OUR TEAM
Senior Management
Anna Hall
Founder & Chief Creative Officer
Anna has been making films for nearly 30 years! She is a BAFTA winner, having been nominated for 7 in total, and is the only woman ever to be nominated in two consecutive years for the BAFTA CRAFT Best Factual Director Award. She's well known for her 17-year enquiry into gang grooming and broke the CSE story in 2004 with her first feature length doc 'Edge of the City' for Channel 4. Since then she's made a further two films on the subject for Channel 4 and won the hugely prestigious Women in Film & TV Best Factual award and the RTS Journalism Award for "The Hunt for Britain's Sex Gangs" in 2013. Over the years, she has directed a huge variety of content from the gripping ‘The Family Secret’ to ‘A Day in a Life of Coronavirus Britain’ which was filmed in one day in the first weeks of lockdown and transmitted at 9pm on C4 3 days later (nope, not nerve-wracking at all). She has been nominated for 4 Grierson awards – winning Highly Commended in 2020 for ‘The Family Secret’; numerous Broadcast and RTS awards and in the last two years has directed ‘Libby, are you home yet’ for Sky and ‘The Push’ for Channel 4. In 2023 she was awarded the BBC Grierson Trustees Award and in 2021 she won Best Producer at the Women in Film & TV Awards.
Anna sees Candour as fulfilling her life-long dream of providing a home for film-makers in the north. She exec produces pretty much all of Candour’s output and in the last two years has overseen series launches of Yorkshire Midwives on Call BBC2; Cause of Death C5 and Britain’s Most Luxurious Train Journeys Channel 4. She has a husband, three grown up kids and - when not at work - can be found in her favourite spot on her patio where absolutely no one can find her!
Julie Heselgrave
Managing Director
Julie has spent all her TV life working for Leeds based Indies and to date has clocked up 28 years of experience in the sector.
After 8 years with Chameleon Television, in 2002 she joined a relatively new start-up in Leeds called True North, where she initially took on the role of Production Manager, stepping up to Head of Production as the Indie grew and then finally settling into the position of Finance Director. During her 17-year stint there, she saw the Company through two major shifts in Shareholders and evolve into one of the biggest Indies outside of London.
Julie left True North in 2019 to join Anna Hall’s Candour Productions as Head of Production. During the past 3 years (almost 2 of those under the cloud of the pandemic) she has created a solid infrastructure that has helped attract some of the UK’s best talent in Factual TV production and provided the financials that saw Candour secure the Research & Development contract awarded by the DCMS to Live & Wild, a Consortium headed up by them, formed to investigate how 5G technology can benefit the Creative Industries.
Julie’s focus will now be to oversee the day-to-day operations and explore new business opportunities to ensure Candour’s ongoing success and growth.
Ali Lycett
Head of Production
Ali started her career in television 25 years ago and has since delivered hundreds of hours of television for all major broadcasters including BBC, ITV, C4, C5, Discovery, Sky, National Geographic & MTV. She has worked across a wide range of genres, leading with factual, documentary and overseas current affairs.
In 2009 Ali moved from London to Yorkshire where she joined True North Productions. In 2013 she became Production Executive and soon went on to run one of the most operationally challenging overseas series before leaving the company in 2019.
Ali is also an award-winning short film producer. Her experience ranges from filming on location in Central Sudan and Ethiopia for WaterAid to producing VFX content for NASA.
Ali is passionate about providing film and broadcast opportunities to under-represented areas of the community. She is an industry mentor and is a visiting lecturer at Leeds Trinity University.
Development
Eleanor Wight
Senior Development Producer
Eleanor is a development producer overseeing Candour's global programming slate. Whilst at Candour, she helped develop the BAFTA-winning series 'Libby, Are You Home Yet?' and has since worked up premium documentary series developments for both UK and US streamers. Recognized as one of Broadcast's 'Hot Shots' in 2023 and a former participant of the Grierson Doc/Lab scheme, Eleanor has always had a huge passion for documentary film and her role in development at Candour allows her to help people share their stories and make a wider difference in the world.
