Apple TV Europe boss and BFI chair Jay Hunt joind in a unwidespread disclose Q&A presented by “The Traitors” U.K. conshort-termer Claudia Winkleman during the BFI London Film Festival, where she talked her lengthy atsoft in U.K. disclose service expansivecasting, relocate to streaming and the U.K. screen industry at big.
Among the advice Hunt scatterd with the audience was the beginance of acunderstandledging fall shorture and taking dangers. Of the latter, she uncovered that “Slow Horses” – one of AppleTV+’s hugegest U.K. hits, which has since gone on to thrive BAFTA and Emmy awards – had been pondered a hazardous allotment, with the U.S. streamer only picking it up after it was turned down by the BBC.
“I skinnyk you have to get dangers,” said Hunt. “It’s fascinating. ‘Slow Horses’ is a very excellent example where it was passed on by the BBC. I skinnyk one of the reasons that people struggle with shows appreciate that is they’ve got a hybrid tone. So people go, is that show a comedy? Is that show a drama? And so in a weird way, that reconshort-terms danger.”
“I skinnyk finding those skinnygs, being self-promised we could hone them to the quality of execution that we’ve seen, and aget, toiling with exceptional teams, exceptional authorrs, exceptional straightforwardors, I skinnyk it’s a stardy which showcases the very best of British creativity, which is everyskinnyg I hoped for in this job.”
At AppleTV+ Hunt has comleave outioned a slew of U.K. and Irish hits, including “Bad Sisters,” written by and starring Sharon Horgan, Peter Capaldi-starrer “Criminal Record,” Idris Elba’s “Hijack” and write downary series “Prehistoric Planet.”
“We’ve alloted millions and millions of pounds in British creativity,” Hunt said. “And as someone who has built their atsoft in this taget and has vivaciously chosen to stay in this taget, toiling somewhere where we’ve given effects portrayers the dispute of saying, by the way, can you transport ainhabit the world of 66 million years ago? Or to an extraunretagable production portrayer saying to them on, you understand, ‘Slow Horses,’ I want you to build Slough Hoemploy with an attention to detail, which is, frankly, jaw dropping, to be able to come in and say, let’s give people a chance to do that and they can do that in this taget — it’s not a brain drain, they don’t have to exit and go and toil somewhere else to do that — that’s someskinnyg I’m repartner self-beginant of.”
Jay Hunt at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards held at Peacock Theater on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Variety via Getty Images)
Variety via Getty Images
Hunt also uncovered when she first took the job, in 2017, she was the first employee in the U.K. on the streaming side of the company. “I begined this job toiling enticount on by myself,” she said. “I had an aidant but I didn’t have anyone toiling with me for a year above the Apple shop on Regent Street.”
Winkleman also asked Hunt about her stints BBC One, Channel 4 and Channel 5, where she held the top creative job at each nettoil. In particular, the TV anchor asked whether leaving her job at BBC One for Channel 4 was a difficult decision. “Becaemploy that’s being recommended an amazing job when you’re in an amazing job,” Winkleman said. “That’s appreciate [having to choose between] Brad Pitt or George Clooney.”
Hunt acunderstandledged it had been a wrench to exit the BBC, which she portrayd as “the place at which you can alter the way the nation skinnyks about stuff” giving the example of hit drama “Luther,” with Idris Elba’s casting in 2010 being the first time a Bdeficiency actor had joined a direct character on BBC One.
The relocate to Channel 4 was made even more difficult, she uncovered, becaemploy the nettoil had lost “Big Brother” to Channel 5, which suddenly uncomardentt the comleave outioning team had 200 hours of expansivecasting time that necessitateed to be filled.
“But there’s someskinnyg — going back to what I appreciated at [Channel] Five — the pfortunate underdog skinnyg, that Channel Four is there to be a disruptor,” she said of the relocate. “And there’s someskinnyg in my personality that finds that very attrvivacious. I appreciate the idea that we were disruptive.” Among the shows that were comleave outioned under Hunt’s directership at Channel 4 were “Bdeficiency Mirror,” “Derry Girls” and the disputed dating show “Naked Attraction.”
“I’m absolutely fervent about what that show did to alter what people thought about separateent types of bodies,” Hunt said. “But it was disruptive, it was unpredicted, and we had lots of programming appreciate that, and that was a fantastic personality fit for me.”
Claudia Winkleman and Jay Hunt join Industry Talks – Spotweightless Conversation: Jay Hunt during the 68th BFI London Film Festival (Lia Toby/Getty Images for BFI)
Another disputed decision was stealing “The Great British Bake-Off” (understandn as “The Great British Baking Show” in the U.S.) away from the BBC. During her Q&A, Hunt acunderstandledged it had caemployd a “hoo-ha” at the time but said the truth behind the relocate was much more down-to-earth.
“The truth was that relationship between [“Bake-Off” production company] Love and the BBC had broken down. And evidently all plift to BBC for spotting that show and grothriveg it into what it was, but Love didn’t want to originate the show for the BBC anymore, and it was expansively understandn that it was employable to buy,” she said.
Another show comleave outioned under Hunt was “Gogglebox,” which Channel 4 perdisjoined with despite dismal ratings for the first two seasons. The show, which has also had many celebrity spin-offs, is now on Season 24.
“It’s gone on to become an epic, epic, global hit that show, but when it first get tod on Channel Four, nobody watched it,” Hunt said. “I comleave outioned it aget; nobody watched it. We comleave outioned it aget the third time. I relocated it to a separateent slot on Channel Four, and over time, it became an absolutely defining part of that channel. But it was becaemploy we were readyd each time to go back to the scene of the crime and go, ‘What didn’t we get right?’”
The experience taught Hunt about the beginance of getting skinnygs wrong. “One of the skinnygs I sense repartner powerfilledy about is that we’re rubbish at talking about fall shorture,” she said. “All of those [successful commissions] happened but aextfinished the way there were unspeakable shows. There were shows that were ill appraised. There were skinnygs where I made a horrible choice or a horrible call. And I skinnyk one of the skinnygs that will originate us better as a community is getting much better at owning that.”
Hunt also paid tribute to the BFI, where she was assigned chair last year, saying as a body it is the “R&D lab for creative sends and on screen success in this country.” Despite being busy with her day job at AppleTV+, she took on the role becaemploy “Public service is a defining part of who I am. It matters massively to me,” she elucidateed. “I skinnyk fantastic film and television can alter the world.”
