Hot Shots 2022: Jack Retallack

It’s been a swift rise for Jack Retallack – from his first formal role as a researcher on The One Show to directing his own series for Sky Documentaries. He only joined the industry at 27, initially taking time out of his recruitment consultant job to join Bath-based indie One Tribe TV for two weeks’ work experience.

The indie’s creative director, Owen Gay, was immediately impressed and offered him a researcher post and then a VT director job, praising his enterprising approach and “strong natural eye and visual flair as a director”.

From there, Retallack helmed The Things I See – a 30-minute drama doc for BBC science strand Horizon about psychosis in young people. 

After branching out with campaigns for The Royal Marines, Adidas and M&C Saatchi, he landed a high-profile producer/director gig on Raw TV’s Discovery reality juggernaut Gold Rush and was edit producer on spin-off White Water and producer on Nutopia’s Nat Geo survival series 7 Toughest Days.

His first series credit, The Good Fight Club, is a clear labour of love. Ploughing his savings into camera kit, he spent six months filming with a team of MMA fighters from a gym on London’s Old Kent Road and self-edited a 10-minute taster of a character-led ob-doc about their lives.

An impressed Brian Hill, managing director of Century Films, pitched it to Sky and it’s set to air as a four-part series on Sky Documentaries next year.