Wise Owl Films Announces Ben Gordon as Head of Development

Leeds based Wise Owl Films has appointed Ben Gordon as Head of Development.

Ben’s remit will be focused on expanding the factual, specialist factual, contemporary history, archive and documentary slates with both linear and digital formats at Wise Owl Films.

A highly regarded and experienced Head of Development, Ben has previously worked for HiddenLight Productions, The Garden Productions, Wag Entertainment and Wall to Wall Television.

Ben solo-developed the Bafta award-winning The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story – BBC Two/Four, as well as developing the Back In Time For… brand – BBC Two, Britain’s Secret War Babies – Channel 4, The Shipman Files: A Very British Crime Story – BBC Two, My Family, The Holocaust and Me – BBC One, The Search For Instagram’s Worst Con Artist – ITVX/Netflix and The Real Fatal Attraction – ITVX/Netflix.

Other commissions to which Ben has contributed include: Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers – Netflix and Don’t Pick Up The Phone – Netflix/Paramount +.

James Knight, Creative Director Wise Owl Films, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Ben as our new Head of Development. He brings a wealth of experience and a tenacious reputation for generating smart contemporary ideas.  I’m so pleased to be working alongside him as we continue to strengthen our factual slate into 2026 and beyond.”

Ben Gordon said: “I’m really delighted to have been invited to join James and his fantastic team at Wise Owl and am so looking forward to helping them build on and extend their exciting and varied slate of work”.

Wise Owl

Wise Owl Films is part of ALL3Media with MD John Whittle overseeing both Lime Pictures and Wise Owl Films.

Recent commissions include the music documentary strand When X Came to Britain, which has so far covered Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Nirvana, Motown, Tina Turner, Blondie and ABBA for BBC Two ,Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids and Amanda Owen’s Farming Lives (More4), Anita Rani – The Brontes: Sisters of Disruption for Sky Arts and BBC Two documentary The Hacienda: The Club That Shook Britain, Channel 4’s My Second Hand Home, and Channel 4.0’s Box Fresh.

Lime Pictures

Lime Pictures is part of All3Media and is based in Liverpool. It produces kids and family scripted programming, such as Emmy nominated fantasy animation Wolf King for Netflix; upcoming CBBC series Girl Troop vs Aliens; Zero Chill and double Daytime Emmy award-winning Free Rein for Netflix. Lime produces the award-winning continuing drama Hollyoaks, which has recently celebrated 30 years as Channel 4’s flagship soap. This was marked with a revival of Brookside for a historic crossover episode. With more than 30 years’ experience in producing content for global audiences, Lime produces for all platforms, both linear and VOD, and has played a pioneering role in using television as a way of on-screen storytelling, and as an off-screen platform, to communicate with a younger audience.