Shaw exits C4 to join BBC

Shaw will join as commissioning executive in October, with responsibility for ordering shows across BBC1 and BBC2. She will report to features and formats commissioning editor Alison Kirkham.

Shaw takes up the role vacated by Lisa Edwards, who joined Shed’s Twenty Twenty as director of programmes in June.

During her four years at C4, Shaw was responsible for commissioning formats such as The Food Hospital and Four Rooms, as well as Tsunami: Caught On Camera and Hippo: Nature’s Wild Feast.

She was one of several C4 commissioners who applied for the deputy head of factual position created when the specialist factual and documentaries teams were merged at the start of the year. The role eventually went to Nick Mirsky.

Prior to joining C4, Shaw was a creative director at Silver River, which was recently bought by Sony Pictures Television.

She said: “The scope at the BBC is much broader and it is exciting to be working across two channels.

“At C4, I tried to stretch the boundaries by developing ideas from people and companies from a variety of backgrounds. The most original ideas often come from a cross-genre approach.

“The challenge at the BBC will be to appeal to the masses without losing the intelligent content that makes features such an interesting and important genre.”

C4 head of factual Ralph Lee will look to fill Shaw’s position in due course. It will continue to focus on factual formats.