The head of comedy at the BBC, Jon Petrie, is leaving after five years to join Hat Trick Productions.
Petrie has been responsible for the likes of Small Prophets, Amandaland, Dreaming Whilst Black and Such Brave Girls.
He will take up a Creative Director role at Derry Girls maker Hat Trick, which he called a “rare and properly exciting opportunity” at the “OG of the production community.”
Petrie will leave the BBC in August and Emma Lawson will step up as Interim Director of Comedy with immediate effect. He joined the BBC from Charlie Brooker’s indie Broke and Bones and previously worked for Roughcut and Channel 4.
“Leaving the BBC after five brilliant years is a huge wrench. It is an extraordinary place, full of wildly talented, decent and funny people, and I feel incredibly lucky to have worked under Kate Phillips’ leadership,” said Petrie. “I grew up seeing that [Hat Trick] logo at the end of shows I loved, which is both exciting and a fairly brutal reminder of my age. Jimmy and the team have a genuinely forward-looking vision across scripted, short form and AI, and while I know it is a tricky time to turn from gamekeeper to poacher, I’ve missed production and I firmly believe British comedy still has huge opportunities ahead of it. I’m excited to help build what comes next.”
Phillips, the BBC’s chief content officer, said Petrie has had a “huge impact” and been “British comedy’s biggest backer by far.” “Jon’s vision and drive have delivered a remarkable number of hit shows, reflecting his commitment to giving original voices the space to take risks,” she said. “Under Jon’s leadership it’s been a terrific time for the genre.”
Hat Trick founder Jimmy Mulville, who has worked with Petrie plenty down the years, said “Jon and Hat Trick both share the same comedy DNA and we can’t wait to start working with him.”
Petrie replaced Shane Allen in the biggest job in British comedy commissioning in 2021 and has broadly been seen as steering the ship well in a difficult era to make comedy.
His breakouts have included Small Prophets, Ludwig and Amandaland while shows like Ghosts and Gavin & Stacey have hit new heights. Other hits include Black Ops, Death Valley, Dreaming Whilst Black, Such Brave Girls and We Might Regret This.
He has also shouted from the rooftops about British comedy needing more backing, and has been one of the leading voices calling for a comedy tax credit.
He has had a populist touch to his commissioning. In 2024, he told a room full of comedy producers and press at the now-must attend BBC Comedy Festival that they should locate their “funny bones” when pitching shows to the BBC, which he deemed more important than dramedies or “shows that are ‘an exploration’ of something.”
At last month’s most recent Comedy Festival in Liverpool, he joked that British comedy is the “Prince Harry of the TV Royal Family,” “having to fight harder than it should for attention, for status and sometimes for survival.”
Thoughts will of course turn to who will replace Petrie in the top job. There are plenty of standout candidates from the production sector, while Channel 4 and Sky comedy are run by the highly-rated Charlie Perkins and Alex Moody respectively, and Netflix just hired its first UK comedy boss, Liz Lewin.
