Bea Ballard is a British television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 executive producer

Executive producer

An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...

. She is Chief Executive of 10 Star Entertainment - a production company set up in 2009 with investment from Fremantle Media. She is the daughter of novelist J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard

James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction...

.

Ballard co-devised a string of Saturday night entertainment programmes for BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

, including How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? was a British television talent series, that was broadcast on Saturday evenings on BBC One between 29 July and 16 September 2006. It documented the search for a new, undiscovered musical theatre performer to play the role of Maria von Trapp in the 2006 Andrew...

 and Any Dream Will Do

Any Dream Will Do

Any Dream Will Do may refer to:*"Any Dream Will Do" , from the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice...

 while Creative Head and Executive Producer at BBC Entertainment between 2003 and 2007

Television Programmes

While Creative Head of BBC Entertainment Events, Bea Ballard put forward to the then Controller of BBC ONE, Peter Fincham, the idea of How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria. She successfully got the series commissioned, and off the ground. The programme was the first time that a West End musical had been cast via a television show, with the public voting on contestants drawn from open auditions held all over Britain. The programme has spawned other continuations of the format, such as Grease

Grease (film)

Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...

 for ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 and NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 in America. The format is also being adapted internationally for a number of other musicals.

Following the How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria, the BBC developed Any Dream Will Do

Any Dream Will Do (TV series)

Any Dream Will Do, often known as 'Joseph', was a 2007 talent show-themed television series produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom. It searched for a new, unknown lead to play Joseph in a West End revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.The show...

, the search to cast the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...

’s West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...

.

Ballard also recently worked with Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry

Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

 on Weekend for BBC FOUR.The weekend included the documentary 50 Not Out, and the programme Guilty.

Talent

Ballard helped persuade Ronnie Barker to come out of retirement and reunite with Ronnie Corbett

Ronnie Corbett

Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, OBE is a Scottish actor and comedian of Scottish and English parentage who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the British television comedy series The Two Ronnies...

 to make The Two Ronnie’s Sketchbook series.

Parkinson

Ballard re-launched the Parkinson show for BBC One Michael Parkinson

Michael Parkinson

Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...

.The show featured top international talent – from David and Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham

Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...

s’ first solo and joint interviews, to Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

’s first interview since the death of wife Linda, to George Michael

George Michael

George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...

 and Hugh Grant’s first interviews since their lives were rocked by scandal.

Television

Ballard created and Executive Produced a number of specials for BBC ONE, from One Night With Robbie Williams at the Royal Albert Hall (winner of Silver Rose of Montreux for Best International Music Programme), to Elton John at the Royal Opera House, to the BAFTA Tributes series of celebrity specials -Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...

, Billy Connolly

Billy Connolly

William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...

, Ronnie Barker

Ronnie Barker

Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...

, Judi Dench

Judi Dench

Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...

. She also oversaw all of the BBC’s Eurovision programming.

Chairman of BAFTA Television Committee

Ballard was elected Chairman of the BAFTA Television Committee, and served from 2001 to 2003. Prior to this she was elected to BAFTA Council & served for six years. She was also Chairman of the BAFTA Events Committee for 2 years, producing a number of keynote speeches with channel controllers and she launched The Independent View – a series of interviews and profiles of the television industry’s key independents. During her tenure at BAFTA she expanded its television programming through the development of the BAFTA Tributes series. She also oversaw annually the television juries and chaired many herself, ranging from drama to comedy.

Ballard programmes for BBC ONE

• The Sound Of Musicals
• Any Dream Will Do (Joseph)
• How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria (Best Entertainment Series – International Emmys 2007; Broadcast Awards 2007; Royal Television Society Awards 2007)
• Celebrate the Sound of Music (hosted by Graham Norton)
• Parkinson (Best Ent Series 4 years running at National TV Awards; Best Ent Series BAFTA TV Awards; Best Ent Series RTS Awards; Best Ent Series TV Quick Awards)
• The Two Ronnies Sketchbook (highest rating BBC comedy series of 2005)
• The BAFTA TV Awards
• BAFTA Tributes to Victoria Wood, Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Bruce Forsyth, Ronnie Barker, Julie Walters, James Bond
• Eurovision
• Making Your Mind Up (re-branded Song For Europe)
• Eastenders Christmas Party
• One Night With Robbie Williams - Royal Albert Hall (Silver Rose for Best International Music Prog at Golden Rose of Montreux)
• One Night With Rod Stewart (Royal Albert Hall)
• Elton John – an Ivor Novello Tribute
• Elton John at the Royal Opera House
• All Time Greatest Love Songs
• The Royal Variety Show
• Victoria Wood’s Sketch Show Story
• The Sitcom Story with Dawn French
• Ruby Wax Meets Madonna
• Carrie Fisher on Hollywood (Emmy award)
• Auntie’s All Time Greats
• Saturday Night Clive (BAFTA and RTS nominated)
• Clive James Fame in the Twentieth Century ( Emmy Award)
• Clive James Postcards form Paris; New York; Miami; Paris

BBC TWO: Saturday Night Clive

BBC FOUR Stephen Fry Night

Early television career

David Liddiment invited Bea to join BBC Entertainment as Head Of Talk and Specials. This led to re-launching Parkinson and devising a number of event specials – from the 2 hour gala celebrating BBC TV’s 60th Anniversary, TV 60 – Aunties All Time Greats, to BAFTA Awards, to Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax is a BAFTA nominated American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.-Early life:...

 Meets Madonna

Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

, to documentaries series such as the Emmy winning Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher

Carrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her...

 on Hollywood (co-production with A&E).

She devised the weekly entertainment show Saturday Night Clive. Following its success on BBC TWO the show was transferred to BBC ONE.

Ballard also produced the majority of Clive James

Clive James

Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...

’ other output for the BBC. She devised and produced the award-winning, 8 part - documentary series Fame in the Twentieth a co-production with PBS, shown both in the UK and the US. Ballard also produced the documentary series for BBC ONE in which Clive James profiled various cities around the world - Clive James Postcards…. from Paris; New York; Miami; Paris.

Prior to joining the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 Ballard worked at LWT in Entertainment where she produced a wide range of entertainment shows, from An Audience With (Peter Ustinov

Peter Ustinov

Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...

; Billy Connolly

Billy Connolly

William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...

), to The Late Clive James, to Michael Aspel

Michael Aspel

Michael Terence Aspel, OBE is an English television presenter, known for his reserved demeanour and rich speaking voice. He has been a high-profile TV personality in the United Kingdom since the 1960s, presenting programmes such as Crackerjack, Aspel and Company, This is Your Life, Strange But...

 and Company, to BAFTA Awards.

Ballard started her television career at the BBC, on John Craven’s Newsround, where she worked as a journalist and assistant producer.

Education and Training

Ballard read English and American Literature at The University of East Anglia

University of East Anglia

The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...

, where her tutors included Malcolm Bradbury

Malcolm Bradbury

Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...

, Lorna Sage

Lorna Sage

Lorna Sage was a Welsh-born academic, as well as an award-winning literary critic and author, known widely for her contribution to the consideration of women's writing.-Biography:...

, and Angus Wilson

Angus Wilson

Sir Angus Frank Johnstone Wilson, CBE was an English novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot and later received a knighthood for his services to literature.-Biography:Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to...

. Following this she took a one year post-graduate Diploma in Journalism at London’s City University. She completed this with Distinction, and won a scholarship to The New Statesman

New Statesman

New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....

, where she trained as a reporter and researcher.