People

Richard McKerrow - Creative Director

Richard is Love's senior creative. He executive produces many of our hit shows - The Baby Borrowers in the UK and the US, Young Mums' Mansion, Filthy Rich and Homeless and the upcoming Boys and Girls Alone. He has also executive produced all of our high profile single documentaries.

He began his career as a print journalist for The Nation magazine in New York before joining Yorkshire Television's Documentaries department on the First Tuesday team. He was a Producer/Director on Channel 4's The World This Week and ITV's current affairs series 3D, and directed the RTS-nominated Miss Popular's Crack City.

In 1997 he joined Channel 4 as Deputy Commissioning Editor for Education where he commissioned features and documentary series such as Ramsay's Boiling Point and the award-winning Embarrassing Illnesses, and campaigns and seasons. In 1999 he became Editor of Education and commissioned factual entertainment series Living by the Book and Perfect Match, ground-breaking series about disability such as the controversial Freak Out and Celebrity Blind Man's Buff and the agenda-setting health series Joined: The World of Siamese Twins and Blinded. His final commission was the award-winning The Day I'll Never Forget directed by Kim Longinotto, a film about the experiences of young women undergoing female circumcision.

In 2002 he joined Maverick TV and as Creative Director and latterly Managing Director, he led an increase in turnover from £2million to £7million, winning a spread of commissions across the UK broadcasters. They included Ten Years Younger, Born Too Soon - a series of films about premature babies, Tainted Love and Sex Bomb - two films looking at the rising problem of sexual disease amongst teenagers, the award-winning Bollywood Star, Happy Birthday Thalidomide, Meet the In-Laws, Cops and Docs on the Box, Million Pound Hoax, Premiership's Greatest and Fat Chance. He executive produced all these series and films. He also developed Maverick's commercial strategy and secured commissions overseas for Million Pound Hoax (NBC) and Ten Years Younger (TLC).

He left to set up Love in October 2004.

Anna Beattie - Joint Creative Director

Anna Beattie is joint creative head of Love, with particular responsibility for ideas. She has devised and developed many of the company's stand out hits, including The Baby Borrowers, Filthy Rich and Homeless and Young Mums' Mansion.

She started as a runner at LWT and joined BBC Manchester in 1992 to work on the "yoof" current affairs series.  She stayed for 6 years, during which time she worked on all the department's output, from Rough Guide to the World and The Travel Show, to theme nights and archive series. In 1998 she left to join Channel 4 as a deputy commissioning editor in the Features department. In 1999 she became editor and was responsible for the early series of Grand Designs and Location, Location, Location and the highest rating series of Deals on Wheels and Driven, as well as archive singles. In 2001 she left to join RDF Media where she secured the commission of three new formats. In 2002 she went freelance and worked principally with Maverick Television, where she devised the C4 format Ten Years Younger and developed Bollywood Star and The Chain, as well as setting up a department making low budget prime time history series for Five.

Elliot Reed - Executive Producer

Elliot joined Love Productions in 2006 and has been at the helm of many of Love's most successful documentary series.

In 2006-7 he was Series Producer on the Broadcast and RTS-nominated BBC Three series Filthy Rich and Homeless. In 2007-8 Elliot  was Series Editor on Young Mums' Mansion - BBC Three's second most successful factual series at the time of transmission. Since then Elliot was Executive Editor on BBC Three’s RTS Nominated Britain’s Missing Top Model. He’s also been the Executive Producer on Naked and My Life As An Animal, both also for BBC Three and on Channel’s 4 Kidnapped By The Kids.

Most recently Elliot delivered Love’s most successful documentary series to date. He was Series Editor of Love’s first ever BBC1 commission,  Famous, Rich and Homeless. The 2 x 1 hours series won it’s slot at 9pm BBC1 on both evenings with audience figures of 4.7 million (23% share) and 4.8 million (25% share) and has since gone on to win  a BANFF award for best reality format and an RTS award for best constructed factual series.  

Prior to joining Love, Elliot worked for all the terrestrial broadcasters on a range of documentary, factual entertainment and music projects, including Brat Camp Unseen, Band Aid 20, Freaky Eaters, Hip Hop Nights: Selling Sex?, and Pet Plastic Surgery. In 2003 he spent a year working as a producer/director in New York for Lion TV on the very first season of the long-running popular history series, History Detectives. He also spent a year directing music performances on location around the world for Top of the Pops.

Kieran Smith – Executive Producer

Kieran is Love West’s Executive Producer and is responsible for overseeing all Love West programmes as well as taking a lead role in development. He joined Love in 2007 and series produced the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Young Mums’ Mansion. He has since gone on to series produce My Life As An Animal for BBC 3 and series edit Young Mums’ Mansion: The Dads Arrive.

Kieran started out as a researcher in 1999 working at BBC Bristol on 999. With one series under his belt he decided to go freelance and quickly established a reputation as a producer of creative and imaginative programmes. He has subsequently worked at Maverick Television, RDF Media, Granada and 3BM producing a wide range of documentary, factual entertainment and features programmes including 10 Years Younger, The Chain, Embarrassing Bodies, Poor Little Rich Girls and Make Me a Grown Up.

Kate Mitchell – Commercial Consultant

Kate Mitchell has worked with Love Productions since its formation in 2004. Having helped set the company up, she now acts as a Commercial Consultant. With a particular focus on international tv sales and format distribution, Kate works alongside the Managing Director to fully exploit the intellectual property rights in the company’s creative output.

Kate began her television career in 1987 working as a production secretary for the independent production company, Best Endeavours Ltd. Since that time she has worked for various independents as a freelance Production Manager, and after spending nine years at Channel Four as a Programme Finance Executive, ran her own Brighton-based TV production company, Dual Purpose Productions Ltd with business partner Belinda Giles. For the past five years, Kate has worked as a TV Business Consultant with a number of tv production companies.

Mark Rochell - Head of Finance

Mark Rochell joined Love Productions in September 2009 as the new Head of Finance with responsibility for overseeing and controlling all of Love London and Love Bristol financial activity.

Mark began his career in 1999 as an Assistant Production Accountant for the drama producer, Hewland International Ltd. Throughout his career Mark has worked within all aspects of the production finance function, taking a lead role in producing shows such as Sky 1’s Dream Team and Mile High, and the prime time ITV dramas Daylight Robbery and Can’t Buy Me Love. He became Financial Controller of Hewland International Ltd in 2006 leading the company into a highly successful period of financial growth.

Mark has been a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants since 2004.