BBC Worldwide backs UK indie start-up

BBC Worldwide is taking a 25% stake in Mighty Productions, a new UK prodco being launched by Lynn Sutcliffe and Hugh Rycroft.

The commercial arm of UK pubcaster will distribute Mighty’s finished content and formats under the terms of a five-year deal.

Sutcliffe will be managing director of the new prodco and Rycroft creative director. The pair have previously worked together on quiz show Tipping Point and said they were launching Mighty ‘after they noticed an increasing demand for original content, particularly in the entertainment and factual entertainment genres’.

Sutcliffe started her career at the BBC, working on shows including The Weakest Link. As an international development executive for the BBC she also secured the rights to The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den. She was also head of development at UK indie CPL.

Rycroft has created TV formats including Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (BBC Two), The Sack Race (BBC Two/CBS), and celebrity quiz School’s Out (BBC One).

Mighty said today it will work up a slate ranging from daytime quiz formats to shiny-floor extravaganzas.

Tracy Forsyth, BBC Worldwide’s genre director of factual entertainment and entertainment, said: “Lynn and Hugh have a fantastic track record in creating clever, catchy ideas that appeal to a wonderfully broad audience. This, along with their expertise in delivering shows from quizzes to shiny floor to fact ent formats, means we are very excited to be working with them.”

Lynn Sutcliffe said: “Mighty will be a harmonious and creative environment where the whole team is respected and listened to. We will never forget that our runner has much more chance of ending up as director general of the BBC than either of us.”