Paul Jackson (producer)
Encyclopedia
Kevin Paul Jackson credited as Paul Jackson; sometimes as K. Paul Jackson, is a British
television director, producer and executive.
incarnation of The Generation Game
, Blankety Blank
, Top of the Pops
and the last series of Steptoe and Son
all feature among his credits. It is however, for a quartet of programmes that he is particularly known; The Two Ronnies
(which he produced and directed, and for which he won three BAFTA nominations); Three of a Kind (the show featured Tracy Ullman and Lenny Henry
and was a winner of the BAFTA award for best entertainment show and a Rose of Montreux); The Young Ones
(winner of a BAFTA for best comedy); and Carrott's Lib
, a series transmitted live.
He also produced and directed Ben Elton
's first solo TV project, Happy Families
, with Jennifer Saunders
, Adrian Edmondson
, Hugh Laurie
and Stephen Fry
amongst others and the follow-up series to The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap
.
In 1982, he left the BBC and went freelance, producing The Cannon and Ball
Show for LWT
and two series of Girls On Top
(starring Tracy Ullman, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Ruby Wax
) for Central Television. Eighteen months later, he set up Paul Jackson Productions, one of the newly created independent producers made possible by the arrival of Channel Four. The company made Coming Next, a sketch show with Hale and Pace
, Chris Barrie
and several other series. One series gave Ruby Wax her first solo outing, Don't Miss Wax, which was produced for Channel Four.
At this time, Jackson was a member of the council of IPPA, a forerunner of Pact, the body which established terms for trade between independent producers and the BBC and other broadcasters. PJP was eventually taken over by Noel Gay Television, a company chaired by the British entertainment executive, Bill Cotton
. Jackson served as the Managing Director and the company produced Red Dwarf
, the long-running and internationally successful comedy series, the pilot episode of Bottom
(Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson) and, working with LWT, the hugely influential Channel Four variety show, Saturday Live. Saturday Live featured such comedy stars as Lenny Henry, Pamela Stephenson
, Michael Barrymore
, Peter Cook
and Barry Humphries
and bought to prominence talents such as Ben Elton (as a performer), Fry and Laurie, Harry Enfield
and Julian Clary
. The company also held the contract to provide all entertainment programming for the short lived UK satellite service, British Satellite Broadcasting
and produced shows featuring then unknown names such as Armando Ianucci, Steve Coogan
, Lee Evans
and Jack Dee
, as well as The Happening, a precursor to the long-running BBC show Later... with Jools Holland. In 1988 Jackson also co-produced the Oscar winning short film, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings
, starring Steven Wright and Rowan Atkinson
.
In 1991, Jackson was a member of the five man team which prepared Carlton Television
's successful bid for the London weekday franchise in the franchise round of that year. He served as a director of programmes for the bid, and was made Managing Director of the company the night it went on air on January 1, 1993. He later became Managing Director of Carlton Television Productions, but after the companies merger with Central Television in 1994 Jackson felt this model was at odds with the independent production model on which Carlton had been built and he left barely a year later.
In 1996 he was appointed head of BBC Entertainment, over-seeing the combined output of all the BBC's television, radio and on-line content, the only time one person had responsibility for all three areas; and was subsequently promoted to Controller of BBC Entertainment. His time running the department saw the arrival on screen of comedies such as People Like Us
, The Royle Family
, Marion and Geoff
and The Office
. He also introduced Ant & Dec
to prime time television, with their series Friends Like These
. Jackson also oversaw the return of the Parkinson
series for its second long and successful run at the heart of the BBC's Saturday night schedule.
In 2000 Jackson became the CEO of Granada's Australian operations. He turned an underperforming joint venture with local broadcaster Network 7 into a successful independent producer which remains successful. In 2005, after a brief period back in the UK, he went to Los Angeles to take control of the five separate entities that were now all owned by the newly merged ITV. Jackson was CEO and President of Granada USA and executive produced many hit shows including the Gordon Ramsay
vehicle Hell's Kitchen
for Fox, Hit Me, Baby, One More Time for NBC (both shows making the number one spot in the US ratings during their first season) and Game Show Marathon for CBS as well as Nanny 911 also for Fox
, and numerous cable shows for networks including MTV, VH1, WE and A+E.
