Tom Gutteridge

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Thomas Michael Gillan Gutteridge (born 2 February 1952) is a British television director, producer and executive. He was formerly Chief Executive of FremantleMedia NA, having previously been founder and Chief Executive of Mentorn, from 1985 to 2001. In 2016 he was appointed Executive Producer of the television series BattleBots, which, after two seasons on ABC, in 2018 moved to the Discovery and Science Channels. He started his career as a

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journalist.

Early life

Gutteridge was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1952, the son of a food technologist, and moved to Tyneside when he was 5. He was educated at Priory School Tynemouth,

Newcastle Royal Grammar School (By Learning, You Will Lead) , established = , closed = , type = Grammar SchoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Geoffrey Stanford , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , cha ...

and the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

, where he studied English and Philosophy.

BBC career

Gutteridge joined the BBC as a News Trainee, and initially worked at Radio Derby, and in the Newcastle newsroom. He was later a producer and director on ''Nationwide'', ''Tonight'' and ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

''. On 11 April 1978, he directed the first

Budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

Special programme to use live sound from the House of Commons. In 1979 he became producer of the weekly ''Tonight in Town'', hosted by

Valerie Singleton Valerie Singleton (born 9 April 1937) is an English television and radio presenter best known as a regular presenter of the popular children's series ''Blue Peter'' from 1962 to 1972. She also presented the BBC Radio 4 '' PM'' programme for t ...

and Michael Billington. In 1983 he was seconded from the BBC's Music & Arts department to direct the BBC's General Election coverage. In 1980 Gutteridge moved to Music & Arts department as Executive Producer, where he was responsible for the twice-weekly

Russell Harty Frederic Russell Harty (5 September 1934 – 8 June 1988) was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows. Early life Harty was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, the son of greengrocer Fred Harty, who ran a fruit-and-veget ...

chat shows. In 1982, he produced and directed the comedy sketch series ''

A Kick Up the Eighties ''A Kick Up the Eighties'' was a 1981–1984 BBC 2 comedy sketch show starring Robbie Coltrane (Series 2), Tracey Ullman, Richard Stilgoe (Series 1), Miriam Margolyes, Rik Mayall, Ron Bain and Roger Sloman. The show was created by Tom Gutterid ...

'', which discovered the talents of

Rik Mayall Richard Michael Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English actor, stand-up comedian and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University and was a pioneer of alternative ...

(as

Kevin Turvey Kevin Turvey was a British television comedy character, created by actor and comedian Rik Mayall, who featured in the BBC sketch show ''A Kick Up the Eighties'' in 1981. ''A Kick Up the Eighties'' Turvey, an awkward and socially inept character wh ...

) and

Tracey Ullman Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman, 30 December 1959) is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and director. Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows ''A Kick Up the Eighties'' (wi ...

, and which won a Scottish BAFTA. In 1983 and 1984, he produced and directed the BBC1 dance series ''The Hot Shoe Show'', starring

Wayne Sleep Wayne Philip Colin Sleep (born 17 July 1948) is a British dancer, director, choreographer, and actor who appeared on the BBC series '' The Real Marigold on Tour'' and ITV's '' The Real Full Monty''. Early life Sleep was born in Plymouth, D ...

and

Bonnie Langford Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford (born 22 July 1964) is an English actress, dancer and singer. She came to prominence as a child star in the 1970s, when she had a notable role in the TV series ''Just William''. In the 1980s, she played c ...

, which in 1984 was nominated for a BAFTA as Best Light Entertainment Series.

Freelance career

TV and film

In 1984 he took leave of absence from the BBC to direct and produce the film of the

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

musical '' Song & Dance''. In December 1985 he co-produced and directed the dance special ''Dash'', with Wayne Sleep. On 21 October 1985 he directed ''Blue Suede Shoes, a Rockabilly Special'' with

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...

, which starred

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

and

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

Dave Edmunds David William Edmunds (born 15 April 1944) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Although he is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave, having many hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has alwa ...

Rosanne Cash Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter and author. She is the eldest daughter of country musician Johnny Cash and Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, Johnny Cash's first wife. Although she is often classified as a country art ...

