Tom Gutteridge

Thomas Michael Gillan "Tom" Gutteridge (born 2 February 1952) is an Emmy award-winning British television director, producer and executive. He was formerly Chief Executive of FremantleMedia NA, having previously been founder and Chief Executive of Mentorn, from 1985 to 2001. In 2016 he was appointed Executive Producer (International) of the ABC series BattleBots. He started his career as a BBC journalist.

Gutteridge was born in London in 1952, the son of a food technologist, and moved to Tyneside when he was 5. He was educated at Priory School Tynemouth, Newcastle Royal Grammar School and the University of York, where he studied English and Philosophy

Gutteridge joined the BBC as a News Trainee, and initially worked at Radio Derby, and in the Newcastle newsroom. He was later a producer and director on Nationwide, Tonight and Panorama. On 11 April 1978, he directed the first Budget Special programme to use live sound from the House of Commons. In 1979 he became producer of the weekly Tonight in Town, hosted by Valerie Singleton and Michael Billington. In 1983 he was seconded from the BBC's Music & Arts department to direct the BBC's General Election coverage.

In 1980 Gutteridge moved to Music & Arts department as Executive Producer, where he was responsible for the twice-weekly Russell Harty chat shows.

In 1982 he produced and directed the comedy sketch series A Kick Up the Eighties, which first discovered the talents of Rik Mayall (as Kevin Turvey) and Tracey Ullman, and which won a Scottish BAFTA.

In 1983 and 1984 he produced and directed the popular BBC1 dance series The Hot Shoe Show, starring Wayne Sleep and Bonnie Langford, which in 1984 was nominated for a BAFTA award as Best Light Entertainment Series.

...
Wikipedia