Imagination and Creativity in Television and Beyond.

LONDON, Wednesday April 3rd 2013: What are the key challenges facing the creative industries in today’s multi-platform digital age?

And what can we do to help nurture the imaginative thinking and innovative ideas that will help propel the creative sector to a brighter future when so much looks uncertain?

That’s the question UKTV – the multi-award winning media company – has posed to a section of the nation’s most influential creatives for inclusion in Leading Lights – a new e-book published today.

Download Leading Lights as a PDF

Leading Lights features a series of insightful yet accessible essays from a range of creative luminaries around innovation and thought leadership. Contributors include Iain Morris, the creative genius behind the The Inbetweeners, Michelin stared chef, Michel Roux Jr, Martha Lane Fox founder of lastminute.com, Roly Keating, Chief Executive of the British Library and Culture Secretary, Ed Vaizey.

Baroness Martha Lane Fox CBE, founder Lastminute.com and newly appointed Lady Soho argues that there are structural problems within the UK that work against digital business start ups – Victorian education, pessimism, the role of the BBC and the American imports that use the UK as a testing ground. She thinks that a cultural shift is needed – not just to create more individual entrepreneurs but to improve the teams working for entrepreneurs. Together with a board of eight top CEOs she is putting her energies into Go On UK – a charity that will build Britain’s digital skills so we are all equipped for the future.

Roly Keating, CEO of the British Library, argues that print is not dead but the move from physical to digital is an opportunity that results in a burst of creativity. He sees opportunities for digital creativity through the intersection of different industries. TV companies and libraries have more in common than you would first imagine.

Iain Morris, creator of The Inbetweeners says a decision to say ‘yes’ to any kind of social event or offer was the defining factor in his creative career – most of the time it led to disaster! Out of disaster came The Inbetweeners TV Series and movie and a writing career in the UK and now in LA. The American comedy process of corralling a team of writers to sit around a table isn’t for Iain and nor is the process of working on several projects at a time. Iain is a great believer in the notion that you should focus on one thing at a time and be utterly single-minded.

Michel Roux Jnr, the three-michelin starred owner of Le Gavroche, grew up in a creative family kitchen, and believes that your ingredients are the basis for all creativity. Now a top professional chef, he gets his inspiration from other chefs. He sends his sous chefs out to other restaurants to investigate the repertoire and come up with new dishes that they can trial together.

Ed Vaizey MP describes himself as middle aged and stuck in traditional patterns, but admits to being a keen SuperMario player and digital downloader. Unlike many other politicians he reveals that he doesn’t know what is going to happen next in the creative industries because he cannot predict the speed of change, and suggests that there’s something to be said for doing nothing.

Commenting on the launch of the book and its contributors, Darren Childs, CEO, UKTV said, “I’m proud to have brought together such a diverse and impressive line-up of artistic luminaries for Leading Lights, to celebrate UKTV’s 21 years at the forefront of digital television. The book provides fascinating insights on the challenges facing the creative industries in the digital age and how we need to meet those challenges head on by ensuring innovation and creativity are at the heart of everything we do’.

Leading Lights edited by UKTV’s Communications Director, Zoë Clapp, is available on Amazon and iTunes ISBN number: 978-0-9566561-9-3.

Books can be ordered directly from Premium Publishing.