OUR TEAM
Claire PoyserManaging Director
Prior to joining Lime Pictures in May 2012, Claire was Director of Production for ITV Studios and had operational and budgetary responsibility for the delivery of over 3500 hours of original content across all genres each year. The programme portfolio included ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Emmerdale’, ‘This Morning’, ‘Jeremy Kyle’, ‘Prime Suspect’,‘Cold Feet’, ‘Poirot’, ‘Hells Kitchen’, and ‘I’m a Celebrity’.
Claire started her TV career at the BBC as a Floor Assistant working on a variety of programmes within the Drama and Entertainment Departments.
In 1989 she joined BFBS TV and spent the next 6 years travelling the globe making a variety of programmes for the UK’s Ministry of Defence before returning to the BBC’s Youth, Entertainment and Features Department as a Production Manager.
In 1998 Claire ‘crossed over’ from the BBC to ITV (initially as Head of Production for Entertainment and Comedy at Granada TV) and took on a variety of roles that culminated in her appointment as Director of Production in 2003.
Claire has an MBA from Manchester University Business School.
Kate LittleManaging Director
Prior to joining Lime Pictures as COO, Kate was Director of Business Affairs at ITV Studios. A key member of the ITV Studios Board, Kate contributed to the successful management of ITV Studios throughout her 6 years at ITV.
Kate oversaw deal making across the entirety of ITV’s output from ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Dancing on Ice’ through to This Morning’ and ‘Jeremy Kyle’. She had responsibility for Business Affairs across ITV’s global content business, UK and International production as well as distribution. Her key global projects included ‘Come Dine With Me’, the US launch of ‘Jeremy Kyle’‘, ‘Prime Suspect USA’ and multi-party financed large scale drama co-productions such as ‘Titanic’ and ‘The Prisoner’.
Prior to joining ITV, Kate worked at the BBC with responsibility for Business Affairs across in-house production departments including Radio and Music, having previously headed up the legal team in Entertainment Commissioning.
A trained solicitor, Kate started her career in media at the Producers Industrial Relations Service, later the Producers Rights Agency, where she became Head of Rights, Legal and International Affairs.
Bryan KirkwoodHead of Continuing Drama
BAFTA winning producer Bryan Kirkwood returned to the helm of Hollyoaks in 2012, stepping up to the role of Executive Producer and Head of Continuing drama.
Bryan’s return set in motion a renaissance for the show culminating in Hollyoaks winning Best Soap at the British Soap Awards 2014. Hollyoaks currently has a coveted BAFTA nomination in the Soap and Continuing Drama category – the first nomination for the show since 2003.
Under his leadership Hollyoaks has won plaudits and numerous awards for the issue-based storylines that underpin the narrative in the continuing drama, including domestic abuse, male rape and Motor Neurone Disease. This year the show will embark on raising awareness of child sexual abuse.
Hollyoaks has in Bryan’s tenure become synonymous with big storylines, epic twists and heart-wrenching gothic love stories – packaged up with those plots that would ‘only happen in Hollyoaks’.
Bryan embarked on his career in television at ITV, joining the network’s flagship show ‘Coronation Street’. Over the course of six years with ITV he progressed through the ranks occupying the roles of Researcher, Story Liner, Script Editor and ultimately Story Editor.
In early 2006 Bryan began his first stint as Producer of ‘Hollyoaks’. He refocused the show and introduced popular families such as the McQueens. 2009 saw Bryan join the BBC taking the role of Executive Producer on ‘EastEnders’ which saw the programme win a BAFTA award for Best Continuing Drama and Best Soap Award at the British Soap Awards for both years of his tenure.
Sarah TyekiffHead of Non-Scripted Programming
Sarah Tyekiff joined Lime Pictures as Head of Non-Scripted Programming in September 2017. Sarah has overall responsibility for the company’s flagship non-scripted shows including The Only Way is Essex, Celebs Go Dating and Geordie Shore as well as driving new business opportunities with key networks.
Sarah joined Lime with a depth of experience in developing and producing major reality, factual, entertainment shows and live events with prominent success in engaging 16-34 year old audiences. As an executive producer Sarah has a proven track record of creating and developing successful formats, managing multi million pound budgets, rejuvenating brands, increasing viewing figures and getting shows re-commissioned.
Her most noted success was the re-brand of Love Island for which Sarah developed and cast Series 1 and 2. Tasked to specifically develop a show to engage a 16-34 audience for ITV2, last year Series 2 launched with 1.1m viewers, with 52% made up of 16-34’s, up 13 share points. Sarah is also credited with maintaining and growing the ‘I’m a Celebrity’brand. Her last series, Series 16 was the third highest rated series of all time launching with over 13 million viewers. Tyekiff also developed the ground-breaking format for Red or Black, Simon Cowell’s £1m gameshow; coproducing with Simon Cowell and Ant and Dec. She re-wrote the I’m a Celebrity NOW! show format in 2009 growing the viewers back up from 400,000 to an average audience of 1.2m, with a finale of over 2m.
Sarah also worked closely with the interactive and social media teams at ITV: In 2016, theIAC App was the most downloaded App in the UK for 2 weeks, with over a quarter of a billion interactions for the live playalong game, peaking with 52m during TX1. Series 2 of Love Island saw an increase of 348% on Twitter.
