Case Study: Julie Gardner

Julie Gardner was an executive producer on Doctor Who between 2005 and 2010 on their respective air dates. This journey lasted across two doctors Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant and she will be returning to the same role for 2023's Doctor Who and beyond. She is also the co-founder of Bad Wolf Studios with fellow executive producer Jane Tranter which creates high-end drama for a global audience, including His Dark Materials and A Discovery of Witches.

Nobody can comprehend the amount of hard work and graft that was put into the working of creating a drama empire within the BBC during the early 2000s, having to think about the government's positional, and financial difficulties and a lot of changes to the way BBC controls their output, it was an uphill battle from the start. The limited budget, the pessimistic image of the Doctor Who brand and the indescribable pressure from fans to bring the said brand back into popular culture, significantly when that responsibility fell onto a woman during that time period when sexism was ripe throughout the industry.

Despite all of this, however, the graft continued, leading up to a place where a production company has begun and built from the framework invested into working for BBC Drama in Wales. Utilising modern standards and ethics for working, alongside the investment from more giant corporations like HBO, Sky and Disney; allows Bad Wolf to pioneer itself into being at the top of creating high-end drama. This then airs on said channels worldwide, alongside deals made with the funders to air programmes on the BBC and other channels with lesser budgets to fund said shows. 

The budget problem has almost been negated now that investors can trust the brand that Julie Gardner has been building for almost two decades. Her journey is an inspiration for any true TV geek and something that I greatly aspire to, whilst my role as producer has been almost negated and pushed to one side, I do plan to follow down a path of hard-working in industry establishment, however more so down the route of factual entertainment rather than high-end drama. My way of doing this would be by showing the same standard of work and commitment which will allow employers to see that I am the right person for the job.