WHO WE ARE

Jane Berthoud is an award winning producer of TV and Radio sitcom. She won the BAFTA for Best TV Comedy and was made European Comedy Producer of the Year for a show called Help written by and starring Paul Whitehouse and Chris Langham. Jane was part of the development team for this, having previously introduced the writer performers to one another. The sitcom was part sketch, part on-going story. Jane has also developed and produced many other sitcoms with new writers including World of Pub by Tony Roche, which started on BBC Radio 4 and later transferred to BBC 3 TV, with Jane producing all series; Ability the semi-autobiographical sitcom set in working class Newcastle, written  by and starring Lee Ridley aka Lost Voice Guy in which the lead character, like Lee, has cerebral palsy and uses his iPad voice app to speak. On Baby Street written and narrated by Jenny Eclair and Alan’s Big One co-written by and starring Alan Davies. From 2009 - 2015 Jane was the first female Head of BBC Radio Comedy.

Jane says: “My passion for full representation, I’m sure, stems partly from my upbringing in a single parent household in Manchester. After my father became mentally ill and started to be violent, we kids lived briefly in a children’s home and for several years afterwards received clothing parcels from them. And believe me, those nuns know nothing about style! Money was always tight. Later I was lucky enough to go to university. And later still arrived at the BBC - a place I didn’t even know existed outside my TV, when I was at school, let alone as a potential place for me to work. I have always been aware of the relative ease with which others around me get by when they come from the right background and circumstances. It’s been the case for far too long that you are much more likely to get your sitcom made if you initially know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone working in the industry, and so will read it in the first place. And everyone wants this to change. But progress is slow.