John Joe Bardsley
agent: Natalie Spanier - natalie@sternwild.com
John Joe is a creative documentary Showrunner who started his career as an obs doc film maker on series including the award winning Welcome to Rio and acclaimed returning series My Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, Drugs Inc. But more recently he’s scaled up those skills and combined them with entertainment to run some of the most successful and ambitious shows on television BAFTA winner The Island, Hunted, Tempting Fortune. His work can be seen on SVODs (Netflix, Roku, Nat Geo, Discovery Plus) and UK terrestrial broadcasters (Channel Four, ITV, BBC). His vision is to produce premium television with cinematic ambition, while following intimate documentary style unfolding narratives, that surprise, emotionally engage and entertain.
Sharing that vision with crews of 150+, managing them and focusing them on the shows key narrative aims and style, has enabled John Joe to repeatedly deliver ambitious ratings-winnings shows of scale, in foreign/challenging environments. He has a forensic attention to detail, enjoys scheduling, compliance, logistics and legal. He’s an expert at sourcing epic locations tailored to the show he’s making.
He has gained and maintained complex access in favelas to armed gangs (Welcome to Rio), with drug addicts (Drugs Inc.), government agencies (Britain Underwater) and disabled schools (The Boy Who Could Never Grow Old). Casting great characters with narrative scope in these challenging environments, but also casting for Fact Ent shows and working with high end talent (Bear Grylls), is central to his shows popularity. He has many years’ experience running demanding edits, managing 1000s of hours of material (The Island, Hunted, Tempting Fortune) where he enjoys crafting complex narrative arcs, across singles and series. He works closely with composers, GFX, and post professionals, paying great attention through to delivery.