Thirty years ago, virtually every home-grown programme on British Television was made by either the BBC or ITV. Today, the biggest and most successful, from Big Brother and Spooks to The Apprentice and X-Factor, are made by independent producers. Television executive, programme maker and broadcaster Paul Jackson goes behind some of these multi-million pound success stories to chart the rise and rise of independent producers - from the isolated minnows of the early 1980's to the global monoliths of today.

It is this transformation over the course of just over quarter of a century that Paul Jackson explores in this three part series, aided and abetted by some of those who made the transition from troublesome outsiders into possibly the most influential, and powerful, players in the industry today responsible for making and supplying as much as 50% of what is broadcast in the UK. People like Simon Cowell (the man behind X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent and star of an American show that reportedly drives 60% of the revenue of the Fox Network), Jimmy Mulville (Co-founder and Managing Director of Hat Trick Productions), Paul Smith (the now millionaire behind Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Slumdog Millionaire), Peter Bazalgette (who brought Big Brother to the UK and helped sell it the world over), and Sir David Frost (one of the earliest independent producers, responsible for such shows from The Two Ronnies to The Nixon Interviews).

Also taking part Sir Paul Fox, Lord Griffiths, Paul Bonner, Lorraine Heggessey, Simon Shaps and Peter Salmon.

With plot twists worthy of Ashes To Ashes, as much tension as Britain's Got Talent and a payday to rival Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Paul Jackson draws on his own experiences in the television industry to trace the development of a sector that earns the country almost half a billion pounds a year in exports alone.

Producer: Paul Kobrak. Show less