The BBC has appointed Fiona Campbell and Ed Havard to newly-created senior factual and entertainment roles.
Campbell, the BBC’s controller of youth audience who has been interim director unscripted since September, becomes factual director. She will oversee documentaries, specialist factual, arts and classical music TV and the Storyville strand.
Ed Havard joins the BBC from NBCU, where he was senior vice-president of alternative programming, as entertainment director. He will lead on entertainment, daytime, factual entertainment and events.
The roles replace the post of director of unscripted, previously held by Kate Phillips, who was made chief content officer last year.
Phillips said Campbell, who has been with the BBC for 16 years and is based in Northern Ireland, is “an outstanding leader and creative powerhouse with a wealth of broadcasting and digital experience”.
Campbell said: “I really look forward to what everyone can achieve, how we will innovate further, and the impact the content will have on audiences in the UK and beyond in next few years.”
Harvard was Question Time editor and Channel 4 head of entertainment before joining NBCU, where he helped to broker the BBC partnership that led to the creation of large-scale joint commissions The Traitors and Destination X.
Havard will stand down as NBCU senior vice-president of alternative programming to return to the BBC after 15 years, having formerly served as editor of BBC1’s Question Time.
His genre focus shifted from current affairs to entertainment when he headed to Channel 4 as head of entertainment and TV, where he oversaw major commissions including Celebrity Gogglebox, The Last Leg and The Crystal Maze.
At NBCU, he took on responsibility for the global production studio’s unscripted strategy in the UK, and was a key figure in brokering a landmark partnership with the BBC to create high-impact fact-ent and entertainment shows The Traitors and Destination X, with a third joint project in the works.
Havard said: “The opportunity to return to the BBC and work alongside Kate Phillips is impossible to resist. The BBC’s entertainment slate across studio, reality, events, formats and lifestyle is one of the most ambitious and prolific in the world.”
Phillips added: “With his vast experience of public service broadcasting, commercial deals, digital strategy and the international market, he is uniquely placed to continue to strengthen the impact of BBC Entertainment for audiences across the UK.”
