A TV production company near York which creates ratings-busting shows has been shortlisted for a prestigious industry award.
Air TV, which operates from the Yorkshire Studios at Leeds East Airport, Church Fenton, has grown from a two-man start-up to an operation employing nearly 50 production staff within six years.
It has now been nominated for the Emerging Indie Production Company of the Year title in the 2022 Broadcast Awards.
Former BBC executives Andy Joynson, left, and Ian Cundall, right, started Air TV, pictured with managing director Matt Richards, and the HQ.
The awards celebrate the best in British programming and channels, recognising and rewarding the UK’s most ground-breaking content, creators and channels.
Categories honour the best dramas, popular factual programmes, shows for current affairs, sport, music and specialist factual topics, among others.
Air TV was started by former BBC executives Ian Cundall and Andy Joynson who sank their redundancy pay into the fledgling company. Its annual turnover is now more than £2.5m.
Based in a hangar at the former RAF base, Air also specialises in aerial filming and employs the UK television’s only full-time team of trained air ambulance crew.
Air specialises in factual documentary programmes for a wide range of UK broadcasters.
It produces the hit classic car series Bangers and Cash, featuring the family auction business in North Yorkshire's Thornton-le-Dale, for UKTV’s Yesterday channel as well as Helicopter ER, about the work of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, for Discovery Networks.
George Kiedrowski, Holly Pywell and Jenny Ramsden, filming for Helicopter ER, by Air TV.
This year it has turned out more than 100 hours of programming and its shows are screened worldwide thanks to distribution deals in 20 countries.
Air has also collected several awards from the Royal Television Society and is regularly voted one of the best places to work in TV.
Managing director Matt Richards said: “This is our third major national award nomination this year but by far the most prestigious.
"It’s great to be recognised for all the amazing work our team puts into making our programmes.
"We take pride in giving young programme makers their first break and providing long-term work in an industry notorious for short-term contracts.”
999 Rescue Squad, by Air TV, follows Yorkshire Ambulance Service’s hazardous area response.
Matt is also an executive producer on many of the company's shows, and has led the filming teams on Helicopter ER and 999 Rescue Squad for several years.
The nomination comes at the end of another successful year for Air TV which has seen it win commissions for three new major shows.
They include Derelict Rescue, about self-builders converting industrial buildings to homes, and Dales for Sale, a documentary series about North Yorkshire’s booming housing market.
The company is also restoring a fleet of 1960s, 70s and 80s cars for a new Bangers and Cash spin-off series.
Derek Mathewson, star of Air TV’s Bangers & Cash being filmed at his auction site in Thornton le Dale.
Ian Cundall, a qualified pilot, has worked for ITV, ITN and the BBC, and was deputy head of BBC North and also executive producer on the BBC's Super League Show. He specialised in making and managing programmes in difficult, dangerous or sensitive environments.
“We have been fortunate to have attracted an amazing team of very talented staff passionate about making great programmes and anxious to do it in Yorkshire," he said.
“There are real advantages to being based in the North, from the quality of life to the industry’s growing appetite for shows made here.”
Andy Joynson previously worked as a series producer in current affairs, and launched BBC One’s football show, Late Kick Off.
The Broadcast Awards will be presented at a star-studded ceremony in London’s Grosvenor House Hotel in February.
Air TV Headquarters at The Yorkshire Studios, Church Fenton
The Air team has previously twice won the Independent Spirit award at the Yorkshire RTS Awards, and was named one of the best places to work in TV in 2020 by Broadcast Magazine.
The team has filmed in extreme environments from the Arctic to the outback of Western Australia.
Other contenders in the Emerging Indie Production Company of the Year category include Cardiff Productions, Doc Hearts, Flicker Productions, Licklemor Productions and South Shore.
For further details of the shortlist 2022, visit https://broadcastawards.co.uk/shortlist-2022/
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