In 2006, Jackson returned to the UK as Director of Comedy and Entertainment for the ITV network, intending to return comedy back to the ITV schedule. As well as cementing Harry Hill's TV Burp
into the heart of the network's Saturday nights, Benidorm
, Headcases
, Ladies of Letters and No Heroics
were all commissioned by Jackson's new team, alongside one off comedy films starring talent such as Catherine Tate
, Shane Richie
, Timothy Spall
, Julia McKenzie
and Anton Rodgers
as well as writers such as Caroline Aherne
, Richard Herring
and Irvine Welsh
.
Britain's Got Talent
, which secured the decade's highest audience for an entertainment show, was also commissioned during this period. At the end of 2008, after three years at ITV, Jackson returned to making shows. He became CEO of Eyeworks UK, a London based entertainment producer. In their first year they produced two films featuring Nadya Suleman
including The Octomom, and a series for Channel Five starring Justin Lee Collins
.
and Chairman of its parent organisation, Charity Projects. He remained as Chairman for twelve years before following Jane Tewson
, one of the founding partners, to Pilotlight, a new venture where he also chaired the board of trustees.
Subsequently, he served as trustee of the UK volunteering charity, Timebank, acting as Chairman from 2000 to 2002 and from 2006 to the present day. While Jackson was in Australia he served as a trustee of Pilotlight Australia.
He has at various times been a board member of The International Emmys, The Aspen Comedy Festival, Frappa and the Entertainment Master Class, as well as serving on the board of Natpe during his time in Los Angeles. From 1994 to 1996 Jackson was the chairman of the Royal Television Society
and for four years from 2006, chaired their Craft and Design awards. He is currently on the board of the Riverside Theatre Trust
and is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and the Institute of Directors
.
He was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Exeter
in 2004 and held the post of Visiting Professor in the School of English at the institution for five years. He has for the last ten years been a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radio 4
, including five series of his talk show, In Conversation With.... Four series of Britain In A Box and various one offs such as LA Stories, the companion piece Soho Stories, The Sit Down Comedian and The Godfathers of Comedy.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television director, producer and executive.
Career in television
Jackson began his career with the BBC, joining them in 1971 as an assistant floor manager. Over the next 11 years he was promoted, becoming a director, producer and eventually executive producer, working on a range of the best known shows of the time - the Larry GraysonLarry Grayson
Larry Grayson , born William Sulley White, was an English stand-up comedian and television presenter of the 1970s and early 80s...
incarnation of The Generation Game
The Generation Game
The Generation Game was a British gameshow produced by the BBC in which four teams of two competed to win prizes...
, Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1978 Australian game show Blankety Blanks ....
, Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
and the last series of Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
all feature among his credits. It is however, for a quartet of programmes that he is particularly known; The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies
The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:...
(which he produced and directed, and for which he won three BAFTA nominations); Three of a Kind (the show featured Tracy Ullman and Lenny Henry
Lenny Henry
Lenworth George "Lenny" Henry, is a British actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter.- Early life :...
and was a winner of the BAFTA award for best entertainment show and a Rose of Montreux); The Young Ones
The Young Ones (TV series)
The Young Ones is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers...
(winner of a BAFTA for best comedy); and Carrott's Lib
Carrott's Lib
Carrott's Lib is a British satirical comedy series broadcast between 1982 and 1983. It starred Jasper Carrott and a cast of many comedians. The show was not just a satirical comedy, it was also a sketch show with many comedians of the future, most famously Chris Barrie & Jan Ravens...
, a series transmitted live.
