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ITV’s The Garden Hires Nicola Brown as Director of Programs, Promotes Ninder Billing

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ITV Studios’ non-scripted outfit The Garden has appointed Nicola Brown as director of programs, the company announced on Friday. Brown will join chief executive Magnus Temple, chief creative officer John Hay and managing director Nicola Hill to help grow and deliver the company’s expanding slate of programming.

Brown will begin her new role in March. She joins from Channel 4, where she was a commissioning editor in the specialist factual team, overseeing “SAS: Who Dares Wins” and a raft of new series, including “Meat The Family” and the upcoming Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio crime series, as well as the channel’s new factual digital strand “True Stories.”

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Prior to Channel 4, Brown was head of documentaries at Shine and executive producer for the award-winning “Hunted” and “Celebrity Hunted” series, and “The Island with Bear Grylls.” Other production credits include RDF’s award-winning “The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6-Year-Olds,” “Educating Cardiff” for Twofour and “24 Hours in A&E” during a prior stint with The Garden.

“I first worked at The Garden almost a decade ago, and I’m thrilled to be able to take this opportunity to rejoin the team,” said Brown. “The Garden has an extraordinary reputation for delivering projects of scale and ambition with real heart, and I look forward to contributing to this impressive body of work.”

The Garden’s slate includes Channel 4 hits “24 Hours in A&E” and “24 Hours in Police Custody,” new shows for the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and National Geographic, and the recent commission of the US version of “24 Hours in Police Custody,” a co-production for Channel 4 and Discovery.

“Nicola is the perfect addition to the senior team,” said Temple. “Already known and respected by many at The Garden, she has a stellar track record, having worked on some of the most memorable Channel 4 factual hits of recent years, and so we’re very lucky to be able to benefit from her creative and production firepower.”

Ninder Billing has also been promoted to head of specialist factual at The Garden.

Billing has been an executive producer at the company for the past two years, overseeing projects including BAFTA-nominated “Operation Live” on Channel 5, ITV’s “Police Tapes” series, BBC Two commission “Five Star Renovation: Inside The Luxury Hotel,” and “The Unshockable Dr Ronx”for BBC Three.

Temple said he’s “delighted that Ninder has agreed to lead the charge on our expanding specialist factual slate, building on the success of the brilliant ‘Operation Live.’”

Added Billing: “I’m really excited to be drawing on The Garden’s amazing documentary heritage and helping to take it into a new territory.”

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