Lee Rocker Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker, August 3, 1961) is an American musician. He is a member of the rockabilly revival band Stray Cats. He is the son of the classical clarinetists Stanley Drucker, the late former principal clarinetist of the New Yor ...

and

Slim Jim Phantom James McDonnell (born March 21, 1961), known by the stage name Slim Jim Phantom, is the drummer for Stray Cats. Alongside bandmates Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker, he spearheaded the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 1980s. Phantom currently ...

. In December 1985 he directed the ITV documentary ''Sixty Tiny Fingers'' about the

Walton sextuplets The Walton sextuplets were born at Liverpool Maternity Hospital in Liverpool, England on 18 November 1983 and were the world's first all-female surviving sextuplets, and the world's fourth known set of surviving sextuplets. The children are Hanna ...

. In 1986 Gutteridge wrote and directed the ice ballet ''Fire and Ice'', starring

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean Torvill and Dean ( Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean) are English ice dancers and former British, European, Olympic, and World champions. At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics the pair won gold and became the highest-scoring figure skaters of ...

for ITV, which won the Bronze Rose at Montreux, and also Best Director at the International Monitor Awards. It was broadcast on ITV on Boxing Day 1986.

Opera and ballet

The following year, Gutteridge wrote and directed the ITV ice ballet ''Sleeping Beauty'', with

Robin Cousins Robin Cousins, MBE (born 17 August 1957) is a British former competitive figure skater who was BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1980. He was the 1980 Olympic champion, the 1980 European champion, a three-time World medalist (1978–19 ...

, which also won Best Director at the International Monitor Awards. Also in 1987 he directed a film of the Ravel opera 'L'Enfant et Les Sortileges' at Glyndebourne, conducted by

Simon Rattle Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal ...

. In 1990, he directed the full-length

David Bintley Sir David Julian Bintley (born 17 September 1957) is an English former ballet dancer, the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company. Early life Bintley was born i ...

ballet ''

Hobson's Choice A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that multiple choices are available. The most well known Hobson's choice is "I'll give you a choice: take it or leave ...

'' with the

Birmingham Royal Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the five major ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside The Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Founded as the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, the company ...

. In 1991 Gutteridge directed an hour-long comedy special for ITV ''Lenny Go Home'' with

Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...

Mentorn

In 1985 Gutteridge founded the production company Mentorn (originally called Mentorn Films), and his early productions included the BBC1 documentary The Golden Gong (1987). In 1988 he produced and directed the ITV documentary about the animator Richard Williams, ''I Drew Roger Rabbit'', which won an

International Emmy The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sc ...

nomination for Best Arts Documentary in 1989. From 1987, the firm produced a number of weekly arts magazine series for ITV regional companies, including ''

01-for London ''01-for London'' was a Thames Television programme broadcast on ITV in South-East England between 1987 and 1992. It was a weekly arts listings programme developed in conjunction with ''Time Out'' magazine. The programme was produced by Tom G ...

'' for Thames TV, which was hosted by Richard Jobson,

Neil Mullarkey Neil Mullarkey is an English actor, writer and comedian. Early life and education From 1972—1979, Mullarkey was educated at Kingston Grammar School, an independent school for boys (now coeducational), in Kingston upon Thames, followed by Rob ...

, Mark Webster and

Paula Yates Paula Elizabeth Yates (24 April 1959 – 17 September 2000) was a British television presenter and writer. Yates is best known for her work on two television programmes, '' The Tube'' and ''The Big Breakfast''. She was the girlfriend of musicia ...

, ''First Night'' for Central, ''Wideangle'' for Anglia, as well as the daily ''Box Office'' for Channel 4. It also produced the ITV weekly magazine ''Hollywood Report''. By 1991, Mentorn had become Britain's largest independent television production company. From 1989 to 1995 Mentorn produced and directed the entertainment series ''

Challenge Anneka ''Challenge Anneka'' is a British reality programme that aired on BBC1 from 8 September 1989 to 15 October 1995 and was hosted by Anneka Rice. It was announced in 2006 that the series was returning, but this time on ITV. The first of the two s ...

'' for BBC1, with

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a Welsh-born television and radio presenter, broadcaster, journalist and painter. Early life and education Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales, ...

