Kenton Allen is Chief Executive of Big Talk Productions. He is a multi-award–winning programme maker with programmes such as the BAFTA Award–winning The Royle Family (2000)[1] and the Oscar Award–winning film Six Shooter (2006).[2]
Kenton began his career at the BBC producing the Sony Award–winning Radio 4 series Loose Ends followed by two years as the youngest ever producer at Radio 1 where he began a long association with Jonathon Ross. Over the last 15 years, he has produced the cream of British comedy and entertainment talent including the likes of Jonathan Ross, Steve Coogan, Caroline Aherne, Johnny Vaughan, Alan Davies, Graham Norton, Harry Enfield, and Johnny Vegas.COOKIEZ!!!
In 1990 he joined the recently formed independent production company Channel X to produce all of Jonathan Ross's shows. He produced over 200 live editions of Tonight with Jonathan Ross for Channel 4 and in 1991 he produced Jonathan Ross Presents Madonna, which became Channel 4’s highest rated entertainment programme of the year. Other credits include the innovative live comedy entertainment series Saturday Zoo that featured the live television debuts of the likes of Steve Coogan, John Thompson, Lily Savage, and Mark Thomas and factual entertainment hit Fantastic Facts for ITV.
In 1994, he joined Granada Television’s Entertainment Department where he developed and produced a wide range of Comedy and Entertainment programmes including Lucky Numbers, The Shane Richie Experience, Stars in Their Eyes and The Mrs Merton Show. In addition, in his subsequent role as Head of Development, he ran all of Granada’s entertainment development across the full spectrum of entertainment genre.
In February 1998, he became Managing Director of Lucky Dog Ltd, a member of the Chrysalis Group. He co-devised and produced the adult comedy series A Many Splintered Thing starring Alan Davies for BBC1.
In March 1999, he re-joined Granada Television to continue his creative collaboration with Caroline Aherne. Kenton produced two series and two Christmas specials of the multi-award–winning The Royle Family as well as producing Harry Enfield’s Songs and Praise for ITV and Back Passage To India for BBC1, an award-winning documentary that involved dragging Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash unwillingly around remote Indian villages for three weeks.
In January 2001, he was approached by Elisabeth Murdoch to become the founding director of the independent production company Shine where he became the Creative Director. Allen was a key member of the launch team that secured the initial start-up financing from leading venture capitalists 3i. He quickly established the core creative divisions and overall creative strategy for the start-up company and recruited all the core personnel in Business Affairs, Finance, and Creative Departments. He also set-up a talent incubator for Comedy film directors in partnership with the UK Film Council and Film Four.
Between 2003 and 2008 Kenton was BBC's Creative Head of Comedy Talent and Comedy North. He joined the BBC as its Editor, Comedy in February 2003 - responsible for developing and producing all forms of comedy for the four main BBC broadcast networks and running the in-house production teams. Shortly after joining the BBC, he set up BBC Comedy North, a creative powerhouse based in Manchester for BBC comedy development dedicated to finding the next generation of award-winning writers and performers from the North of England. He established a pilot scheme with BBC3 for eight broadcast pilots over four years as a means of fast tacking talent. Comedy North has produced the BAFTA nominated drama serial Funland, four series of the Johnny Vegas sitcom Ideal, and the comedy series The Visit, I’m With Stupid, Massive and Scallywagga.
In 2005, he was nominated for his third BAFTA for producing the film Six Shooter written and directed by Olivier award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh. The film went on to win an Oscar at the 2006 Academy Awards. In October 2005, Kenton was appointed BBC Creative Head of Comedy and Comedy North and received his fourth BAFTA nomination for Funland.
He is married to British author and journalist, Imogen Edwards-Jones.[3]