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Tom Giles, formerly of BBC's Panorama, has been appointed ITV's head of current affairs.
Tom Giles, formerly of BBC’s Panorama, has been appointed ITV’s head of current affairs. Photograph: public domain
Tom Giles, formerly of BBC’s Panorama, has been appointed ITV’s head of current affairs. Photograph: public domain

ITV hires ex-BBC Panorama editor to head current affairs

This article is more than 8 years old

Tom Giles, who was looking into the future of corporation’s own output, will have control of series such as Exposure and The Agenda

ITV has hired former Panorama editor Tom Giles to head its current affairs operation.

Giles was moved off the flagship BBC1 current affairs series last year after four years at the helm, and into a new role looking at the future of the corporation’s current affairs output.

He was most recently responsible working as a creative director in the BBC’s specialist factual unit.

Giles is understood to be taking over most of the responsibilities of Ian Squires, ITV’s controller of current affairs and news operations, who stepped down after the general election ending a 20-year career at the broadcaster.

His responsibilities will include commissioning current affairs strands including Exposure, Tonight, On Assignment and The Agenda, presented by Tom Bradby.

“After many fantastic years with the BBC, I’m delighted to be helping to lead the ITV team responsible not just for breaking some of the UK’s most significant stories - notably the Jimmy Savile scandal - but also for making the most consistently popular Current Affairs TV programming in the UK,” said Giles.

Giles will report to Michael Jermey, ITV’s director of news and current affairs.

The signing is something of a coup for ITV, which has seen a number of its top news and current affairs staff move to the BBC in the last 18 months.

Giles joined Panorama as deputy editor in 2008 and was promoted to editor in 2010.

Notable programmes during his tenure include Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed, which won a Bafta for its account of the abuse of vulnerable young patients at a private hospital near Bristol.

And Fifa’s Dirty Secrets, controversially broadcast three days before the football governing body’s vote on the staging of the 2018 World Cup.

Panorama also investigated its sister BBC2 news programme, Newsnight, at the height of the Jimmy Savile scandal over its decision not to broadcast its Savile report.

Giles’s move marks a reversal of the trend over the last 18 months of ITV staff moving to the corporation.

The BBC’s hires include ITV News UK editor Lucy Manning, deputy editor Jonathan Munro, head of home news Toby Castle (BBC deputy news editor), and business editor Laura Kuenssberg (Newsnight)

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