, which won the Bronze Rose at Montreux in 1991. The first series was broadcast from 8 September 1989 on Friday evenings on BBC1, and in 1990 the series moved to Saturday nights and ratings rose to 10 million viewers and was the second most popular show on BBC1. Gutteridge had a son with Rice in 1997. In 2001 Gutteridge produced and directed a US version of the show for ABC called ''Challenge America'', starring Erin Brockovitch. In 1991 Mentorn teamed up with Polygram, Working Title and Palace Pictures to form a consortium, London Independent Broadcasting, to bid against LWT for the London weekend ITV franchise. The bid was unsuccessful. Gutteridge was Executive Producer of the BBC1 comedy film ''The Bullion Boys'', starring

David Jason Sir David John White (born 2 February 1940), known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'', Detective Inspector J ...

and

Brenda Blethyn Brenda Blethyn (''née'' Bottle; 20 February 1946) is an English actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and two Academy Award nominations. Blethyn ...

, for which he won the 1994

Award for Drama. Other Mentorn productions Gutteridge created and produced included the talent show '' Star for a Night'', with

Jane McDonald Jane Anne McDonald (born 4 April 1963) is an English singer, songwriter and television presenter. Born and raised in Wakefield, McDonald spent much of her early career performing in local clubs and pubs before landing work as a singer on cruis ...

, which in 2001 discovered the singer

Joss Stone Joscelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, ''The Soul Sessions'', which made the 2004 Merc ...

. Gutteridge also produced the BBC1 debate series ''You Decide'' with

Jeremy Paxman Jeremy Dickson Paxman (born 11 May 1950) is an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and television presenter. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate ne ...

and the daily BBC2 news quiz '' Today's the Day'' with

Martyn Lewis Sir Martyn John Dudley Lewis (born 7 April 1945) is a Welsh television news presenter and journalist. He was a presenter for BBC News television programmes between 1986 and 1999 and was known for his involvement in the coverage of the death o ...

, which ran from 1992 to 1999. Gutteridge was also Executive Producer of the BBC entertainment series ''Before They Were Famous''. Gutteridge also produced the first entertainment programme for the new ITV franchise Carlton Television, ''Surprise Party'', broadcast on 1 January 1993. In 1996 Gutteridge was Executive Producer of the 24-part Gerry Anderson sci-fi drama series ''

Space Precinct ''Space Precinct'' is a British television series that was first broadcast from 1994 to 1995 on Sky One and later on BBC Two from 1995 to 1996 in the UK, and in first-run syndication in the United States. Many US stations scheduled the show in ...

''. In 1995 he created the cult television series '' Robot Wars'' for BBC2 and a number of international broadcasters from 1998 until 2002 (a further series was made for Channel Five in 2003), and for which Gutteridge was nominated for a Best Entertainment Programme BAFTA in 1999. Robot Wars first broadcast on BBC2 in February 1998, hosted by

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear'' an ...

and

Philippa Forrester Philippa Clare Ryan Forrester (born September 1968) is a British television and radio presenter, producer and author. Throughout her career, Forrester has presented shows such as CBBC, ''Tomorrow's World'', Crufts, ''The Heaven and Earth Show'' ...

, and a further 5 series were made for BBC2 with

Craig Charles Craig Joseph Charles (born 11 July 1964) is an English actor, comedian, television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera ''Coronation ...

, reaching ratings in excess of 4 million viewers. A seventh series was produced for Channel Five. In the United States, a series was produced for the United States (but shot by Mentorn in London) called ''Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors'', hosted by the wrestler

Mick Foley Michael Francis Foley (born June 7, 1965) is an American actor, author, retired professional wrestler, and color commentator. He is currently signed to WWE under the company's Legends program, acting as a company ambassador. Foley worked for m ...

. It aired on TNN. A subsequent US series was made for Nickelodeon. Other key long-running Mentorn productions included ''

Question Time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

'', ''

Traffic Cops ''Traffic Cops'' is a British documentary series broadcast on Channel 5 (and formerly on BBC One) which follows Roads Policing Units from various UK police forces. It has consistently been one of the most watched factual series on UK televisi ...

'' and ''Britain's Worst Driver''.

The Television Corporation

From 1996 Mentorn had acquired other production companies, including the documentary producers Barraclough Carey, and in February 2000 Gutteridge sold the expanded Mentorn Group to The Television Corporation plc. Gutteridge became Group Director of Content and Marketing of the merged group. In 2003 Gutteridge moved to the United States, where he co-created and produced the

Fox network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

series Paradise Hotel and Forever Eden.