In her spare time, Eleanor loves to powerlift, see as many films as she possibly can and hike with her mini schnauzer in the Yorkshire countryside.
Becky Ford
Senior Development Producer
Becky's telly career spans 16 years, most of which was spent freelancing for indies in London. She has produced and developed programmes for all major broadcasters, across multiple genres, and some of her credits include: 'Glow Up: Britain's Next Makeup Star' (BBC Three/Netflix), 'Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night Feast' (Channel 4), 'Back in Time for Tea' (BBC2), and 'James May's Toy Stories' (BBC2).
Becky moved back home to Yorkshire, joining Candour in 2021. She now works across both development and production and is currently producing our Channel 4 feature doc series 'Catching a Killer'.
With a passion for factual programme making, Becky loves the opportunity to tell people's stories, craft compelling narratives, and find and develop unique access.
Imaan Labad
Development Researcher
Imaan hails from Bradford and lived there for almost 2 decades before venturing even further North to study History at Newcastle University. After graduating, and a few years working in various roles at Bradford Council, Imaan embarked on a journey into the world of TV - originally joining Candour on a 6-month placement scheme in partnership with the Screen Industry Growth Network as part of the development team.
Now she is a staple of the ‘other side’ of the office and working up various pitches for a range of broadcasters. She played a key role in our Sheffield Doc Fest Northern Docs pitch in 2022, and has worked as a Researcher on various projects, including the Panorama - Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Britain’s Rape Crisis, 33 Families: One Big Build and Britain’s Most Luxurious Train Journeys.
She has a keen interest in social history and has helped develop ideas focusing on diverse cultures and underrepresented areas of society, but despite her history degree her specialist category on Mastermind would most likely be 2000’s pop-culture trivia. Outside of the office you can find her cooking Caribbean cuisine, listening to Erykah Badu, finding the funniest TikTok videos, being cultured in a theatre or watching trash reality TV: you can’t say she doesn’t have range!
Imaan loves the world of development where she can be creative and wants to continue developing ideas, she is passionate about, with the hopes to one day score a commission with a top global streamer.
Phoebe Morton
Development Researcher
Phoebe left behind her home of Cheddar cheese, Hot Fuzz and proper cider a few years ago, and is now (rightly) convinced that the North is better than the South. She started at Candour as an intern after doing an MA in Journalism at Leeds Trinity, and then shortly after joined the development team full time.
Whilst doing her undergraduate degree in law, she realised every spare moment she had she was watching documentaries and thought to herself: maybe I’m looking at the wrong profession? With her law degree she has an eye for crime and justice-based ideas, but also enjoys developing contemporary history ideas. If she’s not watching documentaries, HBO dramas or listening to podcasts, you can find her desperately trying to persuade the office to watch Taskmaster.
Production Management
Joanna Wilcock
Production Executive
Joanna is privileged to have worked in the TV industry for over 25 years, starting her career fresh out of university taking up the role of the Recruitment Secretary at Yorkshire Television. After a short time Joanna followed her TV ambition and moved into the factual programmes department as a Production Assistant.
Joanna went on to spend many incredible years gaining experience in a number of production administration roles across ITV Yorkshire and Granada, eventually working as a PM on a variety of current affairs, documentary and factual entertainment shows for numerous broadcasters including ITV, BBC, C4, Discovery, Sky and UKTV. One of many career highlights for Joanna has to be spending 9 weeks on location in Jamaica filming an ob-doc series at an adults-only holiday resort – a real eye-opener and a never to be repeated experience!!!!
More recently Joanna was thrilled to take on a PM role at ITV flagship continuing drama ‘Emmerdale’ gaining some invaluable experience in the scripted TV genre.
Joanna joined Candour Productions in March 2022 and has enjoyed working with some brilliant production teams on series including ‘Yorkshire Midwives on Call’, ‘Cause of Death’, ‘Libby Are You Home Yet?’ and is currently in production with a new 4-part series for C4. It’s been lovely for Joanna to work again with so many great people from her factual programming past.
