The BBC has appointed the man responsible for the Great British Bake Off to run BBC2 and help reinvigorate the schedule at the home of Top Gear.
Patrick Holland, the head of documentaries commissioning at the BBC, has been appointed to the newly created role of channel editor at BBC2.
The BBC said that Holland has the skill to “bring confidence back” to BBC2, which lost Bake Off to BBC1 and seen Chris Evans’s new-look Top Gear stalling in the ratings.
Holland is the channel’s first editor after the controller role was scrapped in a reshuffle that coincided with the exit of short-lived BBC2 head, Kim Shillinglaw.
Holland, who only joined the BBC from Grand Designs maker Boundless last year, will report to the BBC’s controller of TV and iPlayer, Charlotte Moore.
“More than ever BBC2 needs to be a place that champions creativity and enables authorship,” said Holland.
Holland’s documentaries department was responsible for BBC1’s The Not So Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, The Real Marigold Hotel on BBC2 and BBC3’s Murdered by My Father.
He takes charge at a time when Moore, who oversees the whole of the BBC’s TV output, has said it will have a new focus on factual shows.
BBC2 has been on a roll in recent years, but many of its most talked about hits have been dramas such as Line of Duty and Wolf Hall. The new series of Line of Duty will be on BBC1.
Moore, like Holland, was head of documentaries at the BBC before she was put in charge of BBC1 three years ago. The pair worked together at independent producer, Location, Location, Location maker IWC.
“Patrick is the right creative leader to bring confidence back to BBC2 and give the channel a greater sense of identity in a crowded TV landscape,” said Moore.
“I know he will be committed to making BBC Two a place for creatives to do their most distinctive, signature work. Patrick is a born collaborator who backs risk taking, and whose extensive experience and sound editorial judgement will create a BBC2 fit for the future to drive even higher quality and success.”
It is something of a quirk that BBC1’s Great British Bake Off also comes out of the BBC documentaries, as does its spin-off show, The Great Pottery Throwdown on BBC2.
