‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ prodco The Garden hires ‘Fight The Power’ & ‘The Circle’ duo

Squid Game

The Garden Productions, the UK-based outfit working on Netflix’s upcoming gameshow spin-off from Squid Game, has hired two new exec producers to bolster its ranks.

Helen Bart took up her role at the ITV Studios-owned prodco earlier this month and has just series produced the recently-announced Fight The Power for the BBC and PBS.

Before that, she worked on Small Axe and series produced its factual counterpart, Uprising, having started her career as a news journalist, specialising in politics, global and community affairs.

Jo Harcourt-Smith, meanwhile, is currently executive producing Celebrity Race Across The World for BBC One and will join The Garden at the start of the new year. Previous credits include Snowflake Mountain and the US, Brazilian and French series of The Circle for Netflix, as well as Gogglebox and The Apprentice.

John Hay, joint CEO of The Garden, said the duo would extend the prodco’s ambitions beyond a slate “that now stretches from formats to box-sets via a renewed docs heartland and that sees us making premium shows of scale both in the UK and internationally.”

The Garden’s slate includes Alone for Channel 4 in the UK, while recommissions range from Emergency and 24 Hours In A&E to 24 Hours in Police Custody. It has also been behind Real PD for Discovery+ in the US and opened a new office in Manchester, in addition to Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, which is being coproduced with All3Media’s Studio Lambert.