Subsidiary | |
Successor |
Boundless Retort Talkback Thames |
Founded | 10 February 2003 |
Defunct | 1 January 2012 |
Headquarters | London, England, United Kingdom |
Key people
|
Sara Geater (CEO) |
Owner | Bertelsmann |
Parent | RTL Group |
Divisions | FremantleMedia |
Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of FremantleMedia (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames Television. This merger was arranged in February 2003 and reversed in January 2012.
The company also included, as subsidiaries, several other production companies owned by FremantleMedia, including the UK arm of Reg Grundy Productions; comedy specialists Alomo Productions and William G. Stewart's company Regent Productions.
The CEO of Talkback Thames was Sara Geater, who took up the post in October 2010, replacing Lorraine Heggessey, who had been CEO of Talkback Thames from 2005 to 2010. She in turn, replaced Peter Fincham, who had been CEO of Talkback from 1986 to 2003 and then of Talkback Thames from 2003. Fincham left to take over Heggessey's previous job as Controller of BBC One.
In November 2011, it was announced that, from 1 January 2012, the Talkback Thames brand would be split into four different labels within the newly created FremantleMedia UK production arm:
The splitting of Talkback Thames happened as planned on New Year's Day, 1 January 2012. A fifth label concentrating on drama, Newman Street (named after the location of TalkbackThames's headquarters), was later launched.