How Manchester production company Workerbee is creating a buzz on a global stage

The first show they did together was where Idris Elba hosted a show called King of Speed which did “really well”.

“Ever since then, he’s done another 10 projects with us. Anything that has been substantial, outside of his scripted work, he has chosen to do with us. So it’s more that he’s chosen us than we’ve chosen him!” he remarked.

Idris Elba is just one of many stars the company has worked with.

Despite airing on Sky earlier this year and instantly becoming a hit in the US, the company’s four-part Janet Jackson documentary was five years in the making. Even when the company might have a good idea or a great story, success definitely does not happen overnight.

“We started filming with her in 2016 or 2017. It wasn’t hard to get a commission but just to persuade her to do the project was a massive deal,” he explained.

“We are always pitching things that we just really believe in. I would say for every 100 ideas, we get one commission.

“It took us years and years. Ben, one of our directors, was filming with her on and off. In the beginning, we didn’t think it would ever happen or that it would see the light of day,” he said. “We were just filming with her even though it may not happen. It is definitely a favourite project of mine as it was a huge achievement. 

“It put us on the map as working with superstar talent in the documentary space.”

Even though it took five years, he spent a long time chasing the idea as he knew it would be a “definite commission”. 

“When something like that comes along, it’s then having the tenacity not to let that go. With our big documentaries, quite often it’s about persuading a sports talent or music talent to tell their life story. I pursue that like a dog after a bone for however long it takes, because I know when we get it, someone will buy it.”

“In television, 99% of everything that I was interested in making was down in London”

With around 40 full-time staff based in Manchester with dozens more working as freelancers, Murray is passionate about nurturing creative talent, which Workerbee does through its relationships with local universities. 

It’s partly due to his own career journey and difficulties getting into the TV world, stemming back to the 90s. 

“Back in the late 90s, I always wanted to work in TV from being a little kid. My granddad had a video camera and I used to mess around with it. I just wanted to work in television.”

Originally from Stockport, he went to Leeds University, also attended by Workerbee’s newly promoted Managing Director Michelle Chappell.

Although there might now be hundreds of film or television courses, at the time Leeds University was the only place up North to learn the craft and there was only a handful of jobs in the TV world outside of London. 

“You had the BBC here on Oxford Road making programmes like Songs of Praise, Granada making entertainment and you had Yorkshire Television. In television, 99% of everything that I was interested in making was down in London.”

With a grant from the university he used to pay for a flat in London, he headed to the capital to pursue his dream of working in television, initially on a placement year.

“I’ve never met that many people who’ve been to public school in my whole life until I started working TV in London.

“It’s very different now to how it was. We’re talking about 21 years ago,” he explained. “It was a very closed club but the good thing was, it was at a time when TV budgets were coming down and people were having to do more, shoot more themselves and pick up cameras.”

Playing around with his grandfather’s camera as a child eventually came in handy all those years later. “I always loved doing camera work. So I managed to make a name for myself as a cheap camera person and would get on everyone’s shoots and film things.”

After working his way up the ladder both filming and directing in London, MediaCity in Salford was beginning to establish itself as a leading hub for creativity, attracting big broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV. 

“Until MediaCity, I just never thought I’d come back to work up here because there were not many shows being made in Manchester.”

After moving back to Manchester to what was now a flourishing film and television scene, he has spent the last 10 years continuing to oversee Workerbee’s ambitious plans.

“The only reason we’re sitting here today is because the BBC invested in MediaCity. They created a more exciting, interesting economy up here, which made me go actually, I’m going to move back up, what’s up there for me?

“Although the BBC weren’t directly involved in this company, they re-energised the industry up here. Channel 4 is doing that as well.”

From its roots as a regional office of Shine TV, then Endemol Shine North until a rebrand to Workerbee in 2018, then through an acquisition by Banijay Group in 2020, he oversees the production company as an independent label within the group. 

With that freedom and fuelled by his own stumbling blocks trying to build a career in television in the North, he wants to make it easier for budding talent to stay up North to achieve their TV dreams.

Building a hive of Northern creative talent to work on global shows

With 12 graduates from the University of Salford currently at Workerbee, the company has close ties with local universities with senior leaders serving as mentors.

