Mark Freeland quits over creative freedoms

The BBC’s most senior comedy production executive has dramatically announced that he is to quit the corporation.

Mark Freeland says a new shake-up of the BBC’s production arm would not give him ‘the creative platform I need to be at my very best’.

Freeland was the BBC’s controller of fiction and entertainment, earning £227,000 a year. And under the new BBC Studios set-up, which comes into being tomorrow, he would have been head of scripted comedy and drama.

He has a strong background in comedy, spending six years as the BBC’s controller of comedy production before taking his current job in 2013. His long list of credits include Miranda, Mrs Brown’s Boys, The Thick Of It, The Wrong Mans and Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle.

In an email to staff announcing his shock departure,  Freeland said he did not think he could work under changes being implemented by BBC Studios director Mark Linsey.

‘The highest standards of creativity… amount to a position of personal integrity to me. Those of you who know me, will appreciate that creativity - being close to production and talent - is absolutely central to the way I operate,’ he wrote.

In the email, leaked to the Guardian, Freeland added: ‘I especially thank my friends in Comedy, who became my second family - often better behaved than my real one. I can’t say more rewarding - that would get me into real trouble. Working with you has been a great comic relief and a proper honour.’

Freeland becomes the eighth senior executive to leave the BBC in as many months, including director of television Danny Cohen and BBC Two controller Kim Shillinglaw.

Earlier this year, the BBC’s head of comedy production, Myfanwy Moore left the corporation citing ‘personal reasons’ ahead of the  BBC’s in-house comedy production unit moving under the aegis of BBC Studios. 

Her replacement is Chris Sussman, a former comedy commissioning editor; while Sussman’s old job is being taken by comedy producer Alex Moody, it was announced yesterday. 

Published: 28 Apr 2016