Page 71 - 2018 Powerlist

Anne Mensah
Head of Drama, Sky TV

As one of the most powerful women in British TV drama, Media, Publishing& Entertainment
Anne has presided over a string of smash hit shows across
Sky’s entertainment channels in the past six years.
Among them are the critically acclaimed Enfield
Haunting, starring Timothy Spall; Fortitude starring
Michael Gambon, Stanley Tucci and Dennis Quaid, as well
as Stan Lee’s Lucky Man featuring James Nesbitt.
Another series, Delicious – starring Dawn French
and Emilia Fox – was Sky 1’s most successful original
series ever with an average audience of 1.59million
viewers.
This year has seen Guerrilla, written and directed
by Academy Award winner John Ridley, Tin Star,
starring Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks, and Melrose,
starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the eponymous
aristocratic playboy.
Prior to joining Sky, Anne spent 10 years at the BBC,
where she was latterly Head of Independent Drama as well
as Head of Drama for BBC Scotland.
While at the BBC, Anne oversaw the commission and
filming of a string of successful series.
They included the multi award-winning Wallander
starring Kenneth Branagh; Waterloo Road; Case Histories
starring Jason Issacs; Zen starring Rufus Sewell and God
Marcus Ryder on Trial with Stephen Dillane, Dominic Cooper, Stellan
Skarsgard and Sir Anthony Sher.
Chief International Editor of China Global
Television Network Digital (CGTN)

“If you are serious about television as a business you need
to think internationally,” an executive producer told Marcus
when he started at the BBC in 1992.
As of last September, the former BBC current affairs
chief has taken the advice literally, decamping to Beijing
to take over the position of chief international editor of
CGTN Digital, the English-language version of China’s state
broadcaster, China Central Television.
His job has been to relaunch the foreign news channel,
moving away from a focus on TV to a ‘mobile/digital-first’
strategy. He is also responsible for training journalists
from across the world to cover the news in an impartial and
balanced manner, including those from regimes where these
values may not be valued or, at worst, have been repressed.
“I have good days, where I ensure that we report on LGBT
issues, democracy protesters in Hong Kong and Chinese
authorities faking pollution data – all issues that CCTV News
would normally have shied away from before the relaunch,”
he says. “But I also have bad days, when I fight and lose
editorial battles over whether we should cover an Amnesty
International report on China’s use of the death penalty.”
Before his move to Beijing, Marcus enjoyed a
distinguished career with the BBC spanning some 20 years.
Latterly Executive Producer, Current Affairs he oversaw
some of the most high-profile current affairs programmes
produced in Scotland.
He has long championed diversity in the media and for
five years was the Chair of the Royal Television Society
Diversity Committee.

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