Thinkbox
We love a TV recommendation and hearing what shows everyone is watching. Our annual nose into what the industry watched is now out; take a look at the varied viewing of industry peers and bag a few recommendations for your next viewing session.
Aidan McClure, Founder and CCO, Wonderhood Studios
What was your TV moment of the year? Seeing every episode of Wonderhood’s ground-breaking 3-part documentary series about foetal surgery ‘Baby Surgeons’ trend on Twitter and then being watched/reviewed on Gogglebox. (Shameless plug over)
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words? High, low, gutter.
Best discovery in 2021? This is by no means a discovery being 18 series in, but the new Gogglebox is surprisingly good. Still funny and fresh and good for discovering more telly.
What’s your TV guilty pleasure? So many: Below Deck, Selling Sunset, Love at First Sight, Ben Fogle’s New lives in the wild with a chaser of Cruising with Jane McDonald. The list goes on and on!
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner? Armond the Manager from the White Lotus and Nikita from Love at First Sight UK. It’d be carnage.
What TV can’t you wait for in 2022? ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ on Sky: a beautifully shot docufilm about Giovanni Di Stefano, the lawyer who fooled the world.
Jerry Daykin, Former Senior Media Director, GSK
What was your TV moment of the year? It’s a Sin was a fantastic and provocative piece of film making – emotional & wonderful telly with an important educational and representational role. A great ‘follow up’ 20 years after Queer as Folk.
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words?
Binge Watching Catchup
Best discovery in 2021?
I’ve loved rewatching the Golden Girls
What’s your TV guilty pleasure?
Death in Paradise, so glad it is back on.
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner?
Clark Kent & Captain Picard, they’d both have some amazing stories to tell
What TV can’t you wait for in 2022?
I love the Eurovision Song Contest every year, and the several new Star Trek series
Laura Jordan Bambach, President & CCO, Grey
What was your TV moment of the year? It’s a Sin. “La!”
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words? Darker the better
Best discovery in 2021? I went down some amazing rabbit-holes on VOD with things like Walter Presents but as per my first answer, it’s got to be It’s a Sin. And I still LOVE Pose. Both speak to very different sides of the queer experience around the time and around the world, at around the same time as I was stepping into adulthood in the very early 90s. And although really different, there was a lot to take from them both. Oh the tears and the joy and the raw feeling of it all. Dopesick was also incredible.
What’s your TV guilty pleasure? Having a police procedural on in the background is what I use when I write – I’m no good with silence but equally no good with something so engrossing that I lose focus. I always need some kind of noise to help me concentrate. Police procedurals are great because it’s a different story set within the same framework every time. Literally anything will do.
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner? Nadya Vulvokov from Russian Doll and Awkwafina/Nora from Awkwafina is Nora from Queens.
What TV can’t you wait for in 2022? Hopefully some great Australian drama and comedy that makes it across this side of the pond.
Richard Morris, CEO, UK & Ireland, Mediabrands
What was your TV moment of the year? Emma Raducanu’s majestic ace to win the US Open. Thank you, Channel 4.
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words? Sporadic but intense.
Best discovery in 2021 (new or old classic)? The White Lotus. Incredible yet despicable characterisation.
What’s your TV guilty pleasure? Shetland. Slow moving and strangely comforting for a crime drama.
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner? Larry David and Armond from The White Lotus. I wouldn’t know what to cook but it would surely be a memorable evening.
What TV can’t you wait for in 2022? The FIFA World Cup. England has unfinished business.
Pippa Glucklich, CEO, Electric Glue
What was your TV moment of the year?
As an avid Chelsea fan, it has to be the Champions League Final on 30 May. Best night ever.
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words?
Eclectic, late-night, indulgent.
Best discovery in 2021?
It’s a Sin. Tragic and joyous in equal measures - just brilliant on every level.
What’s your TV guilty pleasure?
A Place in the Sun. I live vicariously through it.
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner?
Villanelle (Killing Eve), in her finest designer apparel and Roman Roy (Succession), all five-foot-six of him. A psychotic assassin and a chaos goblin, both of whom will say and do … anything. What could possibly go wrong?
What TV can’t you wait for in 2022?
Love Island, always... The next series of Bridgerton. Although I can't help thinking it won’t have quite the same appeal now the Duke of Hastings won’t be back… And of course, series 5 of Succession. Gutted to hear that it could be its last.
Sarah Jenkins, Managing Director, Saatchi & Saatchi London
What was your TV moment of the year?
18th October 2021 – Succession Season 3 episode 1 on Sky Atlantic. When that opening soundtrack kicked in, I was literally giddy.
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words?
Too much dual-screening
Best discovery in 2021?
It’s A Sin was brilliant, powerful and beautiful TV
What’s your TV guilty pleasure?
Australian renovation reality TV series The Block. Am irrationally obsessed
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner?
Shiv Roy and Roman Roy, of course
What TV can’t you wait for in 2022?
The Great British Bake Off will continue to be in the TV hug we all need
Sue Frogley, CEO of Publicis Media UK
What was your TV moment of the year?
Easy - the moment that Emma Raducanu won US Open women’s final!
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words?
JOMO TV Night (in)
Best discovery in 2021 (new or old classic)?
Motherland was hysterical, but It’s a Sin was brilliant– it was moving, joyful and gut-wrenching, all at the same time.
What’s your TV guilty pleasure?
Unforgotten (a great show, only guilty as my husband can’t stand Nicola Walker).
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner?
I’d invite Ted Lasso, and Elizabeth Harmon from the Queen’s Gambit.
What can’t you wait for in 2022?
Looking forward to the hilarious yet very real insight into a junior NHS doctor’s experience, This is Going to Hurt.
My son’s girlfriend is a junior A&E Doctor and I am in awe of her daily.
Shazia Ginai, CEO, Neuro-Insight
What was your TV moment of the year?
It has to be Phil McCann being sent to report on the fuel shortage crisis we faced this year. It made us all chuckle.
Describe your viewing habits in 3 words? Lazy, comforting, necessary!
Best discovery in 2021 (new or old classic)? The best discovery for me was “We are lady parts”. As a Muslim, south Asian, British woman, this show was hilarious and somewhat terrifyingly accurate.
What’s your TV guilty pleasure? Celebs go dating. I want to say its primarily because as a researcher I enjoy anything that involves a social experiment, but I’d be lying. I watch it because I think Paul C Brunson talks about love in a prophetic way and for Rob Becketts crass commentary
Which two TV characters would you invite over for dinner? I would invite Graham Norton for his ability to keep conversation flowing, for all the laughs and of course to hear his many stories of the lives of so many he has interviewed. I would also invite Elizabeth Moss. I would endlessly quiz her about how playing the main character in the Handmaids tale has impacted her life and career.
What TV can’t you wait for in 2022? The next season of Killing Eve, each season has blown my mind.