Hot Shots 2024: Becky Ford

Candour Productions chief creative officer Anna Hall describes Becky Ford as “a unique talent in unscripted”.

Since 2022, she has been producer-director and edit producer on her first feature doc, Catching A Killer for Channel 4, due to TX later this year. This involved overseeing access negotiations with several police forces.

Hall says Ford is “thorough and incredibly persistent”, using skills from casting to writing treatment decks and running a complex ob doc production, to managing a “difficult and hugely legally challenging” edit. A hybrid role across production and development has enabled her to take a holistic approach to projects, understanding the journey from conception to transmission.

Ford began her career 16 years ago, working on programmes including James May’s Toy Stories (BBC2) and Jamie And Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast (C4). In 2019, she joined Candour Productions to help run its DCMS project ‘Live & Wild’, which tested the capacity of 5G to stream live content for broadcast, and dispatch raw footage from remote and challenging locations.

Ford went on to develop Dispatches: Trapped, Disabled & Abused through to commission, before moving into development full time.

Recently, Ford has helped to get an ITV doc over the line, and has development funding for an ITV true crime box set that will tell the story of a UK police investigation. She also has another, not-yet-announced box set commissioned by a major broadcaster

Ford is now working at the highest level in Candour’s development team, and Hall says she is trusted to carry out complex access negotiations. “Becky is a can-do, hands-on person. She is not precious and cares deeply about the values she brings to her work.”