BBC Elevate

About Elevate

BBC Elevate is an initiative from BBC Content & Creative Diversity to progress mid-level deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent production talent industry-wide who have experienced blockers in developing their career due to access barriers.

We offer participants supported and meaningful matches in roles with production companies across our content. This initiative is talent-led, so we get to know the candidates’ skills, experience and goals, and how we can help reduce the barriers for them so that we can find the right match. The only requirement is placements must be on BBC shows.

Candidates are employed directly on fixed term contracts with host production companies. We fund a substantial part of the salary and oversee any access requirements. We also arrange tailored training, coaching and/or mentoring for the participants, and provide support to the host production company, including disability confidence training and a regular point of contact at the BBC.

Want to apply?

Elevate 2024/2025 will be opening for applications in Autumn 2024.

Elevate and Productions

Over 80% of Elevate candidates have stayed at their elevated role and have continued to progress their careers in the industry. We have successfully moved a researcher from unscripted to scripted, welcomed a question writer back to the industry, and a production coordinator made the move into an editorial role.

Matches have been on productions including Survivor, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Pointless, Inside Our Autistic Minds, Best Interests, Here’s One I Made Earlier, The One Show, Sports Personality of the Year, and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show.

I returned to TV production thanks to Elevate and I have loved it.

I was working in the press department of the government agency which looks after data protection - yes, that is as boring as it sounds! Thanks to Elevate I managed to get placements on Unbeatable and then Pointless which restarted my production career.

After that, I worked on The Hit List, Limitless Win and In with a Shout to name a few.

The highlight so far was having writing credits on Pointless and Limitless Win at the same time on Saturday nights, which was a massive honour. During that run, an episode of Limitless Win aired where I had written several of the questions that a couple faced when they won £1 million on the show for the first time. I am actually prouder of the fact that I wrote the question which knocked out the previous couple which was “How many times does the word ‘Wonderwall’ appear in the lyrics to the Oasis single ‘Wonderwall’?” The couple said 15 but it was only three! I felt awful and elated at the same time!

I am currently working on a quiz idea that I have had with production company Honeybird Studios with a view to getting it commissioned. It’s early days at the moment but I am hopeful!

I was thrilled to be selected as a BBC Elevate candidate.

I have been working in television for 7 years and felt I was ready to step up from AP to P/D. Elevate found me two fantastic placements, the first as a producer with Lion TV working on Liz Bonnin's Wild Caribbean. It was a fantastic experience that culminated in six weeks filming manatees, howler monkeys, dolphins and crocodiles across the Caribbean. This placement also gave me my first taste of edit-producing a BBC2 50min episode.

My second Elevate placement was as a Story Producer and P/D for the BBC Science Unit working on the UK and US versions of 'Solar System'. This was my first experience of directing my own episode, and thankfully PBS NOVA thought it was great!

The experience I gained during both these placements was invaluable, but so too was the support and encouragement from the Elevate team. As well as arranging placements, they advised on requesting assistive technology or adjustments, and directing me to other ways I could get support at work or training I could access. Regular check-ins also were also places where I could openly talk about how my condition was affecting my work (or vice versa) without worrying that an honest answer about how I was feeling would affect my career.

Thanks to Elevate I now have the skills and experience to apply for P/D roles.

I began my career as a director in features and shorts, and I was struggling to find any traction in TV. When I was selected for Elevate, I felt so proud.

Elevate got me a shadowing placement on Call The Midwife, and then were instrumental in me being offered the chance to direct a split block of EastEnders (where I directed one episode and an experienced director directed the remaining three episodes of the ‘block’).

I had a brilliant time directing such an iconic show. The Eastenders team were happy with my episode, and I’m so excited to say that I’ve been invited back to direct a full block of my own as a result!

After years of working to get into the industry, I need to get used to the idea of having finally ‘made it’ in. It feels so normal to be on the outside looking in, it’s an incredible thought to realise that now I’m at the start of a career as a working director.

To say that Elevate helped me with placements is to give only the tiniest idea of their support. When describing Elevate to other people, I’ve often said they’re like my agents within the BBC: When approaching producers, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been told that my name had already come up in meetings while Elevate were busy behind the scenes trying to put me forward for work.

From day one, they’ve been a sounding board, a sanity check, a team I can go to with my ideas and ask for advice to help shape my career. I’ve put so much energy into moving forward, and in the periods where nothing’s happening, it’s been so good to have people I can ask - ‘Am I doing all I can? Is there anything I’m doing that I don’t need to be working on?’

Most of all though, breaking into the industry is a tough, slow job which can wear people down - particularly those of us facing discrimination - and having such brilliant positivity from the Elevate team has been of a value I’d struggle to put into words. Having people to celebrate my wins with, and who have been championing me behind the scenes, is an incredible feeling.

I feel so grateful to Elevate for helping me get this far and I’m not going to be able to stop calling them with updates every step of the way from now on!

If you have access requirements and need this website's information in another format, please contact: Hannah.truswell.ext@bbc.co.uk

For more information or to register your interest, contact the team.