Introduction

Summary

Mark has one of the most coveted jobs in television. As Head of Current Affairs at 6TV, he has commissioned some of the UK’s most high-profile and critically acclaimed programmes. He controls a budget extending to the tens of millions. And every day a steady stream of independent television producers arrive at his desk desperate to land a pitch. He is, for many, the ultimate gatekeeper.

At just 39 Mark is young to wield such power. Certainly he’s enjoyed a swift ascension. After making his name as a programme maker, Mark initially became a commissioner at a rival broadcaster before being headhunted by 6TV some five years ago. A string of hits later and Mark is now one of the biggest players at the channel.

Of course we know all of this before we interview him; it is detailed in multiple, glowing journalistic profiles hailing his creative talents. Yet when we meet Mark, on the top floor of 6TV’s futuristic aluminium and glass-clad headquarters, and invite him to narrate his career in his own words, a very different account emerges. It’s not that Mark disavows his success; he is clearly very proud of what he has achieved. But what is striking is his candid honesty; his career trajectory, he tells us, particularly its rapid speed and relative smoothness, has been contingent on “starting the race” with a series of profound advantages.

He starts from the beginning. Mark is from a privileged background. His father was a successful scientist and he was educated at one of London’s top private schools, before going on to Oxford. This privilege, he tells us, was pivotal in facilitating his entry into television. Specifically, he explains, while at university he went to New York – subsidised by his parents – to research his undergraduate dissertation. While there he landed free accommodation with a contact his father had made at his school. “So, because my dad had met someone at the side of the rugby pitch, I ended up in this empty flat in New York”, he recalls, shaking his head and smiling. The contact then promptly introduced him to a friend in television:

And so I went out with Ross the cameraman and met this director who was making a BBC series. She said “What are you doing?” I was like, “I’m at Oxford.” And she was like, “Ooh, Oxford.