Label1 co-founder & joint-CEO plans 2023 exit from ‘Five Dates A Week’ firm

Five Dates A Week

Simon Dickson, the co-founder and joint-CEO of Fremantle UK-owned Label1 is to step down from the company next year.

Dickson, who set up the Five Dates A Week firm with Lorraine Charker-Phillips in 2015, will continue to work as a consultant executive producer on key titles during the transition.

The exec said that he is exiting the company to improve his work-life balance after “going hard at it for more than three decades.”

Simon Dickson

He explained: “The 2020 lockdown was a bit of a wake-up call, said I came to the realisation that after thirty years of soaring highs and crashing lows, there might be a way forward that wasn’t all late nights and adrenalin.”

Charker-Phillips will take on Dickson’s current responsibilities, with support from COO Jo Taylor, both of whom will report to Simon Andreae, CEO of Fremantle UK, which will retain a controlling stake in the company.

Label1 is currently working on Soldier, a six-part series for BBC One, and is behind titles including Worlds Collide: The Manchester Bombing for ITV, Nurses on the Ward for UKTV, School for BBC Two, Five Dates A Week for Channel 4 and The Family Brain Games for BBC Two. Both The Family Brain Games and Five Guys a Week have spawned international remakes, with the latter produced in 10 territories, including the US.

Before launching Label1, Dickson was a commissioner at Channel 4, creating and commissioning The Family, 24 Hours in A&E and One Born Every Minute and revamping First Dates. He also served as creative director and then managing director at Dragonfly, working on shows including The Plane Crash for Channel 4 and Discovery.

“Setting up my own business with Lorraine and Jo has been the most exciting and enjoyable period of my career,” added Dickson. “They will thrive without me because they are both brilliant and they have the support of our backers Fremantle UK who are just the best.”

Label1 sits among Fremantle’s growing suite of production entities, with the group having added several more to the stable in just the last two months, including This England outfit Passenger, Tel Aviv-based indie Silvio Productions, America The Beautiful producer Wildstar Films and All Or Nothing: Arsenal‘s 72 Films.