Twenty Questions: David Sumnall

WHO GAVE YOU YOUR CAREER BREAK?

Genuinely, my wife Caz. For the first 10 years of my career I was a rarely-in-work freelancer, earning nothing. Without her continuous support through those years I would probably have had to leave TV.

Caz having a sensible marketing career gave me the ability to establish myself. Also, Andrew Mackenzie, who now runs South Shore Productions. Around 2009, he was a commissioner at Channel 4, and they had a pre-emptive funding scheme for start-up indies and idea development. He gave me £10,000 which I used to set up Middle Child. We didn’t actually win any work for three years, but it enabled me to set the company up, have regular meetings and pitch terrible ideas.

HOW MANY HOURS DO YOU WORK?

I’m never really off work. During our honeymoon I was doing an ITV soccer series around the pool. On this year’s holiday I was watching episodes of our show Canal Boat Diaries. In factual TV, so many ideas come out of the office - you have to stay on alert.

WHAT PROGRAMMES ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?

I pitched an RSPCA access series to Greg Barnett at 5, who was commissioner at the time. When Ben Frow came in with the new team, Greg pitched it to him and then I got a call from him saying: “Could we make this just about dogs and call it ‘The Dog Rescuers’?” We spent the weekend cutting a dogs-only taster tape, and we ended up making 120 episodes and nine seasons. Them taking that chance on us was huge. Fast-forward 15 years and we’ve just sold 12 half-hours of our new YouTube show Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh to ITV.

To create a successful original series for YouTube that a terrestrial broadcaster wants to come on board with feels massive.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE RESTAURANT?

Pizza Express. It’s my twins’ favourite restaurant. If we’re in Pizza Express, it means we’re all together. I’ve never had a bad meal there. We’ve got videos of the twins eating in there when they were about a year old, all the way up to now.

FAVOURITE DRINK?

A Picante - Caz and I are absolutely addicted. It’s tequila, chilli, freshly squeezed lime juice and agave. We’re now getting through 30 fresh limes a week. Our vitamin C levels are through the roof, we’ve not had a cold for a year and there’s no hangover as well!

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST TV-RELATED LEGAL PICKLE YOU’VE GOT YOURSELF INTO – AND OUT OF?

We make compliance-heavy content - shows like Fare Dodgers for 5 that involve a lot of police etc. - so much of our day is navigating legal, compliance-heavy pickles. We’ve got our lawyer at ABBAS on speed dial. We’ve never been in a situation where we’ve not been able to deal with it. We’ve never had an Ofcom complaint upheld against us and we’ve never been sued by anybody.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH DIFFICULT TALENT, AND WHO’S THE WORST?

To be honest, there’s normally a reason for any difficult behaviour that we’ve experienced. We once had a presenter who was rude and aggressive to the point that we had to step in. We found out that he had the most horrendous thing going on in the background, away from TV. Then we got an apology. If you take time to actually look a bit deeper and find the real reasons you can normally deal with it.

WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY BEST KNOWN FOR AND WHAT WOULD YOU CALL ITS USP?

We’re probably best known for being a nice company to work with - and a nice place to work. My ideal USP would be that no one’s got a bad word to say about us, and that’s a continuing goal.

WHAT ARE YOU READING AT THE MOMENT?

Werner Herzog’s Every Man For Himself and God Against All: A Memoir. He’s led an unbelievable life and it makes you think that you’ve wasted yours. Probably the best autobiography I’ve ever read.

MOST USED EXPRESSION?

“Would you like a Picante?” or, to my business partner Andrew Eastel, I say “Andrew did you see…?” about 20 times a day. It could be about an email, a social media post, a documentary, a VAR decision in football the night before… I say it a lot.

DREAM DINNER PARTY GUESTS?

Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Bolton Wanderers football team, my mum and my dad. My mum would host, because she throws the best parties, and I would sit back and watch my dad meet all his heroes.

HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN FIVE WORDS?

I am genuinely terrible at describing myself. Andrew’s nine-year-old daughter Willow came to the office recently and she drew a picture of me - can I put that forward as a description of me?

IF YOU COULD CHANGE TWO THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?

See picture.

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT IN LIFE?

Meeting Caz.

IF YOU COULD RETIRE TOMORROW, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I manage my son Harrison’s Under-13 football team called Plumpton Athletic and I would dedicate the next 15 years of my life to trying to get them into the Premier League. We lost 7-0 at the weekend, so they’ve got a way to go but I would enjoy every minute of it.

WHO WOULD YOU LEAST LIKE TO GET STUCK IN A LIFT WITH?

Anyone that thinks the RNLI don’t do a brilliant job. They’re volunteers who dedicate their lives to saving people at sea and are real-life heroes. Anyone who thinks differently is either stupid, dangerous or both, and I don’t want to be in a confined space with them.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?

We recently got access to a hospital and we are trying to make an observational documentary that works on YouTube. It’s exciting because it’s not easy. No one is making that kind of ‘flashing blue light’ observational documentary work in a YouTube space, currently.

LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

I had some really sad news a few weeks ago, and I came home, told Caz and we just sat on our bed and had a really good cry. When we got ourselves together and came out, my son Ethan said, “Could you please make our dinner now that you’ve stopped having sex?” We’d gone from being really, really upset to bursting out laughing.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE STARTING OUT IN TV?

Find a partner with a sensible career.

• Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh is on ITV soon