Meet the Commissioners

Emma Loach is the BBC's Interim Head of Documentary Commissioning, responsible for all  documentary output across the BBC's channels. 

Recent credits include The Mother of All Cons; Atomic People; Backlash: The Murder of  George Floyd; Forensics; Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice; The Search for Nicola Bulley;  Rose Ayling-Ellis: Old Hands, New Tricks; The Real Mo Farah; Parole; The Met; Christine  McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism; Louis Theroux's Forbidden America; Gods of Snooker; and Black Power. 

Before joining the BBC, Emma worked as an executive producer across a diverse range of  series and singles. She was instrumental in originating and delivering the Ambulance brand  for BBC One and The Trial for Channel 4.

Harjeet Chhokar is a Sr. Unscripted Creative Executive at Amazon MGM Studios, where he works across the factual slate and on shows such as Clarkson's Farm, The Grand Tour, Kaleb Down Under and the award winning sports documentaries and true crime slate. Prior to joining Amazon MGM Studios, Harjeet was a Commissioning Editor in the Channel 4 Factual department, and commissioned a number of factual shows, including Murder Island, Sex Actually with Alice Levine and 999: On the Frontline. Before entering the world of commissioning, Harjeet worked in unscripted production for over 17 years; starting his career as a BBC Production Trainee and working his way up to Series Producer.

Harjeet is a passionate advocate for the powerful impact television can have on viewers' lives and the cultural fabric of the country; he is committed to mentoring and supporting junior members of the industry. He is currently a Trustee at the Grierson Trust and The TV Foundation, and was the Advisory Chair of the 2024 Edinburgh TV Festival.

Helen Nightingale is Head of Factual and Factual Entertainment Commissioning at UKTV, where she has played a key role in shaping the unscripted strategy across U&Dave, U&W, U&Yesterday and U&Gold. Since joining in 2015, her commissions have included titles such as Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, Gemma and Gorka: Life Behind The Lens, and more recently, Guy Martin Proper Jobs and the award-winning Pete Wicks for Dogs’ Sake. Helen previously held senior roles at Gogglebox Entertainment and IWC Media.

As ITV Factual Controller Jo's commissions include: BAFTA-winning Long Lost Family/Born Without Trace & Ellie Simmonds Finding My Secret Family. Award winning Kate Garraway: Finding Derek; 7 up (56 & 63); Prince William: We Can End Homelessness; The Queen’s Green Planet; Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Dogs. Joanna Lumley & Trevor McDonald authored series; TikTok: Murder Gone Viral & The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed.

At the BBC, Jo was Head of Independent Commissioning & Commissions including Masterchef & Hairy Bikers. Jo Directed & Produced BBC One's 7-part award winning documentary series 'Making Babies' & 'The Shop' about Selfridges, plus single docs for award winning strand 40 Minutes & Inside Story. Cut (long) teeth on Newsnight, Crimewatch etc.

Kit Morey (they/them) joined the Paramount UK commissioning team in 2019 and is responsible for commissioning fresh, exciting content in the Popular Factual space. They have ordered hundreds of hours of prime time shows, including Toy Hospital, The Hospital: Life on The Line, Motorhoming with Merton & Webster, Million Pound Motorhomes, Lost Dogs with Clare Balding and Sally Lindsay’s Posh Sleepover, as well as the channel’s RTS nominated Air Fryer shows. Kit has also ordered a range of returnable formats, including Ben Fogle’s Make a New Life in The Country, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, Rich Kids Go Skint and The Hotel Inspector.

Kit’s executive producer credits include ITV’s Real Full Monty while at Spun Gold and Channel 4’s Meat The Family as Head of Popular Factual at Rise Films. They have also held Executive Producer roles at betty, Shine, Lambent and twenty twenty, overseeing C4’s One Born Every Minute, Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners and the first series of First Dates.

Lucy is a Commissioning Editor at 5 where she looks after a wide-ranging factual slate including documentaries, popular factual and history. She has been responsible for commissioning a number of the channel's peak-time programmes, including Warship: Life at Sea; Inside the Tower of London as well as the stripped history event The Great Plague and The Disappearance of Shannon Matthews.

Lucy was also behind the major eight-part drama documentary series Eight Days That Made Rome; Diana: Seven Days That Shook The Windsor’s; and the Cotswolds with Pam Ayres. Lucy also commissioned Secrets of Our Universe with Tim Peake, fronted by the British astronaut.

Lucy has worked extensively with diverse talent in front of and behind the camera, brining JJ Chalmers, Raksha Dave and Onyeka Nubia to the channel.

Before moving to 5 Lucy was at Raw Television for eight years where she became Head of UK Factual and Multiplatform and won a number of awards including two International Emmys.

As Head of Comedy at ITV, Nana has rejuvenated ITV Comedy with award-winning and award-worthy shows for ITV and ITVX, including Changing Ends, G'wed, The Dry, Transaction, Piglets, Deep Fake Neighbour Wars, Count Abdulla, and Significant Other. Prior to joining ITV, she was Head of Comedy at Talkback Thames and Head of Development at Retort, where she executive produced the award-winning Chewing Gum Series 1 & 2. Nana is a BAFTA, RTS, and Broadcast award-winning comedy executive producer.

Paul Testar joined Paramount in January 2022 as 5’s first dedicated drama commissioner and has helped oversee the major expansion of 5’s scripted slate, working alongside Head of Scripted Sebastian Cardwell to establish 5 as a major home of original British drama.

Since joining Paramount, Testar has commissioned over one hundred and fifty hours of drama series including Ellis, Murder Before Evensong, The Crow Girl and 5’s revival of the iconic Play For Today format. 

Before joining Paramount, Testar was a producer for Mammoth Screen with credits including The Serpent (BBC1/Netflix) and The Tower (ITV). He began his career as a script editor on numerous shows for the BBC, ITV, Netflix, Amazon and Channel 4.