RTS Awards Fellowships

The Royal Television Society (RTS) has awarded RTS Fellowships to John Cresswell, newly appointed CEO of Arqiva and former Interim CEO of ITV; Jane Featherstone, Creative Director of Kudos; Peter Fincham, Director of Television, ITV; Andy Harries, CEO, Left Bank Pictures; and legendary World In Action cameraman, George Jesse Turner.
RTS Fellowships are awarded annually to a limited number of people, for outstanding contribution to the broadcasting industry.
Before joining Granda in 2000, where he spent five years as Chief Operating Officer of Content, John Cresswell worked at TVS, Meridian and United Broadcasting and Entertainment.
In 2006, John was made Chief Finance Officer to the ITV Board before he was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2007. After holding this post for three years, in 2010 he became ITV's Interim Chief Executive Officer. John was appointed CEO of Arqiva in January 2011.
Jane Featherstone is Creative Director of Kudos. First joining the company as Head of Drama in 2000, Jane has since executive produced a string of hit drama series such as Hustle and award-winning productions such as Spooks, Occupation, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes.
Peter Fincham ran Talkback Productions from 1986 to 2003 and executive produced many of their biggest shows including The Day Today, I'm Alan Partridge, Brass Eye, Da Ali G Show and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
From 2003 to 2005 he was CEO of the newly merged talkbackTHAMES and was responsible for shows such as The X Factor, The Apprentice and The Lost Prince. He left talkbackTHAMES in early 2005 and was Controller of BBC One until October 2007. Since May 2008 he has been Director of Television at ITV.
Andy Harries began his career on the Granada Television series, World in Action. He was appointed Controller of the comedy department at Granada in 1992 where he produced hit series such as The Royle Family and Cold Feet.
He departed ITV to form Left Bank Pictures in 2007. Harries was given a Special Achievement award by BAFTA in 2007 for his contributions to British Television. The same year, he was ranked in The Guardian's Media Top 100, and Broadcast's Top 100 Producers.
George Jesse Turner worked on World in Action from 1966 until its demise in 1998. Serving more than three decades as its foremost cameraman, he saw corrupt politicians jailed, conflict in Northern Ireland and filmed children starving in Biafra.
In 1999, he won the BAFTA award for best factual photography for 42-Up and in 2000 he published a memoir of his life behind the camera, Trouble Shooter.
(KMcA)