He also produced and directed Ben Elton
Ben Elton
Benjamin Charles "Ben" Elton is an English comedian, author, playwright and director. He was a leading figure in the British alternative comedy movement of the 1980s, as a writer on such cult series as The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as also a successful stand-up comedian on stage and TV....
's first solo TV project, Happy Families
Happy Families (TV series)
Happy Families was a rural comedy drama written by Ben Elton which appeared on the BBC in 1985 and told the story of the dysfunctional Fuddle family....
, with Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
, Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles "Ade" Edmondson is an English comedian. He is probably best known for his comedic roles in the television series The Young Ones and Bottom , for which he also wrote together with his long-time collaboration partner Rik Mayall.-Early life:Edmondson, the second of four children, was...
, Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
and 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...
amongst others and the follow-up series to The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap
Filthy Rich & Catflap
Filthy Rich & Catflap was a BBC sitcom produced in 1986 and broadcast early the next year.The series featured former The Young Ones stars Nigel Planer, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as its three title characters respectively...
.
In 1982, he left the BBC and went freelance, producing The Cannon and Ball
Cannon and Ball
Cannon and Ball are an English comedy double act consisting of Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball. The duo met in the early 1960s while working as welders in Oldham, Lancashire...
Show for LWT
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
and two series of Girls On Top
Girls On Top
Girls On Top was a British television sitcom on ITV from 1985 to 1986. It was conceived by and starred French & Saunders - their first high-profile writing for television - and despite a low budget and poor critical reception received high ratings. It was made for the ITV network by Central.The...
(starring Tracy Ullman, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and 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:...
) for Central Television. Eighteen months later, he set up Paul Jackson Productions, one of the newly created independent producers made possible by the arrival of Channel Four. The company made Coming Next, a sketch show with Hale and Pace
Hale and Pace
Hale and Pace are an English comedy duo who have starred in several TV sketch series.-Early career:Gareth Hale and Norman Pace met at Avery Hill teacher training college in Eltham South East London. They discovered much in common, particularly humour, and began playing clubs in a comedy band. One...
, Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie
Chris Barrie is a British actor. He first achieved success as a vocal impressionist, notably in the ITV sketch show Spitting Image...
and several other series. One series gave Ruby Wax her first solo outing, Don't Miss Wax, which was produced for Channel Four.
At this time, Jackson was a member of the council of IPPA, a forerunner of Pact, the body which established terms for trade between independent producers and the BBC and other broadcasters. PJP was eventually taken over by Noel Gay Television, a company chaired by the British entertainment executive, Bill Cotton
Bill Cotton
Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton, CBE was a British television producer and executive, and the son of big-band leader Billy Cotton....
. Jackson served as the Managing Director and the company produced Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
, the long-running and internationally successful comedy series, the pilot episode of Bottom
Bottom (TV series)
Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...
(Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson) and, working with LWT, the hugely influential Channel Four variety show, Saturday Live. Saturday Live featured such comedy stars as Lenny Henry, Pamela Stephenson
Pamela Stephenson
Pamela Helen Stephenson Connolly is a New Zealand-born Australian clinical psychologist and writer now resident in the United Kingdom. She is best known for her work as an actress and comedian during the 1980s...
, Michael Barrymore
Michael Barrymore
Michael Kieron Parker , better known by his stage name Michael Barrymore, is a British comedian who appeared as a presenter of game shows and light entertainment programmes on British television in the 1980s and 1990s. These included Strike It Lucky, My Kind of People, My Kind of Music and Kids Say...
, Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
and Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
and bought to prominence talents such as Ben Elton (as a performer), Fry and Laurie, Harry Enfield
Harry Enfield
Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
and Julian Clary
Julian Clary
Julian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
. The company also held the contract to provide all entertainment programming for the short lived UK satellite service, British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom...
and produced shows featuring then unknown names such as Armando Ianucci, Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
, Lee Evans
Lee Evans (comedian)
Lee Evans is an English comedian, writer, actor and musician.-Personal life:Lee Evans was born in Avonmouth, Bristol, England to an Irish mother and a Welsh father, Dave Evans, a nightclub performer. He left Bristol at the age of 13 and then went to The Billericay School in Billericay, Essex...
and Jack Dee
Jack Dee
James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer known for his sardonic, curmudgeonly, and deadpan style.-Early life:...
