Paul Smith (television)

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Paul Christopher Richard Smith (born 14 February 1959 in Woking, England) is a television executive.

Paul (not to be confused with the Paul Smith who owns Celador) is a BBC executive who has worked for the corporation for 27 years. In that time, he has worked mainly on programming and services aimed at young people and children. He is also responsible for finding and/or developing many of the names presenting on mainstream television in the UK, and is best known amongst his colleagues as a champion of new talent and as an easy going innovator who is not scared to try new ideas.

Paul has worked extensively with and developed talent like Zoë Ball, Jayne Middlemiss, Andi Peters, Phillip Schofield, Jamie Theakston, Richard McCourt/Dominic Wood (aka Dick and Dom), Kristian Digby, Josie D'Arby, Joe Mace, and Vernon Kay at early stages in their careers. He has also worked with established talent like Anne Robinson on Points of View and Terry Wogan on innovative BBC One daytime show Wogan's Web.

Paul has held posts in all media including radio, and television entertainment, where he developed formats to sustain the new BBC digital television channels and the commercial UKTV channels. He also refreshed TOTP2 by recasting Steve Wright as presenter making the programme one of BBC Two's most watched programmes. Most recently, as Head of On-Air and New Media at CBBC, Paul launched and ran day to day the BBC's two children's TV channels (CBeebies and CBBC), and managed their equivalent web sites.

Paul can be said to have invented the genre of 'wraparound' children's TV presentation in the UK, having developed the current format in the early 1980s from the old Children's BBC Broom Cupboard format. This has been used by many other channels including CITV, Nick, and in a slightly older form, as T4 on Channel 4, which was started by one of Paul's protegés, Andi Peters.

Whilst at CBBC, Paul started using live animation techniques developed in Denmark to make innovative programming like The Nelly Nut Show, and Paul also lead the development of the BAFTA-winning Dick and Dom in da Bungalow, being executive producer for the first 150 episodes of the show. Aside from his 'serious' work, Paul was also the hand behind popular puppet Gordon the Gopher who starred alongside Phillip Schofield and Sarah Greene on BBC Saturday morning show Going Live!. Gordon has pride of place in Paul's office at the BBC.

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