The BBC Academy Podcast

Simon Smith and guests discuss how to make beautiful TV on a budget. With Phil Smith, a freelance series producer who has worked on Great British Menu, Mickey Lachmann a director who recently worked on the BBC Two maths series The Code, and Clare Tavernor, producer and director on The Culture Show. Joining us down the line is Pamela Gordon, a freelance documentary maker who recently directed the Saira Kan documentary Adopting Abroad.

Multiplatform guru Jon Aird, senior producer of the Psychoville website, talks about extending the characters out of this dark comedy and into their own websites. Keri Davies, scriptwriter and web producer, tells us of his experiences of The Archers and the newly created spin-off Ambridge Extra on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Derren Lawford offers his insights gained as exec producer of BBC Three’s Jail Tales. An ambitious mix of multiplatform content about what it's like to be young and in prison, Jail Tales consists of a series of viral YouTube videos, short films, animated shorts and music performances. Derren is currently the commissioning editor for Global iPlayer at BBC Worldwide.

Amanda Lyon talks to Moira Ross, executive producer of Strictly Come Dancing, Alex McLeod, executive producer of It Takes Two and multiplatform content producer Gemma Hodgson.

Amanda Lyon talks to Nick Murphy, writer and director of The Awakening.

Simon Smith and guests talk about finding your way into writing comedy and drama for radio and TV with Gareth Gwynn, Ed Hime, Debbie Horsfield and Phillip Shelley.

Simon Smith discusses brainstorming with four guests. Hazel Marshall is a creativity trainer at the BBC, Ruby Mulraine is an executive producer at Radio 1 and 1Xtra, Pam Hamilton is joint managing director at Ignite and Jane Lingham is head of BBC audience planning.

Amanda Lyon talks to Kenton Allen and Stefan Golaszewski, producer and writer respectively, of BBC Three sitcom Him & Her. CONTAINS SOME STRONG LANGUAGE.

Simon Smith is joined by four guests to talk about getting ideas commissioned for radio. Caroline Raphael is a commissioning editor at BBC Radio 4, Nicky Birch is head of radio development at Somethin' Else and Phil Tinline and James Cook are executive producers in the BBC Audio & Music documentaries unit.

Simon Smith discusses radio music playlisting and scheduling with his guests. Nigel Harding is a music policy executive at Radio 1, Mike Walsh is Xfm's head of music, Lauren Brennan is a music scheduler at 6 Music and Kevin McCabe is a plugger for EMI.

Simon Smith talks to four guests about juggling motherhood and a career in TV. Emma Morgan is head of development at Mentorn and a mother of two, Ursula Macfarlane is also a mother of two and is a freelance documentary maker, Marion Edwards is vice president of HIT Entertainment and Amy Walker is a director and founder of the Media Parents website.