, as well as The Happening, a precursor to the long-running BBC show Later... with Jools Holland. In 1988 Jackson also co-produced the Oscar winning short film, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings is a 1988 American short comedy film, starring and co-written by Steven Wright, which won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film at the 61st Academy Awards in 1988.-Plot:...
, starring Steven Wright and Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
.
In 1991, Jackson was a member of the five man team which prepared Carlton Television
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
's successful bid for the London weekday franchise in the franchise round of that year. He served as a director of programmes for the bid, and was made Managing Director of the company the night it went on air on January 1, 1993. He later became Managing Director of Carlton Television Productions, but after the companies merger with Central Television in 1994 Jackson felt this model was at odds with the independent production model on which Carlton had been built and he left barely a year later.
In 1996 he was appointed head of BBC Entertainment, over-seeing the combined output of all the BBC's television, radio and on-line content, the only time one person had responsibility for all three areas; and was subsequently promoted to Controller of BBC Entertainment. His time running the department saw the arrival on screen of comedies such as People Like Us
People Like Us
People Like Us is a British comedy programme, a spoof on-location documentary written by John Morton, and starring Chris Langham as Roy Mallard, an inept interviewer...
, The Royle Family
The Royle Family
The Royle Family is a popular, BAFTA award-winning television comedy drama produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, and specials from 2006 onwards...
, Marion and Geoff
Marion and Geoff
Marion and Geoff is a BBC television mockumentary, produced by Baby Cow Productions and screened on BBC Two in 2000, with a second series following in 2003. The series starred Rob Brydon as Keith Barret, a naïve taxicab driver going through a messy divorce from his wife, Marion, who, though he...
and The Office
The Office (UK TV series)
The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...
. He also introduced Ant & Dec
Ant & Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...
to prime time television, with their series Friends Like These
Friends Like These
Friends Like These was a British television programme broadcast on BBC One, and was presented by Ant & Dec and later by Ian Wright. The show was aired on BBC One from 6 November 1999 until 1 March 2003.-Format:...
. Jackson also oversaw the return of the Parkinson
Parkinson (TV series)
Parkinson is a British television talk show that was presented by Sir Michael Parkinson. It was first shown on the BBC from 1971 to 2004, and on ITV from 2004 to 2007.-Background:...
series for its second long and successful run at the heart of the BBC's Saturday night schedule.
In 2000 Jackson became the CEO of Granada's Australian operations. He turned an underperforming joint venture with local broadcaster Network 7 into a successful independent producer which remains successful. In 2005, after a brief period back in the UK, he went to Los Angeles to take control of the five separate entities that were now all owned by the newly merged ITV. Jackson was CEO and President of Granada USA and executive produced many hit shows including the Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay
Gordon James Ramsay, OBE is a Scottish chef, television personality and restaurateur. He has been awarded 13 Michelin stars....
vehicle Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen (U.S.)
Hell's Kitchen is an American reality-television cooking competition broadcast on Fox...
for Fox, Hit Me, Baby, One More Time for NBC (both shows making the number one spot in the US ratings during their first season) and Game Show Marathon for CBS as well as Nanny 911 also for Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, and numerous cable shows for networks including MTV, VH1, WE and A+E.
In 2006, Jackson returned to the UK as Director of Comedy and Entertainment for the ITV network, intending to return comedy back to the ITV schedule. As well as cementing Harry Hill's TV Burp
Harry Hill's TV Burp
Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme produced by Avalon Television for ITV and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a satirical look at the week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances...
into the heart of the network's Saturday nights, Benidorm
Benidorm (TV series)
Benidorm is an award-winning British television comedy-drama that is produced by Tiger Aspect for ITV and written by Derren Litten, co-writer of The Catherine Tate Show, exploiting the working-class stereotype of this popular tourist destination....
