Hot Shots 2023: Eleanor Wight

“It has been a transformative year for me,” says Eleanor Wight of the past 12 months, during which she both won both a Bafta and a Broadcast Digital Award and secured major development funding for one of her projects, which is set to be Candour Productions’ first international streaming doc series.

The Sky Crime three-parter Libby, Are You Home Yet? won the Broadcast Digital Award for Best True Crime Documentary and a Bafta for Best Factual Series, for its sensitive exploration of the murder of Libby Squire, whose disappearance prompted Humberside Police’s biggest-ever manhunt.

The series, which Wright describes as “both emotionally challenging to develop and vital to share”, is one of several projects she has developed in her three years at the Leeds-based indie. Others bearing her imprint include Channel 5’s Cause Of Death – recommissioned for two more series – and BBC1 ob-doc Yorkshire Midwives On Call. She was previously an assistant producer on two pandemic-related docs: BBC1 Panorama doc Stacey Dooley & The Lockdown Babies and Channel 4’s A Day In The Life Of Coronavirus Britain.

A graduate of the Grierson DocLab scheme, Wight has been out in California this year producing a taster tape featuring a vibrant cast, with whom she had previously spent two years communicating via Zoom. She is now heading Candour’s international documentary development strategy after helping to win funding from the DCMS Global Screen Fund.

“Eleanor is a truly gifted development producer,” says Candour creative director Anna Hall. “This is her passion. She has really strong ideas and knows how to turn them into reality, in terms of making contact with potential exclusive contributors. I see her as instrumental to the growth of the company.”