Kate Harwood is Managing Director of FremantleMedia UK drama label Euston Films. Kate’s early career began in in-house drama production at the BBC starting as script editor and then producer and executive producer. Her career includes BAFTA-winning shows such as Holding On and Charles II and she was producer and executive producer on titles such as Twenty Thousand Streets, Cranford, Lost World and Oliver Twist amongst many others. Kate also ran EastEnders as Executive Producer in 2005/6 and then became Controller of Series and Serials where she was responsible for output such as Criminal Justice, Luther, Five Daughters, Silent Witness, The Musketeers, South Riding and In the Flesh. Kate has been Head of Drama Production England since 2012 when the Continuing Drama Series and Daytime dramas were brought together under her leadership. She joined FremantleMedia UK to relaunch Euston Films in Autumn 2014.
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FremantleMedia raids C4 for UK CEO | C21 Media | Feb. 2, 2017
FremantleMedia has tapped a Channel 4 executive to oversee its restructured UK operation, which has brought its entertainment and factual units under one arm.
Liam Humphreys, currently the UK broadcaster’s head of popular factual television, will lead the new operation, which sees the production labels Thames, Boundless and Talkback brought together under the Unscripted banner.
The three businesses will continue to exist, but the new structure will combine their expertise in unscripted and work together “more holistically,” FremantleMedia UK (FMUK) said.
As FMUK CEO, Humphreys will report to FremantleMedia group CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz.
Richard Holloway, who has been interim CEO of FMUK for the past two-and-a-half years while also managing Thames, will continue in the post until Humphreys joins the business later this year.
FMUK’s drama and comedy businesses will continue to operate separately, with Euston Films MD Kate Harwood and Retort boss Jon Rolph reporting to Frot-Coutaz.
FMUK, producer of shows such as The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, will be represented at operating board level by its chairman, David Liddiment.
“As the entertainment and factual genres increasingly bleed into one another, it makes sense to run these labels as a single entity with a greater focus in order to explore new areas and further expand our unscripted business,” said Frot-Coutaz.
Fremantle set to resurrect Euston Films | The Guardian | March 17, 2014
FremantleMedia UK is to revive the production company behind classic 1970s and 80s dramas including The Sweeney and Reilly, Ace of Spies, and has hired the BBC head of drama production to run it.
Kate Harwood, who has overseen hits including Cranford, Luther, Five Daughters and The Musketeers during her 24 years at the BBC, will join Fremantle as managing director of Euston Films in the summer.
Euston Films has been mothballed since the mid-1990s but was producer of ITV dramas including The Flame Trees of Thika, Widows, Capital City and Reilly, Ace of Spies. The name faded away after owner Thames Television lost its ITV franchise in 1992.
It was set up as a Thames subsidiary in 1971 to specialise in high quality mainstream drama and built a reputation for shooting on film and on location, unlike much production of scripted TV output at the time. Euston’s best known productions were cop drama The Sweeney and comedy Minder.
Minder was Euston Films’ longest-running success, on air for 15 years from 1979. It was revived briefly by Channel 5 in 2009, with Shane Richie in the lead role but under the Talkback Thames name, rather than as a Euston Films production.
Many of the leading drama producers and writers of the era worked for Euston at one time or another, including Ted Childs, Verity Lambert, Linda Agran and Lynda La Plante
Harwood will be responsible for bringing the brand back to life, relaunching it as part of RTL subsidiary FremantleMedia – which owns the Thames name.
She said: “I am delighted to be taking up the role of managing director of Euston Films and am really relishing the challenge of new ventures in drama in the independent sector after many happy years in BBC Production.”
Harwood will be looking to create high-end shows with international appeal and will report to FremantleMedia UK chief executive Sara Geater.
Geater said: “Euston Films is a name associated with iconic drama, and I’m delighted to announce that we will be launching it as a new label as part of FremantleMedia UK. Our strategy is to produce high-end drama with global reach, and Kate’s appointment as managing director of Euston Films is a real coup. She brings a fantastic wealth of experience and knowledge, and will be a great asset.”
Euston Films will sit alongside the existing Fremantle production “labels” Boundless, Newman Street, Retort, Talkback and Thames.