Endemol prodco poaches BBC factual pair

Endemol-owned doc specialist Tigress Productions has hired a pair of BBC factual execs as it moves into features and factual entertainment for the first time.

Pete Lawrence will next year become Tigress’s creative director, while Claire Urquhart has alresdy joined as head of development.

Lawrence is currently head of BBC Features Productions and Urquhart was head of BBC Features Development.

The hires are part of an expansion drive Tigress said managing director Dick Colthurst and Colette Foster, joint managing director of Endemol sister company Remarkable Television.

The plan is to create a portfolio of factual entertainment and features programming to sit alongside its blue chip natural history, science, wildlife and adventure programming, which includes Naked and Marooned with Ed Stafford, Nature Shock and Freddie Flintoff Goes Wild.

Lawrence has worked in factual and formats for 25 years and currently oversees a BBC One slate including consumer affairs show Watchdog, real crime show Crimewatch and Antiques Roadshow. He also brough chef Nigel Slater to the BBC and has produced documentarties such as The Prison Restaurant.

Urquhart’s BBC credits include Hairy Bikers Asian Odyssey for BBC Two and The Great British Winter for BBC Daytime. She was formerly head of features and BBC Three development at BBC Bristol and prior to that worked on format development at indie Outline Productions.

Remarkable’s Foster said: “Tigress is in a perfect position to build on its long running success and further diversify its output into features and factual entertainment programming. With Pete and Claire joining the brilliant team that Dick has built and led, the company is primed to deliver a new and exciting line up of hit series across a range of genres.”