Wonfor the road

As Ethel Merman appears on the TV screen singing There's No Business Like Show Business, Andrea Wonfor freshens up her lipstick and leaves her office to make a grand entrance at her leaving party next door.

She hasn't anything against the American singer. In fact, the woman on screen is Wonfor herself, impersonating Merman for ITV's Stars In Their Eyes.

The public won't have seen her performance as the clip is from a private video of Granada's top television executives letting their hair down. She was the only one who opted to sing live instead of miming. That's typical of a woman who entered the industry as a researcher with Tyne Tees Television and has been responsible, over the past three decades, for shaping what we've been watching on TV.

The Tube, The Word and The Big Breakfast were all, to various degrees, her creations. And those cult favourites are only the tip of the artistic iceberg. Wonfor has created, nurtured or championed factual dramas like Hillsborough and The Murder Of Stephen Lawrence, series such as Cracker and Byker Grove, and comedy shows including The Royle Family.

She can take credit for giving Chris Evans, Johnny Vaughan and Caroline Aherne their breaks, and spent four months persuading Jeremy Paxman to present University Challenge.

Her range of influence was demonstrated in the video shown at her leaving do. Her Merman impersonation was sandwiched between tributes from performers as diverse as Paul McCartney, Denise Welch, Ant and Dec, Jools Holland and Lindisfarne.

A hallmark of her career is that, as she climbed the corporate ladder, she retained her links with performers. She saw part of her job as protecting creative talent from the pressures of programme- making.

Next month she leaves her top job at Granada after eight years, most recently as Creative Director of Granada Content in the UK. The Tyne Tees farewell could more accurately be labelled a coming home party. She's always had a house in Newcastle, returning for weekends as often as her schedule allowed. "It's what's kept me sane," says Wonfor, who was born in Kent, although her dad was from South Shields.

Because Tyne Tees Television is part of the Granada empire, she has an office in its City Road headquarters. Now she's returning for good, to set up a company to make programmes in the North-East using regional talent on both sides of the camera.

"In a funny way, it's as though things have come full circle," she says.

She began as a Granada trainee in 1966, married and moved to the North-East where she joined Tyne Tees. One of her first jobs was looking after Dominic Behan, "the mad Irish brother of Brendan" who hosted a chat show. "I got the job because I was a big girl, could drink and had a sense of humour. My job was to get him out of the pub and into the studio on time," she recalls.

She remained at Tyne Tees for 18 years, while her daughters were growing up, eventually becoming director of programmes. She went on to run Newcastle independent Zenith North, moved to Channel 4 during Michael Grade's reign, and then to Granada in 1994. The circle was completed when Tyne Tees Television was taken into the Granada empire.

"This year I'll be 58 and have worked in corporate culture most of my life - and enjoyed it. I thought while I still have the energy I would set up a company based in the North-East," she explains.

"If it has a vision it's to help build a media infra-structure in the region, which is very vibrant. Very talented people in the North-East quite often find themselves having to go elsewhere. It would be nice to create some on-going series and more activity up here, which persuades young people to stay and maybe attracts other talent into the region."

The businesswoman in Wonfor knows this "is not such a silly idea" as terrestrial broadcasters are obliged to meet a quota of 25 per cent independent production and have money to spend outside the capital.

This has worked to her advantage before. While at Zenith North, she heard that BBC children's programmes "had a couple of million quid to commission a drama series as long as it was outside London - I was on the 'phone at once and had the proposal on their desk within a week".

The result was Byker Grove, still going strong today. "It worked and delivered the ratings, but the reason we got the contract was coloured by the fact we were a Northern independent," she admits.

Her new company will be launched in September. She's talking to a potential partner who's in new media, citing Big Brother as a good idea that works across several media platforms - a hit on both the web and the box.

There has been a lot of interest in backing the company, but she's choosing carefully with whom she associates. "I'm a great believer in having very small overheads, a small bunch of talented people, and giving them a stake in the gross of the company," she explains.

"The main goal is to have sufficient development funds. We have been very chary about some offers. Small is beautiful. What I'm very excited about is there are a lot of very talented people in this region - smaller companies, freelances and other groups like Live Theatre. I'm looking forward to working in alliance with some of them.

"One thing that is needed is a bit more co-ordination. I can offer people advice and help them develop projects. It's such an exciting place culturally, such a powerful and dynamic place at the moment."

Corporate life is getting "very tough" now, with the falloff in advertising revenue and increasing number of channels. "I did a restructuring at Granada and leave the company in good shape," she says. "Now is the time to have more time to myself, more balance in my life and more fun - although I have had fun all my life. I still think I should get a proper job."

She doesn't want people to think she's quitting. "I don't feel as though I'm retiring and finding myself a bit of a hobby," she says. "I genuinely believe it's important when you are 58 to have a new challenge, a fresh way of thinking and be working with younger people. Hopefully, I can follow the adage of bringing experience to youth.

"I can already feel myself re-energised. My heroes have always been Picasso and Spike Milligan, who never let age get in the way."

Published: 06/07/2002