SENIOR LEADERSHIP
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.
Sarah TyekiffHead of Unscripted Programming
Sarah Tyekiff joined Lime Pictures as Head of Unscripted Programming in September 2017. Sarah has overall responsibility for the company’s flagship unscripted 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, 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, the IAC 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.
Louise SuttonHead of Drama & Young Adults
Louise Sutton is a BAFTA and RTS award-winning producer who joined Lime Pictures in 2018 as Head of Drama and Young Adults. Her appointment marked a return to Lime for Louise, where she began her career over 15 years ago working on Brookside, Grange Hill and Hollyoaks.
Louise most recently produced Butterfly (Red Productions/ITV), Tony Marchant’s story of one family struggling to cope with their trans child and prejudices against them.
Prior to that Louise produced two critically-acclaimed episodes of Black Mirror for Netflix: USS Callister, starring Cristin Milioti, Jesse Plemons, Jimmi Simpson, Michaela Coel and directed by Toby Haynes; and Metalhead, starring Maxine Peake, directed by David Slade. The former won 4 Emmys including Outstanding Television Movie for Sutton at the 2018 Emmys in the US. Metalhead also won the Bafta award for Visual Effects.
After 5 years on Coronation Street, including as Assistant Producer during its landmark 50th anniversary year, Louise was the first Series Producer of CBBC’s The Dumping Ground, which won a BAFTA, an RTS Award and a Writers’ Guild award. She went on to produce series ranging from Midsomer Murders, Home Fires and Jekyll & Hyde for ITV to BBC1’s Death in Paradise.
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.
Tim ComptonCo-Head of Kids
Tim began his career at HIT Entertainment, developing, writing and producing animation. He was script editor for all indie dramas at CBBC, working across MI High and Grange Hill, and developing the multi-award-winning Roy with Jam Media. At Lime, Tim developed the Banff award winning The Well (BBC Switch) by Melvin Burgess and was story producer and core writer on the global hit House of Anubis (Nickelodeon). He piloted Rocket’s Island for CBBC, as well as the International Emmy-nominated Evermoor for the Disney Channel, the first UK live action series commissioned by Disney Channel US. Tim has written for Evermoor and the Netflix Original Free Rein, and has just co-produced two standalone specials of Free Rein with Angelo Abela, as well as the show’s forthcoming third season. In early 2019 Compton was confirmed as Joint Head of Kids for Lime Pictures alongside Angelo Abela.
Angelo AbelaCo-Head of Kids
Angelo Abela joined Lime Pictures in 2011 as Showrunner and Series Director of the multi award-winning House of Anubis, Nickelodeon’s first live action drama commissioned outside of North America. House of Anubis enjoyed three successful series securing a BAFTA nomination and the Nickelodeon US Kids Choice Award for Best UK show voted for by the audience. Following its success Angelo stayed with Lime Pictures to develop children’s projects alongside Tim Compton for all networks in the UK and abroad. In 2016 he developed the double Emmy award-winning Free Rein with Anna McLeery and Vicki Lutas for Netflix and then went on to produce/direct the series. Prior to joining Lime Pictures, Abela was an award-winning Comedian and Actor before moving into writing and then directing. As a Director/Producer he won awards for live theatre and across TV in Children’s, Entertainment and Drama - they include an RTS, Banff, Montreux and Broadcast. In early 2019 Abela was confirmed as Joint Head of Kids alongside Tim Compton. Their aim for Lime Kids is to deliver more shows to a global audience. He describes Lime’s dedication to elevating children’s television so it can stand alongside Adult Drama in scale and ambition as being at the heart of his vision. He comments, “we want to tell stories that resonate with our audience - to entertain and spark the imagination, shows that can make them feel, laugh and think.”
John WhittleDirector of Finance
John joined Lime in 2016 from Worldpay Plc, one of the world’s largest payment processing companies, where he was Head of Financial Accounting for 3 years. Prior to this he worked at NBC Universal for several years in senior finance role across the Theatrical and Home Entertainment divisions internationally, working in Sydney, Stockholm and London.
John is responsible for all financial reporting, operations and information technology at Lime and is part of the Senior Management team, reporting into the Lime Managing Directors. John is a chartered accountant and a fellow of ICAEW.
Joanne BibbyDirector of Legal & Business Affairs
Joanne joined the Company in 1996 as Company Solicitor, becoming Company Secretary in 1997 and Director of Legal & Business Affairs in 2005. She is part of the Senior Management team reporting into the Lime Managing Directors.
Joanne heads up a team which is based across both the Liverpool and London offices and she is responsible for all legal and business affairs across all the company’s scripted and non-scripted programming and digital content across all jurisdictions for UK and international broadcasters and platforms. She also oversees all property, insurance and company secretarial matters on behalf of Lime and is responsible for the negotiation of all corporate contracts and operational contracts entered into by Lime.
Prior to joining the Company Joanne was a partner at DLA in its corporate department.
Heads of Departments
Colette ChardHead of Production (Hollyoaks)
Colette Chard is the Head of Production for Hollyoaks at Lime Pictures.
