Joseph Richard Woolfe (born 14 August 1962) is a senior British broadcast figure. Until recently, Woolfe was the Creative Director of Prime Focus Productions, the UK arm of Prime Focus Group, a role created for him to help spearhead the post-production house's push into TV production, with a focus on high-end drama and entertainment formats. Woolfe was formerly channel controller of

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

and Channel 5. According to

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

, "''there is no one more noisy in UK TV management than Woolfe''".

Early life

He originates from

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

. He gained a BEd degree from

Manchester Polytechnic Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

Career

A self publicist, Woolfe's first major roles in the television industry were as Head of Entertainment at

Planet 24 Planet 24 is a television production company, which produced ''The Big Breakfast'' and '' The Word'' for Channel 4. It had an animation division called Impossible TV, founded in 1997. History Bob Geldof and Tony Boland (television producer) fou ...

, Editor of Entertainment Programmes at

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

and Entertainment and Features Producer at the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

and at Real Television. He also served as Controller of LivingTV, Ftn and

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels * Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compan ...

BSkyB

Woolfe took up the role of Head of

Sky2 Sky Replay is a British pay television channel operated by Sky as a sister channel to Sky Max and Sky Witness. The current channel began broadcasting (as Sky One Mix) in December 2002. The 'Sky 2' name and format had earlier been used for a s ...

and Sky3 at

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

in January 2006.

Five

He moved to Channel 5 to become Channel Controller in April 2009. He worked as Creative Director of Prime Focus Productions for almost a year but now is a television consultant at his own company Richard Woolfe TV.

Credits and awards

Whilst at LivingTV, Woolfe was named "Industry player of the year" at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV festival. Wrongly cited as the person who commissioned ''

Most Haunted ''Most Haunted'' is a British paranormal reality television series. Following complaints, the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, ruled that it was an entertainment show, not a legitimate investigation into the paranormal, and "should not be taken seri ...

'', it was actually Arch Dyson two weeks before Woolfe took the job. Whilst at LivingTV Woolfe oversaw some failures too, Cilla with high production values and a large ad campaign the audience stayed away. As Director of Programmes at Sky1, 2 & 3, Woolfe overhauled the entire channel brand, and oversaw the acquisition and development of award-winning US dramas, including '' Lost'' and ''

Prison Break ''Prison Break'' is an American serial drama television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows ( Dominic Purcell) and Michael Scofield ( Wentworth Miller); Burrows has been sentenc ...

'', and home-grown entertainment and drama formats including '' Ross Kemp on Gangs''. The production of Terry Pratchett's ''Hogfather'' "marked a new era of domestically produced drama for Sky, entertaining audiences of over 2.8 million and securing

its first ever BAFTA. In 2008, Sky1 was named Broadcast's Best Digital Entertainment Channel under Woolfe's leadership. Woolfe acquired a further BAFTA for '' Ross Kemp on Gangs''. Also at Sky, Woolfe resurrected Gladiators (UK TV series), which secured a total audience of over 1.6m for its launch show. Woolfe's producer credits include: ''

That's Life! ''That's Life!'' was a satirical TV consumer affairs programme on the BBC, at its height regularly reaching audiences of fifteen to twenty million, and receiving 10–15,000 letters a week. The series broadcast on BBC1 for twenty-one years, ...

'', ''

The National Lottery Live ''The National Lottery Results'' (previously ''The National Lottery Live'', ''The National Lottery Draw'', ''The National Lottery Stars'' and ''The National Lottery Draws'') is the television programme that broadcasts the drawing of the Natio ...

'', the first £1m ''

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: Actual survivors * *Last survivors of historical events Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Found ...

'' final, ''

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy ''Queer Eye'' is an American reality television series that premiered on the cable television network Bravo in July 2003. Originally ''Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'', the title was later shortened to broaden the overall scope. The series was cr ...

UK'', '' Extreme Makeover UK'', ''

Gladiators A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

'' (executive producer), '' Don't Forget The Lyrics!'' (co-executive producer) and the ill-conceived '' Don't Stop Believing'' (executive producer). Richard did not survive at Channel 5 when Richard Desmond took over the channel. ''Don't Stop Believing'' became a media headline as Desmond didn't want to pay the full cost because of its failure to gain good audience figure.

Personal life

He married in 1988 and has a son and daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolfe, Richard 1962 births Living people Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University British television producers Channel 5 (British TV channel) Sky Group