Hot Shots 2022: James Phillips

But for a chance encounter with director James Rogan on a train, James Phillips might never have pursued a career in TV news and current affairs. That conversation led to an internship at Films of Record and, reflecting the unplanned direction his career took, his subsequent CV is eclectic: he found llamas for Griff Rhys Jones to walk in Dartmoor for BBC4, convinced museums to open up their vaults, logged Christmas ornaments for QVC, and has written tweets for Channel 4’s Naked Attraction.

But it was with BBC1 doc Tom Daley: Illegal To Be Me that Phillips really shone. He pitched his idea - of the diver meeting LGBT athletes from commonwealth countries in which it is still illegal to be gay – first to his team, then to Daley and the BBC. The result made waves, with Daley raising the Pride Progress flag at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in front of 1 billion viewers.

“James is brilliant at finding new and surprising ways to improve ideas and formats,” says BBC Storyville commissioning editor Emma Hindley.

Raised working class in Norfolk, Phillips knows how to connect his ideas with a wide audience, from Lion Television’s Channel 5 series Inside The Tower Of London and Studio Lambert’s BBC1 shows Doctor In The House and Nightmare Pets SOS to an earlier doc, Zinc Media’s Ian Wright: Home Truths for BBC1.

“Conscientious, collaborative and a talented developer, James’ writing is imaginative, immaculate and unique, with a wry and funny style,” says Hindley. “James generates ideas that work across the content field – from ambitious international series for streamers to prescient current affairs ideas and contemporary specialist factual for TV.”