Apple TV Europe boss and BFI chairman Jay Hunt took part in a rare public Q&A session hosted by British presenter Claudia Winkleman of “The Traitors” during the BFI London Film Festival, where she chronicled her long career with the British public broadcaster, its switch to streaming and the United Kingdom. screen industry in general.
Among the pieces of advice Hunt shared with the audience was the importance of recognizing failure and taking risks. On the latter, she revealed that “Slow Horses” – one of AppleTV+’s biggest UK hits, which has since won BAFTA and Emmy awards – was considered a risky investment, with the US streamer only picking it up after it was converted. brought down by the BBC.
“I think you have to take risks,” Hunt said. “It’s interesting. ‘Slow Horses’ is a very good example where it was passed on by the BBC. I think one of the reasons people struggle with shows like that is because they have a hybrid tone. So people go: is that show a comedy? Is that program a drama? And so in a strange way that represents risk.”
“I think if we find those things, feel confident that we can hone them to the quality of execution that we’ve seen, and again, working with exceptional teams, exceptional writers, exceptional directors, I think it’s a slate that will shows the very best of British films. creativity, that’s all I hoped for in this job.”
At AppleTV+, Hunt has commissioned a string of British and Irish hits, including ‘Bad Sisters’ written by and starring Sharon Horgan, Peter Capaldi-starring ‘Criminal Record’, Idris Elba’s ‘Hijack’ and the documentary series ‘ Prehistoric Planet’.
“We have invested millions and millions of pounds in British creativity,” Hunt said. “And as someone who has built his career in this market and has actively chosen to stay in this market, working somewhere where we have given effects designers the challenge to say, can you make the world of 66 million years alive? ? past? Or to an extraordinary production designer who says to them, ‘Slow Horses’: I want you to build Slough House with attention to detail, which is frankly breathtaking, so that you can come in and say, let’s give people the opportunity to do that and they can do that in this market – it’s not a brain drain, they don’t have to leave and work somewhere else to do that – I’m really proud of that.”
Jay Hunt at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Peacock Theater on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Variety via Getty Images)
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Hunt also revealed when she first took the job, in 2017, that she was the first employee in Britain on the streaming side of the business. “I started this job all by myself,” she says. “I had an assistant, but no one worked with me above the Apple store on Regent Street for a year.”
Winkleman also asked Hunt about her stints at BBC One, Channel 4 and Channel 5, where she held the top creative job at each network. In particular, the TV presenter asked whether leaving her job at BBC One for Channel 4 was a difficult decision. “Because then you get offered a great job while you have a great job,” says Winkleman. ‘That’s something like that [having to choose between] Brad Pitt or George Clooney.”
Hunt acknowledged that it had been a tough job leaving the BBC, which she described as “the place where you can change the way the nation thinks about things”, giving the example of the hit drama “Luther”, starring Idris Elba’s casting in 2010 to star. the first time a black actor played a lead character on BBC One.
The move to Channel 4 was made even more difficult, she revealed, because the channel had lost ‘Big Brother’ to Channel 5, which suddenly meant the commissioning team had 200 hours of airtime to fill.
“But there is something: going back to what I loved [Channel] Five – the plucky underdog thing, that Channel Four is there to be a disruptor,” she said of the move. “And there’s something in my personality that finds that very attractive. I like the idea that we were disruptive.” Among the shows created under Hunt’s leadership at Channel 4 were ‘Black Mirror’, ‘Derry Girls’ and the controversial dating show ‘Naked Attraction’.
“I’m absolutely passionate about what that show has done to transform people’s views on different types of bodies,” Hunt said. “But it was disruptive, it was surprising, and we had a lot of programs like that, and that was a great fit for me.”
Another controversial decision was stealing “The Great British Bake-Off” (known in the US as “The Great British Baking Show”) from the BBC. During her Q&A, Hunt acknowledged it had caused a “hoo-ha” at the time, but said the reality behind the move was much more pragmatic.
“The truth was that relationship between [“Bake-Off” production company] Love and the BBC had gone bankrupt. And of course all credit to the BBC for spotting that show and growing it into what it was, but Love didn’t want to make the show for the BBC anymore and it was common knowledge that it was for sale,” she said.
Another show made under Hunt was ‘Gogglebox’, which Channel 4 continued for its first two seasons despite dismal ratings. The show, which has also had numerous celebrity spinoffs, is now in season 24.
“It’s been an epic, epic, worldwide hit, but when it first came out on Channel Four no-one watched it,” Hunt said. “I put it back into use; no one looked at it. We put it back into use for the third time. I moved it to another slot on Channel Four, and over time it became an absolutely defining part of that channel. But it was because every time we were willing to go back to the scene of the crime and ask, “What did we get wrong?”
The experience taught Hunt the importance of getting things wrong. “One of the things I feel very strongly about is that we are bad at talking about failure,” she said. ‘All those things [successful commissions] happened, but along the way there were unspeakable shows. There were shows that were rated poorly. There were things where I made a bad choice or a poor choice. And I think one of the things that will make us better as a community is that we’ll get much better at that.
Hunt also paid tribute to the BFI, where she was appointed chair last year, saying that as a body it is the “R&D lab for creative skills and screen success in this country”. Despite being busy with her day job at AppleTV+, she took on this role because “Public service is a defining part of who I am. It is extremely important to me,” she explained. “I think great film and television can change the world.”