance film script editor and produced comedy and drama for BBC Radio 4 and 3.

Peter Usher
Head of Entertainment

Peter Usher

Head of Entertainment

Peter joined RDF from the BBC where he was executive producer for Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two. Peter has been in entertainment television production and development since the early 1990s when he worked for a variety of channels and independent production companies, including programme editing The Big Breakfast for two years.