Advanced Television

Ant and Dec’s Mitre Studios makes two senior hires

March 16, 2026

Mitre Studios has announced the appointment of Ed Daggett as their new Head of Development, Television and Jemima Rathbone as Senior Executive Producer, Podcasts.

The appointments of Daggett and Rathbone signal Ant and Dec’s continued plan to evolve Mitre Studios into a fully-fledged production powerhouse, developing content across broadcast, digital and emerging platforms.

Daggett’s role as Head of Development, TV will be to lead Mitre Studios’ development team and be responsible for creating a pipeline of shows targeting the Entertainment, Fact Ent and Reality genres for both linear channels and streaming services in both the UK and globally.

Rathbone joins as Senior Executive Producer, where she will head up the company’s newly established podcasting team as part of Mitre Studios’ growth in digital and audio content. She will oversee the creative and editorial development of Hanging Out With Ant & Dec and grow Mitre’s slate of audio-first content for Belta Box, working closely with talent, producers and brand partners to build engaging podcast formats and audiences across the business

Daggett commented: “Ant and Dec’s drive to keep finding new ways to entertain big audiences, on any platform, makes Mitre an incredibly exciting place to be. With a huge year already ahead for the company, I can’t wait to work with the whole team to create ambitious and original formats for TV and beyond.”

Rathbone said: “I’m incredibly excited to be joining Mitre at such an exciting moment; to be bringing Ant & Dec into the podcasting space is a real honour. The show itself is full of heart and belly laughs and is a fantastic example of the type of content you can expect to see and hear coming from Mitre over the next year.”

Prior to joining Mitre Studios as Head of Development, Daggett worked at Lifted Entertainment as a Development Executive where commissions included My Mum, Your Dad and I’m A Celebrity… South Africa, as well as upcoming series The Neighbourhood and Nobody’s Fool. He also served as a Series Editor on The Neighbourhood and as a Senior Producer on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. He also worked at Hungry Bear Media from its launch, helping to secure numerous commissions during the company’s first 4 years, and working as a producer on the first 3 series of Michael McIntyre’s Big Show. He also held long-term development roles at Tiger Aspect and Talkback Thames.

Senior Executive producer Rathbone, has a track record of bringing established talent into the podcasting space that includes launching shows from Kathy Burke, Paloma Faith, and now, Ant & Dec. Before joining Mitre Studios, she was the Executive Producer at Jamie Laing’s JamPot Productions. Whilst there she headed up hit shows including NearlyWeds and launched the celebrity interview podcasts Great Company and Paloma Faith’s Mad, Sad and Bad, (notably capturing Samuel L. Jackson’s first and only podcast appearance). Prior to that, she launched Kathy Burke’s venture in podcasting on ‘Where There’s A Will There’s A Wake’ for Sony Music Entertainment.

On Ed’s appointment, Mitre Studios Creative Director TV, Jack Shillaker said: “We’re delighted to welcome Ed to Mitre Studios. He brings a brilliant development mind, a fantastic track record of creating innovative ideas, and crucially, the ability to take a concept all the way from early development through to green light. We’re thrilled he’s joining the team at such an exciting moment for the company.”

Jules McGill, Head of Digital & Social Content says about Jemima’s arrival: “ We’re excited to welcome Jemima to Mitre Studios to launch and grow our podcasting team. She is an incredibly talented creative who brings a huge amount of experience developing, launching and producing brilliant and creative shows. Jemima joining the team marks a significant step forward in our output and an exciting new chapter for Mitre Studios.”

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