News

Thursday 13th January 2011

Manchester's Indie Club celebrated the New Year in style last night with over a hundred members attending its first meeting of 2011 to listen to guest speaker Stephen Lambert, the creator of Undercover Boss; The Fairy Godmother; Secret Millionaire; Wife Swap and Faking It.  Stephen's fascinating talk was followed by a tour of MediaCity's state-of-the-art new studios.  The meeting was held in MediaCity's Holiday Inn, and the drinks were paid for by the evening's sponsor Aframe.

Cat Lewis, chair of the Indie Club and MD of Manchester based independent production company Nine Lives Media, interviewed Stephen about the whole of his career from working in BBC Documentaries, overseeing very successful series such as Modern Times, to creating some of TV's most highly successful factual formats for RDF, and then setting up his own production company, Studio Lambert in 2008, which is already extremely successful.

Stephen talked in depth about the creation of Wife Swap and the subsequent commission of the highly successful Wife Swap USA.  He highlighted what he has learnt about making television in American and the differences in audience needs, typical production teams and the pitching process. 

No stone was left unturned as Cat asked him about 'Queen-gate' and why one of his recent TV series, Seven Days, failed to entice the large audience that everyone was expecting.

Stephen talked about leaving RDF and setting up his own company Studio Lambert and creating Undercover Boss USA, the first episode of which attracted 38 million viewers - the largest ever audience for a factual show in America. 

Stephen said that one aspect of running his own business that he really enjoys is being able to make occasional one off films which he feels passionately about and talked about Studio Lambert's recent feature documentary The Flaw, which explores the theory that the credit crunch was caused by massive income inequality in America.  Directed by David Sington, the documentary has been accepted into this year's Sundance Film Festival and it is hoped it will be shown in cinemas across Britain prior to being broadcast on TV.  More information about the film can be found on www.theflawmovie.com.

Indie Club members were then treated to a guided tour of the brilliant new MediaCity studios and a free bar courtesy of the night's sponsors Aframe - creators of a collaborative new multi-media platform.