About Us

Daisybeck Studios is an entertainmentOne Company.
We’ve been producing quality Factual, Factual Entertainment and Event programming since 2013.

Our output ranges from single high profile documentaries to multi-episodic series for the leading terrestrial and digital broadcasters in the UK & our programmes are distributed around the world.

Daisybeck Studios is a multi-award winning independent production company specialising in Factual, Factual Entertainment and Event Programming. Launched in 2013, Daisybeck is the fastest growing indie in Yorkshire and in the last year has made more than 60 hours of network TV in the UK.

Our mission is to create contemporary content but with the heart and soul of the characters and their story at the centre of every programme.

We have created returnable brands that resonate with audiences in the UK and abroad and are looking forward to continued growth over the coming years working with some of the most creative and talented people in the country.

Our main office is within the fabulous Prime Studios building on the creative corridor of Kirkstall Road in the thriving media city of Leeds. Our neighbours include ITV and their number one soap Emmerdale and award winning drama producer Roll’em Productions. The new Channel 4 offices are a 20 minute walk away as is Leeds City train station.

From our base in Leeds we can access the state of the art production and co-production facilities offered by Prime and others including The Other Planet whom service the majority of our Post Production needs.

We also have satellite production offices in North Yorkshire where our ratings winning observational documentary series THE YORKSHIRE VET is based.

We employed more than 120 incredibly talented individuals in the last year and we’re always keen to hear from freelancers looking to work in God’s Own County.

OUR TEAM

Paul Stead – Managing Director

Daisybeck Studios was launched in March 2013 by founding Managing Director, Paul Stead.

Paul has been a creative and managing director in the independent sector since 1993 and has conceived, produced and directed thousands of hours of programmes for all the major terrestrial and digital channels.

These include a whole range of daytime shows for the former BBC Daytime Documentaries unit, which included chat shows, cookery shows and travelogues. Paul also produced returnable series for the emerging digital channels in the early 2000’s with ratings winning hits for ITV3, ITV4, and A&E Networks UK.

He was the creator and Executive Producer of the Emmy nominated Too Fat for 15 which ran for two seasons on NBC Universal’s Style Network and has won several Royal Television Society Awards for his shows.

Over the last twenty-six years Paul has been the Producer/Director on hundreds of programmes ranging from single high profile documentaries for BBC One through to multi-episodic returnable series on digital channels. He has been responsible for securing access to key people, places and events in order to allow them to tell their stories and or showcase their work. Along the way he has worked with the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, MTV, A&E Networks UK, UKTV and NBC Universal.

Paul began his career as a presenter and producer in local radio and was part of the team that won several major Radio Industry Awards including the coveted Sony Gold Award for Best Outside Broadcast.

These days Paul acts as the Executive Producer on much of Daisybeck Studios output but occasionally will get his wellies on and go out with a crew and film something – usually for development projects.

 

Sophie Macfarlane – Production Executive – The Yorkshire Vet and allied titles

Sophie Macfarlane is the Production Executive for all Daisybeck Studios output which includes selected titles from eOne Unscripted UK. This includes our landmark series, The Yorkshire Vet and all its related programming, which she has overseen since Series 6. Prior to joining Daisybeck, Sophie spent 6 years in London where she predominately worked on documentary and factual entertainment series, for a number of broadcasters BBC, C4, ITV, Discovery US. Some of her many career highlights include The Oscars Live: Red Carpet for Sky One and 911; The Bronx, which was a hospital series filmed in New York.

Shauna Raistrick – Finance Manager

Shauna Raistrick is the Finance Manager for all Daisybeck Studios programming and Yorkshire based company production accounting affairs for eOne Unscripted UK. Having started with us as a Production Accountant, Shauna has taken on a much wider role in the last year since we became part of eOne and she now looks after much of the UK Unscripted production finance from our offices in Leeds.

 

Chris Davey – Post-Production Manager

Chris began his career in TV as a runner for Jimmy Perry & David Croft’s ‘You Rang M’Lord’ for the BBC before moving to Yorkshire Television and looking after the Post Production output from the Drama Department working on some of the UK’s favourite dramas of their time including returning series’ of Heartbeat, Where The Heart Is, for ITV, Wire In The Blood for Coastal Productions, Fat Friends & Gifted for Rollem Productions. He moved to Lime Pictures as them as Head of Post Production & Technical Services working on ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ & ‘Geordie Shore’ as well as the popular children’s drama ‘House of Anubis’ for Nickelodeon alongside 261 episodes a year of Hollyoaks. Chris has been with the team fully at Daisybeck for the past year having spent the past four years looking after their Post Production in my role of Head of Operations at The Other Planet where he also delivered the Post Production for Kay Mellor’s recent dramas, The Syndicate, Girlfriends and small feature films, The Hunters Prayer, Attack of The Killer Babies, Bait & Gloves Off.

 

Michael Sinclair – Series Editor – The Yorkshire Vet and allied titles

Mike has produced a wide variety of series, documentaries and live studio output, winning several RTS awards. He has covered a huge range of genres, working as a PD on BBC and CBBC animal series, Channel 4 property programmes and a number of factual entertainment shows for ITV. Mike has also worked for BBC Sport and is still an occasional producer on ‘Match of the Day’. Mike has progressed through the ranks starting on Series 2 as an Edit Producer to taking up the position of Series Producer of Daisybeck Studios’ flagship show and Series 8 at the start of 2019. He was promoted to Series Editor as The Yorkshire Vet hit record breaking audience figures in the spring of 2020 and is now in charge of the brand as it enters production for Series 12 and 13.

 

Mark McMullen – Series Producer

Mark is an award-winning Series Producer, Director and Executive Producer with over 200 hours of UK terrestrial and International factual programming successfully delivered in a diverse range of genres including Factual Entertainment, Specialist Factual, Sport, Children’s, Documentary, Features, Current Affairs and Education.

As a Series Producer, Mark has gained a reputation for creating new, successful returning formats and enjoys the responsibility of managing and motivating a production team and solving creative, technical and logistical production challenges.

His TV work has won multiple RTS awards, a Prolific North accolade and is BAFTA nominated.

 

Emily Cadman – Series Producer This Week on The Farm

Emily has risen through the ranks at Daisybeck – starting out as Work Experience nearly 10 years ago! She’s worked all over Yorkshire on a variety of genres – children’s, property, history and observational documentary. Emily has been the Senior Producer on ‘On the Farm’ for the last year and will be stepping up to Series Produce the next series in the New Year.

 

Richard Mortimer – Series Editor

Richard started his career as a Trainee Researcher at ITV, where he moved through the ranks to Producer / Director, before entering the world of freelancing.

Since then, he’s made programmes about animals, children, Hollywood A-listers and serial killers.

Some of his more memorable TV moments include filming with the original cast of Grease at ‘Rydell High’, flying the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car to Los Angeles to be reunited with Dick Van Dyke – and having the Cheeky Girls sing happy birthday to him in a damp nightclub in Balham.

Since joining Daisybeck, Richard has Series Produced Big Week at the Zoo, three Yorkshire Vet specials and a number of ‘On the Farm’ series.