FremantleMedia North America

In 2003, Gutteridge quit Mentorn and was headhunted by

FremantleMedia Fremantle (; formerly FremantleMedia) is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. Fremantle takes its name from Fremantle International, acquired by predecessor company All American Television in ...

to become its Chief Executive Officer in North America, where he was responsible for the company's operations in the US and Canada, which included the productions ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

'' and ''

The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also inc ...

''. He resigned from the company in March 2005 for personal reasons.

Return to the UK

In 2007, Gutteridge returned to the UK and moved with his partner Joanna to Northumberland, where he founded the production company Standing Stone, which has produced a number of entertainment formats, including the quiz show Hot Seat, sold to Debmar Mercury, and the dating show Loveland, sold to Sky, Fox, and a number of other networks in 2008. After commissioning and announcing the Loveland series, which was to have been hosted by Cilla Black, Sky cancelled it in 2009. In 2009, Gutteridge co-wrote with Nigel Dacre the application for the Trinity Mirror and Press Association regional news consortium News 3, which in 2010 won the bid for the regional news pilot for the north east of England. The news pilots were cancelled by the incoming coalition government later in 2010. In 2013, Standing Stone signed a development deal with the Fox network in the United States for a new entertainment format, The Ideas Factory. Standing Stone also had a digital division, which developed a revolutionary interactive voting and information app for Channel Four's Dispatches series in 2012, of which Gutteridge was Executive Producer of 20 episodes. The app was nominated for Innovation of the Year in the British Journalism Awards 2012.

Return to US

In 2015 Gutteridge returned to the US to work as a Broadcast Consultant and Executive Producer. He was contracted by BattleBots Inc to be in charge of the international rollout of the hit robot combat show on ABC ''

BattleBots ''BattleBots'' (logo: Bꓭ)In season 10, the 2020-2021 TV season, the show introduced the "Bꓭ" logo is an American robot combat television series. The show was an adaptation of the British show '' Robot Wars'', in which competitors design and o ...

'', as Executive Producer, International. From 2016 he has been Executive Producer of the 3rd, 4th and 5th seasons of

for Discovery Channel. He also produced and directed a live BattleBots 3-hour event, which was streamed live on Twitch, for Amazon's re:MARS conference in Las Vegas

BattleBots (ABC)

In April 2016, Gutteridge launched the international sales rollout of ''

'' by appointing Sky Vision as distributor. They immediately sold the series to a number of international broadcasters, including Spike and Channel 5 in the UK, and Discovery Germany. By October 2016 the series was on air in 150 territories.

Other work

Gutteridge was elected Chair of the

Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television The Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact) is the UK trade association for independent content producers in feature film, television, animation, children's and digital media. Pact campaigns on issues of relevance to its members, inclu ...

(PACT) in 1993, and over the next two years successfully campaigned for a quota for independent regional production, and also started a campaign for tax breaks for the British film industry (which eventually succeeded in 1997). He was made a Fellow of the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

in 1996 and in 1995 gave the 50th anniversary RTS Fleming Memorial Lecture at the Royal Institution on the subject 50 Channels and Nothing On: The Future of British Production. He became Deputy Chair of the Royal Television Society in 1998. He was Chair of

Skillset A skill is the learned ability to act with determined results with good execution often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of w ...

's Northern Media Skills Panel from 2008 to 2012 and in December 2014 became Chair of the regional screen agency Northern Film & Media. In 2015 he helped launch the NFM Academy, a training initiative to help North East production personnel get experience of working on high-end drama productions.

Teesside University

In 2008, Gutteridge became Visiting Professor at

Teesside University , mottoeng = Deeds Not Words , established = 1930 – Constantine Technical College1969 – as Teesside Polytechnic 1992 – gained university status , type = Public , endowment = £0.23 m (2019/20) , chancellor ...

, where he regularly gives masterclasses and lectures to students in the School of Arts and Media. Since 2007 he has also written a weekly column in '' The Journal'', the daily newspaper covering the Northeast, published by Trinity Mirror.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutteridge, Tom British television directors British television producers 1952 births Living people People educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne Alumni of the University of York