The Wonder Women Podcast with Ria Hebden

From achieving a degree in Biochemistry to becoming one of the world's first ever female Master Distillers at G&J Distillers which is part of the international spirits group Quintessential Brands, Joanne Moore is truly a master of her craft. In this month’s Wonder Women Podcast, Ria talks to Joanne who describes herself as an “accidental distiller” but while she may not have had her career all planned out initially, Joanne's success in a male-dominated industry speaks for itself, proving that you can achieve a fulfilling and rewarding career by working hard and following your passion.

The first step to Joanne's success, was when she secured work experience with G&J Distillers whilst at university, this set her up for her first job in distillery, starting off as Quality Controller in the quality lab, where she would test raw materials and finished products. Joanne then quickly rose up the ranks to become Quality Manager, which flourished into 11 wonderful years in the drinks industry before becoming Master Distiller and the first ever female distiller since the company was founded in 1761!

By embracing her flair and passion for creating lovely tasting gins, Joanne is now responsible for the creation of four international gins: BLOOM, Berkeley Square London Dry, Opihr Oriental Spiced Gin and Thomas Dakin Gin and for the distillation of Greenall’s The Original London Dry Gin, as well as a number of other brands. Whether you are interested in studying biochemistry or keen to learn what career paths are available in the drinks industry, this month’s Wonder Women podcast is packed with nuggets of advice from Joanne who shares some of the challenges she faced early on in her career and why she thinks more women are joining the drinks business today. There's also an abundance of top tips for creating a better work-life balance and advice on leadership and how best to lead a global team. So why not grab yourself a beverage and have a listen now. Cheers!

If you are thinking of starting your own business, here's some great practical advice from the award-winning entrepreneur, and Founder of Don’t Buy Her Flowers, Steph Douglas whose thoughtful gifting company thrived during the height of the pandemic - with revenues up by 600% on the previous year! In this month's fascinating episode, Steph tells Ria what it was like to have her business expand so rapidly - literally overnight - and how she dealt with it not just logistically, but emotionally during such bizarre times.

Don’t worry, this isn’t just a great listen for entrepreneurs or those interested in business. Steph shares some valuable life hacks for achieving work and life balance; a different approach to securing a mentor and how to maintain relationships if you work with friends or family.

Interestingly, prior to setting up her own business, Steph worked in Branding and Marketing in government communications and worked on a number of exciting campaigns which included; Join the Army, Stop Smoking and the iconic London Olympics. Trust us when we say, you don’t want to miss this great episode!

Sarah Asante was the first ever black, female Commissioner in BBC history and is now an award-winning Commissioning Editor at the multi-channel broadcaster, UKTV where she’s responsible for seeking out, developing, commissioning and executive-producing, scripted comedy shows for Dave and Gold. Sarah joined UKTV from the BBC where she commissioned the cult-hit sketch show FAMALAM along with comedy pilots, Dreaming Whilst Black, Behind the Filter and Fully Blown.

Throughout Sarah's career she's also had a variety of roles in the BBC’s comedy team as a Development and Digital Content Editor, before moving into Commissioning and prior to that, she spent over a decade working in commissioning teams across Factual and Entertainment at Fox International Channels, Scripps Networks, ITV and Channel 4.

In this fascinating episode, Sarah shares how throughout her career, she has always confidently put herself forward for roles in TV because she knew her worth and valued her own expertise and how working in an all-female team at ITV inspired her, along with some top tips on how best to pitch to comedy commissioners! Sarah’s also a member of the BAFTA TV Committee and acts as the diversity lead for new writer initiatives at UKTV, so grab yourself a notebook and pen, because this one’s a goody!

In this month’s Wonder Women podcast, Ria talks to Fozia Khan, Development Executive at Amazon Studios who recently left the documentaries department at Channel 4 Commissioning to work in Unscripted. Armed with a wealth of experience working on ground-breaking documentaries such as 24 Hours in Police Custody, Damilola: The Boy Next Door and Is Covid Racist? Fozia’s impressive portfolio and extensive background in programme-making working alongside Patrick Holland at BBC Two and at The Garden Productions where she produced Posh People and Extremely British Muslims make this episode about her incredible career a fascinating listen. As people who work in TV, digest the many discussions that took place in this year’s Edinburgh TV festival, Ria asks Fozia about the top issues affecting women in TV - as a senior leader in the industry; a mother and a woman of colour, what needs to change to truly achieve more diversity at senior leadership level and what are the advantages that come with working for a streaming video on demand service compared to a traditional, linear television broadcaster? Sit back, grab a cuppa and be inspired. Fozia is mixing things up in TV and we're excited to see it!