There’s not much time left for hobbies or anything else but when given the chance Joanna is never happier than with a cup of tea, a good book and a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate!
Josh Carpenter
Production Manager
Josh grew up amidst the rolling hills of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. After an early departure from Sheffield University, he relocated to bonny Scotland and began work at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, organising their prestigious opening & closing parties and industry events. After 2 years at EIFF, an opportunity arose to switch careers to TV at Raise the Roof Productions, in Glasgow.
After a credit or two there, he moved back to God’s Own Country in 2017 and began work as a location coordinator, working on Men in Black international, Years & Years, Cobra, and an Ed Sheeran music video (to name a few!). Following this, he made his homecoming to unscripted production at True North, starting on A New Life in the Sun just in time for a global pandemic to hit, grinding production to a halt. Against all odds, Josh helped resurrect the production, making for a career highlight. Later in the same year Josh went on to win the RTS Yorkshire One to Watch Award.
Josh joined Candour in the summer of ’21, coordinating on Yorkshire Midwives on Call, Michael Sams: Kidnapper Killer, Libby Are You Home Yet, Cause of Death, and Britain’s Luxury Train Journeys.
The parts of his heart not reserved for TV are occupied by Seabrook’s cheese and onion crisps, football and hot summer days.
Elyse Westerman
Production Accountant
Elyse began her long-term telly affair in the world of Post Production. After progressing from runner to coordinator at a small post production house, she moved onto ITV where she worked as a senior scheduler for a decade. Following this she found herself, as most Northern telly folk do, amongst the ranks at True North for a seven-year stint, this time in a different side of administration.
Now, Elyse is an essential fixture of Candour’s make-up. Her smorgasbord of daily duties has made her a well-known name to anyone who passes through Candour’s doors. Outside of the office and away from her finance responsibilities, she’s an intrepid traveller, an unparalleled tea expert, and a revered café-critic.
Kate Lund
Production Coordinator
Kate joined Candour on work experience after taking part in the reboot Production Management course. After winning over the entire company, Kate started working on the Live and Wild project in October 2021 as Production Secretary where she got a taste of TV production; from planning shoots to running around filming locations in the pouring rain!
Since Live and Wild, Kate has worked on many Candour programmes such as BBC Our Lives documentary 33 Families: One Big Build, Dispatches: Trapped, Disabled and Abused, Libby, are you home yet? and more recently as a Production Coordinator on Catching a Killer! Kate is always keen to help any production and does so with a smile on her face. It's safe to say, she loves her job!
Outside of work, Kate likes to stay active with regular visits to the gym and long walks in the Lake District when she can. If she’s not out walking, you'll likely find her trying out a new restaurant.
Mikey Donnelly
Executive PA
After graduating from music college in 2014, Mikey spent his initial post-student years as a composer, performer, and producer in the music industry. After 5 years of creatively debasing himself for impressively little recompense, he found himself in the market for a new raison d'être and stumbled into the world of telly.
Since his arrival, he has been welcomed amongst the ranks of some of the North’s most acclaimed independent production companies: starting his TV journey as Senior Management Assistant at True North; then on to Daisybeck Studios; and now firmly grounded at Candour.
He's become famous for his monthly breakfast clubs at Candour, often taking a theme dictated by the day it lands on - hightlights include: National Near Miss Day & National High Five Day. You'll find him pouring over an audacious centrepiece the morning of, without fail.
When he’s not getting his kicks off an impeccably organised calendar, he’ll likely be candle-making, slurping down a mimosa, or even occasionally, still dipping a proverbial toe into the world of music.
Post Production
Tom Harkness
Edit Assistant
Tom was born and raised in Leeds. He found his love for TV and film when he was young, attempting edits and doing music videos before heading to Leeds Beckett University to learn the skills needed to get into the industry. After 3 years of hard work, he spent a year doing remote freelance work amidst the pandemic. After this, he made his way to Candour where he has spent 2 years learning and helping out post production where he can, with the eventual goal of becoming an editor himself.
WARNING
May experience mood swings depending on how well Leeds United play over the weekends.