C4 comedy chief quits

Leddy takes redundancy after 11 years

Caroline Leddy, the Channel 4 head of comedy responsible for commissioning Smack the Pony, Green Wing and the Brass Eye paedophile special, is to quit her job after more than a decade.

She will take voluntary redundancy in the new year as the broadcaster begins to make 150 job losses.

Leddy, who also commissioned The Book Group, Trigger Happy TV and The IT Crowd, is expected to return to production.

Channel 4’s director of television and content Kevin Lygo said: ‘Caroline has always cultivated the lowest possible profile and kept as far away from the limelight as is humanly possible, but her reputation has grown ever brighter despite all her attempts to eradicate it.

‘The roll call of the projects she has overseen and obsessed over in the last decade reads like a list of Channel 4's most distinctive and defining output. She is quite simply a brilliant spotter and developer of comic talent and we will miss her immensely."

Leddy added: ‘It's been an absolute blast from start to finish but after 11 years it's a good time for a change.

‘I'll miss Channel 4 terribly, especially my brilliant friends and colleagues in the comedy and entertainment team, but I still plan to be involved in making the funniest shows on telly and am dead excited about the future.’

Leddy joined Channel 4 from Talkback Productions in 1997 as commissioning editor for entertainment and was promoted to head of comedy in 2000.

Published: 28 Oct 2008

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