Talent Television

As part of a re-organisation of programming development responsibilities, Talent Television this week announced the appointment of David Sankey as Head of Development, Entertainment. Sankey will join the group to work alongside existing senior producer Jean Davison, who now takes on responsibility for Development, Factual and producer Jonathan Wolfman, who takes up the post of Development Executive for Talent Kids, the children's programming division formed some six months ago. Before joining Talent, David worked at LWT Entertainment, 19 TV and, most recently, Unique.

John Kaye-Cooper, Deputy Chairman and Creative Director of Talent Television, said today "We are absolutely delighted that David is choosing to join us at this time. His fantastic record developing new entertainment shows such as Back to Reality and I'm the Answer as well as working on established shows such as An Audience With…, Ant & Dec, and Pop Idol demonstrate the range and depth of his skills. He is the perfect choice to head up our Entertainment development team".

Tony Humphreys, Managing Director of Talent Group, commented "David's arrival gives us the opportunity to move onto the next stage in our business plan. We have strengthened our development resource and concentrated it in our three clear areas of strength:- Entertainment, Factual Entertainment and Children's programming. This strategic focus, coupled with the depth of experience of our people, will provide exactly the drive required for the next phase of our growth".

David himself said, "Over the last few years, Talent TV has made cutting-edge entertainment shows like The Villa and Test The Nation. And, after talking with them about their future plans, I couldn't resist the challenge of heading up their development team. To be joining a top indie like Talent at such an exciting time in their growth is an opportunity that doesn't come along often".

The new structure takes effect immediately with Sankey taking up his new position in early July. This news follows hot-on-the-heels of Talent Group plc issuing its interim results last week, in which the continued success of the Test the Nation series of interactive events for the BBC was highlighted as well as the encouraging progress of Talent Kids, with two international series close to green-light in 2003.