Colette began her career in the art department in 1989 working on Water Front Beat for the BBC, she then moved on to the channel 4 soap opera Brookside. After 4 years, she moved to Los Angeles and during her time there she worked for Catholic Production Company, Paulist Productions. Returning to the UK in 1995, Colette began work on the new channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, and over a period of nearly a decade, she worked her way up to become the show's senior Production Manager.
She then moved on to become a Line Producer and Production Executive overseeing all Lime's in-house children’s drama Programmes including Grange Hill, Ingenious, Proper Messy, The Well, Shelfstakers, Combat Kids, House of Anubis, Rockets Island and The Evermore Chronicles. Being nominated for several BAFTA’s and winning awards including Banff, Kids Choice and an RTS for Grange Hill.
In 2015, Colette returned to Hollyoaks to become Head of Production and during her current tenure Hollyoaks been nominated for 3 BAFTA’s, won the 2018 Broadcast award for Best Continuing Drama and the 2019 RTS award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama as well as Best Soap at the British Soap Awards and Inside Soap Awards 2019 as voted for by the viewers.
Helen Kurger BrattHead of Unscripted Production
Helen Kruger Bratt joined Lime Pictures in November 2019 in the role of Head of Production for Lime’s growing slate of unscripted programming in the UK.
Prior to joining Lime Pictures, Helen was Executive in Charge of Production at ITV Studios Entertainment, where she was responsible for the delivery of programmes such as Love Island, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Saturday Night Takeaway. Helen was instrumental in the rebirth of Love Island for ITV2 in 2015, setting the blueprint for its success both at home and on a global scale. Working closely with the commercial teams to bring the brand partnerships and commercial opportunities to light driving the huge commercial and ratings success of the brand to date. Additionally, she left ITV Studios with 2 series of Love Island negotiated for 2020.
Helen is no stranger to managing high profile flagship entertainment mega hits with a proven track record in launching new series with particular emphasis on large scale complex reality shows overseas, prime time entertainment, as well as having extensive experience across Daytime and Lifestyle, Factual, Formats and Quiz programmes, all of which are relevant to Lime’s recently bolstered development team, overseen by Head of Unscripted programming Sarah Tyekiff and Head of Development Nick Johns.
Rachel HardyHead of Press & Digital
As Head of Press and Digital for Lime Pictures Rachel has overall responsibility for the press and digital communications output including the work of the highly acclaimed and multi award-winning Digital team.
In addition to leading on all corporate communications, Rachel has led the press team during some of the most successful periods of Lime’s portfolio, launching new shows including TOWIE, Celebs Go Dating and most recently the double Emmy award-winning Free Rein, an original series for Netflix (worldwide), she has also managed some of the most difficult press stories around Lime’s high profile and constantly newsworthy programme brands.
With over a decade of experience working across communications for largely youth focused entertainment brands, Rachel has worked with some of the UK’s most recognisable onscreen talent nurturing them from unknowns into household names.
Rachel has worked with most major broadcasters in the UK including the BBC, ITV, C4, MTV, Nickelodeon, Disney and Netflix. As well as launching some of their biggest shows, Rachel has also overseen publicity campaigns for some of the UK’s most well-established brands including the X Factor and Hollyoaks with a specific focus on reviving and modernising their communications output.
With responsibility for all press and digital output for the company’s slate of programming, Rachel is tasked with devising and implementing truly integrated multi-platform campaigns that deliver volume, audience engagement, innovation and brand consistency across every platform as well as being an integral part of managing returning onscreen talent and reputation management for the company and brands.
Across all programme brands and platforms the digital team have grown a following of over 5 million users and won awards from the Royal Television Society, DigiDay, The Drum (including a Grand Prix Judge’s Award for Best Overall Campaign), MIND and have had a Webby nomination.
Peter HuntHead of Casting
Peter joined Lime Pictures in October 2015 taking up the position of Head of Casting & Casting Director of Hollyoaks. In his position as Head of Casting Peter oversees the casting needs for all Lime Drama and Children’s output.
Peter initially trained as an Actor at The Arts Education School, London and worked professionally as an Actor across various TV, Film & Theatre projects before moving behind the camera to work in production and casting.
Over the years Peter has worked on many popular and well-known productions such as ‘Where the Heart is’, ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Shameless’, ‘Blue Murder’ & ‘Cold Blood’ to name but a few. In recent years his career has led him to cast an array of productions both for the UK and international markets ranging from Music Videos to TV Commercials, TV Comedy, TV Drama, Feature films and Theatre.
In 2018 Peter was awarded Casting Director of the year by The Mandy Networks.
Alison LooseDrama Production Executive
Alison Loose returned to Lime Pictures as a Production Executive in early 2018 to work across both the Drama and Kids departments as the company prepared for growth on both sides of the Atlantic. Prior to that she had been working in house at BBC Children’s taking care of the development slate and managing co-producer relationships. Alison’s credits as a Line Producer include prime time hits Last Tango in Halifax, Scott and Bailey and Home Fires.
