Bring me new twists, Fincham tells indies

Director of television Peter Fincham outlined his vision for ITV's reinvention in meet-and-greets with indies in Manchester and London last week, his first since joining the channel.

He encouraged his commissioners to make “brave” decisions but emphasised that new variants on traditional ideas were top of his agenda.

Drama boss Laura Mackie used Moving Wallpaper and US import Pushing Daisies as benchmarks for the kind of surprises she wanted dramas to deliver.

An executive at one indie said: “She wants family and relationship drama with an edge. She's not looking for crime drama - which they've got coming out of their ears. It's very much about not reinventing the wheel but updating what ITV has done in the past.”

Of ITV's raft of new dramas this spring, only The Fixer and Moving Wallpaper, both from Kudos, have been recommissioned so far.

Director of factual and daytime Alison Sharman reiterated her call for “big access” documentaries for weeknight 8pm and 9pm slots. She used the police investigation into the missing “Canoe man” as an example of the kind of big stories factual should cover in depth.

“On the factual front, everything they do has to be huge,” one indie producer said.

In daytime, Adam MacDonald is looking for more long-running observation documentaries.

ITV2 controller Zai Bennett and ITV head of entertainment Paul Jackson were also at the meetings. Indies that attended were encouraged by Fincham's empathy with producers, influenced by his own production background.

“Fincham has got a really good team - they are lean and they know what they want,” one producer said. “There is a huge amount of goodwill towards the reinvention of ITV.”

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