, Headcases
Headcases
Headcases was an ITV satirical animation show based on current affairs. It employed the same satirical style as Spitting Image, 2DTV and Bo' Selecta! but using 3D animation created by UK Visual Effects and animation house Red Vision...
, Ladies of Letters and No Heroics
No Heroics
No Heroics is a British superhero-comedy television series, which began on 18 September 2008. The show is ITV2's first original sitcom. It was nominated for Best New British TV Comedy of 2008 at the British Comedy Awards.-Setting:...
were all commissioned by Jackson's new team, alongside one off comedy films starring talent such as Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...
, Shane Richie
Shane Richie
Shane Richie is an English actor, comedian, singer and media personality, known for his portrayal of the character Alfie Moon in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.-Early life and career beginnings:...
, Timothy Spall
Timothy Spall
Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
, Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
and Anton Rodgers
Anton Rodgers
Anton Rodgers was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film and in television dramas and sitcoms.-Life and career:...
as well as writers such as Caroline Aherne
Caroline Aherne
Caroline Mary Aherne is an English comedian and BAFTA winning writer and actress, best known for Mrs Merton and The Royle Family.- Background :...
, Richard Herring
Richard Herring
Richard Keith Herring is a British comedian and writer, whose early work includes his involvement in the double-act, Lee and Herring...
and Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
.
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
, which secured the decade's highest audience for an entertainment show, was also commissioned during this period. At the end of 2008, after three years at ITV, Jackson returned to making shows. He became CEO of Eyeworks UK, a London based entertainment producer. In their first year they produced two films featuring Nadya Suleman
Nadya Suleman
Nadya Denise Doud-Suleman , known as Octomom in the media, is an American woman who came to international attention when she gave birth to octuplets in January 2009. The Suleman octuplets are only the second full set of octuplets to be born alive in the United States...
including The Octomom, and a series for Channel Five starring Justin Lee Collins
Justin Lee Collins
Justin Lee Collins, commonly known as JLC, is an award-winning English comedian and television presenter.A Bristolian, he's well known for his strong West Country accent, shaggy appearance and colourful shirts....
.
Other interests
Jackson was the founding Chairman of the charity, Comic ReliefComic Relief
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...
and Chairman of its parent organisation, Charity Projects. He remained as Chairman for twelve years before following Jane Tewson
Jane Tewson
Jane Tewson CBE is the originator of several innovative charitable organisations and ideas for community strengthening, notably in the UK and Australia. She believes in making charity "active, emotional, involving and fun", by building connections between people of different backgrounds,...
, one of the founding partners, to Pilotlight, a new venture where he also chaired the board of trustees.
Subsequently, he served as trustee of the UK volunteering charity, Timebank, acting as Chairman from 2000 to 2002 and from 2006 to the present day. While Jackson was in Australia he served as a trustee of Pilotlight Australia.
He has at various times been a board member of The International Emmys, The Aspen Comedy Festival, Frappa and the Entertainment Master Class, as well as serving on the board of Natpe during his time in Los Angeles. From 1994 to 1996 Jackson was the chairman of the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
and for four years from 2006, chaired their Craft and Design awards. He is currently on the board of the Riverside Theatre Trust
Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios is a production studio, theatre and independent cinema on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. It plays host to contemporary and international dramatic and dance performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production.-History:In 1933, the...
and is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and the Institute of Directors
Institute of Directors
The Institute of Directors is a UK-based organisation, established in 1903 and incorporated by royal charter in 1906 to support, represent and set standards for company directors...
.
He was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Exeter
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....
in 2004 and held the post of Visiting Professor in the School of English at the institution for five years. He has for the last ten years been a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, including five series of his talk show, In Conversation With.... Four series of Britain In A Box and various one offs such as LA Stories, the companion piece Soho Stories, The Sit Down Comedian and The Godfathers of Comedy.