Thursday round-up: Latest news, deals & hires

John McVay emerges at AI firm

Former Pact chief executive John McVay has been appointed the vice-chair of AI training platform AIMICI.

McVay will take over the board chair position from the incumbent portfolio manager and investment advisor Sir John Lucas-Tooth, when he steps back from the company. His work will be focused on standardising training and transparency of the evolving technology.

UK-based AIMICI works with the screen industry, helping creative businesses equip their teams with knowledge around AI and setting clear standards for what responsible AI looks like. This summer, it launched its Responsible AI training standard, the first AI courses to be accredited by ScreenSkills. Shortly after, Pact became a launch partner for the accredited AI courses. Read more

Amazon preps Gary Lineker docuseries

Prime Video has commissioned a four-part docuseries on Gary Lineker from Orchard Studios, the indie behind Untold UK: The Jamie Vardy Story.

Lineker, which is currently in production, will examine the 65-year-old ex-footballer’s career on the pitch, as a pundit and at the helm of podcast juggernaut Goalhanger, as well as his life beyond.

While the series will feature interviews with Lineker as well as his family, friends and colleagues, Orchard head of programmes Nat Lippiett promised a “no-holds barred” approach to its famously outspoken subject, who stepped down from his role as host of the BBC’s Match of the Day last year after sharing a post which included an anti-Semitic trope.

Directed by Gussy Sakula-Barry (Channel 4’s Diddy: In Plain Sight), the documentary will be led by a mostly female production team. Read more

BBC Select orders from Woodcut

Woodcut Media has landed an archaeology docuseries for the US and Canada-based streamer BBC Select.

The 6 x 45-minute Ancients: The Greatest Finds is currently in production and scheduled for delivery in December. It looks at some of civilisation’s most remarkable archaeological discoveries and what they tell us about how ancient people lived. Covering a 4,000-year period of history, it will focus on the themes of cities, belief, warfare, innovation, exploration and entertainment.

Woodcut Media’s Andre Holzinger is series producer with Kate Beal and Tom Adams as exec producers. The series was ordered by BBC Select’s head of programming & content strategy Michael DiMattesa and brokered by Sophie Judge for BBC Studios Distribution and Diane Tripp for Woodcut International, which is handling distribution.