Richard Bond segues to Banijay UK scripted role

Dragonfly chief Richard Bond is stepping into a Banijay UK drama role with Ros Ponder, Will Rowson and Alison Seymour succeeding him at the top of the Ambulance indie.

Bond, who has been at Dragonfly since 2017 and managing director since 2019, is taking up a newly created role as creative director of factual drama for the super-indie, for which he will be tasked with building a slate of commissions, working with scripted labels across the group to develop and produce scripted programming based on real life events.

The exec has already developed a scripted series in partnership with The Buccaneers outfit The Forge, which is in funded development with a broadcaster. Bond has a history in factual drama, landing Dragonfly’s its first title in the space in 2020 with the Jack Thorne and Genevieve Barr-penned BBC2/Netflix single Then Barbara Met Alan, which won a Broadcast Award in 2023 for best single drama and a Banff World Media Festival Rockie Award for best feature-length film.

Prior to Dragonfly, he exec produced on several factually inspired dramas including Channel 4’s Blackout, The People Next Door, and Cyberbully. He will take up his role in June, reporting into Banijay UK chief exec Patrick Holland.

Following Bond’s move, Dragonfly will now be led by Seymour, Ponder and Rowson. The latter two have been made co-creative directors, promoted from director of programmes and creative director of Dragonfly North, respectively, and will lead on creative delivery and strategy, while director of production Seymour has been upped to director of production and operations, steering the company’s commercial strategy. They will report to Holland.

Besides long-running BBC1 blue-light series Ambulance, Dragonfly is behind BBC2 doc Surgeons: At the Edge of Life and CNN original travelogue Eva Longoria: Searching for Spain. Its other credits include BBC2’s Cops Like Us and Discovery+ doc Anni: The Honeymoon Murder.

Under Bond’s leadership, Dragonfly has been a regular in Broadcast’s Best Places to Work list, reaching no.1 in 2019.

Bond said: “I’ve absolutely loved running Dragonfly and will dearly miss all the staff and freelancers who work so hard to make it such a brilliant company. But my passion is telling true stories in the most impactful, creative way possible, and audiences are increasingly hungry for factual drama, so having already had the pleasure of working with incredible writers like Jack Thorne, Genevieve Barr and Ben Chanan in this genre, the prospect of collaborating with Banijay’s best-in-class scripted labels to bring more of these projects to fruition is a dream come true.”

Holland added: “Richard is a fantastic leader, and the team have won numerous awards under his direction and have been responsible for some of the biggest documentary brands on television.

“He has always had a passion for factual drama and is the perfect creative leader to galvanize ideas in this growing market.

“Ros, Will and Ali are a formidable senior team, and I have every confidence that they will continue to grow Dragonfly. Premium documentary remains a strategic priority to the business and Dragonfly is a leading brand in this area.”