Entertaining the Nation with Award Winning Producer and MD of ModestTV, Andrea Hamilton #18
With a list of credits that include Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice, Little Mix: The Search, and This Morning, there’s no doubt that Andrea Hamilton has earned her stripes in the TV industry.
Behind her success as an accomplished Executive Producer is an admirable display of commitment and determination to follow her instincts, which led her from journalistic aspirations to television success.
In this episode of Extrology we take a look at Andrea’s award-winning career, her views on how the industry has evolved since she started, and where her latest venture, ModestTV, promises to make its mark on the small screen.
Lee & Andrea discuss:
The financial barriers to enter the TV production industry
Learning all aspects of the industry as a runner
This generation’s desire for rapid success
Carving a career path to being Executive Producer on Strictly and The Voice
The role of world-building, authenticity, spectacle and relatability in TV success
Shifting from roles in a corporate to running her own business
Differing expectations between YouTube and TV platforms
Links & references:
Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/
Andrea Hamilton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-hamilton-93431637/
Get in touch: lee@extrology.com
Episode highlights:
“While I was traveling, I thought ‘I don't want to work in public relations or journalism’, and I just had this sense that what I should be doing is television production. That's a really weird thing, and I can't tell you where it came from. It was a real instinct that that's what I meant to be doing, that's more tangible.” - 4:20 - Andrea Hamilton
“I really wanted the MTV job, but the salary was so low - I think it was £5k per year. This is in 1996-97, and I couldn't live at all even with parental help. I just couldn't live in London and pay the bills. So I ended up taking this other job and being in production, and it all started there. ” - 6:30 - Andrea Hamilton
“What I realise is a really useful thing to do is to do your time at each level, and actually what I wish I'd done is stayed around as a runner for longer, looked at lots of different parts of the business, and tried it out.” - 13:04 - Andrea Hamilton
“I suppose in TV, big breaks to a certain extent are when you get onto something that's a brand and suddenly on your CV people go ‘Oh, she worked on that’. So for me, I suppose the first one I worked on This Morning when it was huge with Richard and Judy, being watched by millions. And that was my first job, I think, as an AP.” - 18:45 - Andrea Hamilton
“There is a typical route that's very hierarchical. I think the reason it's hierarchical is because it's an 80% freelance market, you have got to be able to come in, instantly pick up a job, pick up what that show is, know the role of a researcher, AP, or producer generally is, and crack on with it.” - 20:55 - Andrea Hamilton
“In order to help sell the idea of Strictly, they got some Latin dancers in the middle of the meeting to come in and start dancing around the room to make a splash and convince them it was something that they should give it a go. So that was one of the reasons I think that they went ‘Okay, let's give this a go’.” - 27:30 - Andrea Hamilton
“I think that the dance, the struggle to learn that dance, the relationship between dancers, the music, the entertainment brought by the panel, all those things are thrown into the same pot, and there's a lot of joy. There's a lot of positivity, no one was being put down, and if they were, it was done in a pantomime-y way.” - 32:30 - Andrea Hamilton
“Do we really have to keep having all these award ceremonies where we pat ourselves on the back? And then because we're in TV, we film that and make people watch us patting ourselves on the back?!” - 38:40 - Andrea Hamilton
“I learned a way to develop, and learned that you don't pitch scattergun. I think I was too scared to think: ‘Right, I need two or three really big supporters here and we should put all our attention into that, and those commissioners will be the ones that give us the work because we’re building rapport all the time’ - and I didn't.” - 45:10 - Andrea Hamilton
“You've got to find a way now in this massive field of content, and social media which is huge as well. A nice format that might have made it years ago, like 10 Years Younger or Supernanny, for instance, with talent where you don't know who they are, I don't know if that would have flown today.” - 49:45 - Andrea Hamilton
“The infrastructure initially took a lot of time. If you're starting a business, and you put yourself in a position where you've got to do all of that, it does take your attention and time away from the core subject of whatever your business is.” - 57:25 - Andrea Hamilton
“Stay a little bit longer at each level, do a little bit longer as a runner, have a look around at runner level, do a 360 on each level, take more researcher jobs so that you get a bigger breadth across a more impressive list of shows.” - 1:01:05 - Andrea Hamilton
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