“From working in the big organisations you didn’t see people climbing the ladder so we’ve tried to do that at Workerbee,” he explained. “We try to replicate what happened to me, which is if you can do camera work or edit, you’re doing that from day one rather than just make the tea. 

“Some of the most standout editors on The Bridge were Salford graduates, who three years prior were cutting sizzle tapes for us in the office. They have been our secret weapon.”

Younger staff can see “really great role models in the business” who have risen through the ranks quickly through promotions. 

“Ben Hirsch was the director for the Janet Jackson documentary. He’s from Sale in Manchester and he’s been able to do in his career what I couldn’t, which is never having to leave Manchester.”

Workerbee also has close ties with Channel 4, not just for commissions, but to acquire talent too.

“Channel 4 have helped us build a company in Manchester, we’ve had two or three interns paid for by Channel 4, who come from different socioeconomic backgrounds who they’re trying to help us get into TV.

“There’s a real belief in us from them that we can make things like The Bridge appear in Manchester, whereas traditionally they would only give that to a company in London.”

Northern companies don’t need to have a Northern focus to be successful

One thing he is keen to stress is that despite the company’s pride in its Northern roots and focus on harnessing the next wave of television talent, the vision is global not regional.

“We’re not here to make shows about Northern things for Northern people. We’re here to work with the best talent, we’re here to make really good TV,” he said.

“Some people believe that if you’re a company in Manchester, you should make Manchester projects. We just want to do everything that a London company will do. People sitting in offices in London don’t go ‘what London stuff can we do,’ do they?”

It’s one of the key reasons why the company decided to change its name from Endemol Shine North to Workerbee to carve out a recognisable, standalone identity for the company. What better way to do that than with Manchester’s iconic bee?

“We were just whatever the big company is with the word ‘North’ on the end. The way the business strategy of the group works is there are lots of labels that all have their own identities and they’re all independent production companies within a group. We just felt why should we be the name of the group with North on the end? We should be like the London companies.

“It was also because we work with America more and they didn’t understand why we would need to have the word ‘North’ on the end – we’d have to explain to them that we’re in Manchester and they didn’t really care!”

Speaking alongside Banijay’s Director of Communications Sarah Booth, he explained the benefits of being part of a global group whilst also having the freedom of operating as an indie. 

Banijay Group, which has a global network of companies working on popular TV shows from Big Brother to MasterChef, has ensured that there is a “federation of creative producers”.

Whether it’s a production company in Italy, the US or Australia, all of the companies get together to share creative ideas. If an idea might not work in a particular country such as Sweden for instance, it might be passed along to another company that may land a commission in Australia. 

“It’s great being part of that. But at the same time, we’re completely left to our own devices in terms of how we want to run this company, there’s no interference so we do feel very independent.”

Recently Workerbee hosted 20 of the companies from across the group to show them the sights of Manchester, who came from as far as LA and Brazil.

“It did make me feel proud that Banijay chose to do that in Manchester. Going back to the whole there’s only Songs of Praise being made at Oxford Road – it did feel like a pinch myself moment that Manchester’s now a big enough hub in Banijay’s eyes for everyone globally to come here to meet and talk about documentaries.”

Leeds office and the future

The company is creating some hugely popular programmes nationally and internationally and has some exciting plans for the coming months.

On the Leeds office, Murray explained it was initially set up as one of the company’s executive producers Darrell Brown, who works across documentaries and crime, was based over there. 

There has since been a pivot in the direction of the Leeds office which is now a podcast company called What’s the Story, still run by Brown, which Banijay has an investment in so is still “linked to the group”.

“We haven’t reinvigorated the Leeds office. But we have got plans that we’re going to announce soon about establishing other hubs, companies, which may or may not be in Leeds.”

The company has just revealed plans to continue building the team with senior hires including the promotion of Michelle Chappell to MD and the recruitment of Ben Mitchell, who joins from BBC Studios, as Creative Director. 

Building up on its successful repertoire of film and factual entertainment shows, Workerbee has also restructured the business into two clear divisions – ‘films’ and ‘formats’.

It’s all part of Workerbee’s vision to continue making global content from Manchester. 

“We are definitely not shrinking!” he teased. “We have lots of exciting plans.”