Sky hires BBC, C4 execs to bolster factual commissioning team

Hayley Reynolds & Janine Thomas

UK-based Sky has hired Hayley Reynolds from the BBC and Janine Thomas from Channel 4 to work across the commissioning of documentary and factual content.

Reynolds will become commissioning editor at Sky and will start next month, along with Thomas who has been named assistant commissioning editor. The duo will form part of the recently formed documentaries and factual commissioning team, reporting into director Poppy Dixon.

Their remits include bringing original features and multi-part series to Sky Documentaries, as well as “a limited number of landmark original natural history programmes” for Sky Nature and true crime original series for Sky Crime.

Reynolds worked as a producer on docs including BBC Three’s Our War before joining Minnow Films, where she produced across their development and production portfolio. For the past three years, she has been at the BBC’s feature documentary strand, Storyville, gaining credits on shows such as The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea.

Thomas joins Sky from C4 where she was documentaries assistant editor, working on a slate including Damilola: The Boy Next Door and Secret Life Of The Zoo. She has also commissioned into digital factual strand True Stories and E4, as well as working on Black History Month programming such as Take Your Knee Off My Neck.

Dixon said: “Hayley and Janine are coming on board at a particularly exciting time at Sky, as we work to build a world-class slate of must-see documentaries across our factual channels. Both excelled in their previous roles and will bring a creative and fresh perspective to our factual line-up.”

Comcast-owned Sky revealed earlier this year that it was doubling its originals slate for 2021, with more than 125 shows and films set to debut across its channels and Now TV streaming service. The docs line-up includes Hawking, Liverpool Narcos, Murder At The Cottage and Shark With Steve Backshall.