Christian Hills

Creative Director

Christian’s career at True North spans almost 15 years joining as Assistant Producer and working his way up to Creative Director.

His broadcasting career originally began in Granada TV’s regional news and sports department and he has also worked for ITV and BBC in current affairs, factual entertainment and documentaries.

While at True North he’s made everything from single hours to multiple series and highlights include award winning documentaries Stealing Shakespeare and My New Hand, both for BBC One.

When did you join True North?

In 2010 for my second stint at the company – and I’m still here 15 years later!

What other shows are you particularly proud of that you have worked on at True North and elsewhere?

True North’s range of output means that I’ve managed to work across a whole host of amazing shows – from The Pets Factor for CBBC right through to true crime documentaries such as Peeping Tom for Channel Five. What has been great has been helping the company re-establish itself in the access-doc space with Top Guns: Inside the RAF for C4 and the recent BBC3 series Ashley Cain: Into the Danger Zone.

Anything that stands out about your career?

Whether its witnessing the UK’s first hand transplant to meeting Swedish gangsters in underground car parks or watching Typhoon fighter jets scramble, the thing that still amazes me about this job is getting access to fascinating people and places. It’s an unbelievable privilege.

If you could work on any show what would it be and why?

It would be great to see how the other half lives and work on a huge drama such as Succession or Stranger Things. Anything with a catering truck, basically.

Anything you feel really strongly about in the industry – what is there too much of / not enough of / barriers to be broken / types of show to be made.

Where do you start? The volatility over the last few years means we need to ensure long-term opportunities still exist for freelancers and that a career in TV remains viable – too many good people are leaving the industry and it’s hard to see how they’ll be replaced.

Anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?

Having spent over a decade commuting between Manchester and Leeds, I have an intimate knowledge of the M62: Junctions 9 to 27.