Vikki Stephenson is a Senior Creative, Consultant and Speaker with over 20 years experience, making award-winning campaigns, for the BBC’s highest profile brands such as Planet Earth II, Panorama, CBeebies, EastEnders and most recently, Dracula. Her work has been recognised internationally, winning over 35 industry awards - many since becoming a mum and working part-time. She’s interviewed some big names in her career including Sir David Attenborough and Hans Zimmer, plus she's also recently created a new podcast, Blue Mumdays which supports women going through postnatal depression which offers support to partners, friends and families who are also affected. In this episode, Vikki talks to Ria about the importance of brands not paying lip-service to diversity as businesses restructure in a post-Covid world and why it's vital women speak up for themselves and their achievements, to get ahead in their careers.

Angela Ferreira is a formidable woman. She's an internationally award-winning television producer with over 20 years’ experience working across several genres that include; Scripted, Entertainment, Daytime, Children’s, Music and Reality and she currently heads up Lenny Henry's indie, Douglas Road Productions as the Managing Director. As one of the most experienced and respected executive producer's in the British TV industry, there aren't many people who haven't had the pleasure of working with Angela. In this month's episode of the Wonder Women podcast, Angela shares anecdotes from her colourful career with Ria along with her thoughts on the importance of choosing creative projects that are connected to your interests and passions. Grab a cuppa and enjoy your monthly dose of inspiration!

In this exciting episode of the Wonder Women podcast, Ria meets Kate Thomas who is the Commissioning Editor for Daytime and Features at Channel 4, responsible for shows that include; BAFTA-nominated The Great House Give-Away and Channel 4's most successful brand of 2020, Sarah Beeney's New Life in the Country.

With over 22 years of programme-making experience working as the Creative Director at ITV owned production company, Boom and prior to that, as the Head of Development at BBC Studios where she won multiple commissions across Factual, Kids and Scripted television. Kate shares her thoughts on the benefits of commissioning in the Nations and Regions and why more broadcasters should invest in regional production talent to tell the best stories.

As a proud Bristolian, Kate also discusses the challenges of assimilating into an industry that historically is prejudice of regional accents and passionately advocates for supporting the working class in the Arts. For anyone aspiring to become a commissioner in TV, this episode is full of insights into what it's actually like to be a Commissioner working at a national broadcaster and is not to be missed!

In this episode of the Wonder Women podcast, Ria meets Katie Benbow who is the Director of Sales Planning at BBC Studios, where she’s responsible for overseeing strategy and operations for the global sales team, working to take bold British creative out to the world!

Prior to this, Katie spent the majority of her BBC career on the other side of the negotiating table, working as the Head of Acquisitions for the company’s international channels, and as the Director of Programming for EMEA, where she broke new ground commissioning BBC Brit Poland’s first-ever local production, Packed up Life, and the first series of BBC Lifestyle’s First Dates, South Africa.

In this very honest episode, Katie shares with Ria the importance of understanding your strengths and weaknesses; being honest with your line manager about your personal needs when negotiating flexible working and why it's on all of us to send the elevator back down to support the next generation of women.

Grab a cuppa and be inspired!

In this inspirational episode of the Wonder Women podcast, TV presenter, Ria Hebden speaks with the award-winning Screenwriter and legendary TV Director and Actress, Kay Mellor OBE about her extraordinary career working in British Television. In this candid and fascinating chat, Kay shares how she steered and directed the fourth series of the hit BBC drama, The Syndicate through the pandemic and actually developed filming protocols which have been used as an industry benchmark for filming drama in a Covid-safe environment.

Kay also reflects on the issues which she feels hold female writers back from getting their voices heard and stories commissioned for Television, along with some hilarious anecdotes from her incredible career filming the hugely successful ITV drama, Band of Gold. Plus, hear what huge opportunity Kay turned down when the iconic Film Director, Steven Spielberg called her while she was out shopping in Topshop! Take a break and listen to this wonderful episode which is full of motivational wisdom, career advice and invaluable tips for anyone who aspires to write or direct Television.

Grab a cuppa and listen to this uplifting chat with the legendary Queen of Daytime - Lorraine Kelly CBE as she shares some fascinating anecdotes with Ria, from her incredible career working at the helm of daytime Television over the past 35 years. Hear what happened when Lorraine met the Queen of England and what life-affirming message Oprah Winfrey had to share when she interviewed her! From the challenges she experienced in the early stages of her career, that led her to securing her own TV show; to how she become an ambassador for LGBT rights - Lorraine is undoubtedly a trailblazer for so many people, we dare you not to feel inspired by listening to this episode!