BBC Passed on ‘Slow Horses,’ Reveals Apple TV+ Europe Boss Jay Hunt

Apple TV Europe boss and BFI chair Jay Hunt engaged in a rare public Q&A hosted by “The Traitors” U.K. presenter Claudia Winkleman during the BFI London Film Festival, where she discussed her lengthy career in U.K. public service broadcasting, move to streaming and the U.K. screen industry at large.

Among the advice Hunt shared with the audience was the importance of acknowledging failure and taking risks. Of the latter, she revealed that “Slow Horses” – one of AppleTV+’s biggest U.K. hits, which has since gone on to win BAFTA and Emmy awards – had been considered a risky investment, with the U.S. streamer only picking it up after it was turned down by the BBC.

“I think you have to take risks,” said Hunt. “It’s interesting. ‘Slow Horses’ is a very good example where it was passed on by the BBC. I think one of the reasons that people struggle with shows like that is they’ve got a hybrid tone. So people go, is that show a comedy? Is that show a drama? And so in a weird way, that represents risk.”

“I think finding those things, being confident we could hone them to the quality of execution that we’ve seen, and again, working with exceptional teams, exceptional writers, exceptional directors, I think it’s a slate which showcases the very best of British creativity, which is everything I hoped for in this job.”

At AppleTV+ Hunt has commissioned a slew of U.K. and Irish hits, including “Bad Sisters,” written by and starring Sharon Horgan, Peter Capaldi-starrer “Criminal Record,” Idris Elba’s “Hijack” and documentary series “Prehistoric Planet.”

“We’ve invested millions and millions of pounds in British creativity,” Hunt said. “And as someone who has built their career in this market and has actively chosen to stay in this market, working somewhere where we’ve given effects designers the challenge of saying, by the way, can you bring alive the world of 66 million years ago? Or to an extraordinary production designer saying to them on, you know, ‘Slow Horses,’ I want you to build Slough House with an attention to detail, which is, frankly, jaw dropping, to be able to come in and say, let’s give people a chance to do that and they can do that in this market — it’s not a brain drain, they don’t have to leave and go and work somewhere else to do that — that’s something I’m really proud of.”

Hunt also revealed when she first took the job, in 2017, she was the first employee in the U.K. on the streaming side of the company. “I started this job working entirely by myself,” she said. “I had an assistant but I didn’t have anyone working with me for a year above the Apple shop on Regent Street.”

Winkleman also asked Hunt about her stints BBC One, Channel 4 and Channel 5, where she held the top creative job at each network. In particular, the TV anchor asked whether leaving her job at BBC One for Channel 4 was a difficult decision. “Because that’s being offered an amazing job when you’re in an amazing job,” Winkleman said. “That’s like [having to choose between] Brad Pitt or George Clooney.”

Hunt acknowledged it had been a wrench to leave the BBC, which she described as “the place at which you can change the way the nation thinks about stuff” giving the example of hit drama “Luther,” with Idris Elba’s casting in 2010 being the first time a Black actor had played a lead character on BBC One.

The move to Channel 4 was made even more difficult, she revealed, because the network had lost “Big Brother” to Channel 5, which suddenly meant the commissioning team had 200 hours of broadcasting time that needed to be filled.

“But there’s something — going back to what I liked at [Channel] Five — the plucky underdog thing, that Channel Four is there to be a disruptor,” she said of the move. “And there’s something in my personality that finds that very attractive. I like the idea that we were disruptive.” Among the shows that were commissioned under Hunt’s leadership at Channel 4 were “Black Mirror,” “Derry Girls” and the controversial dating show “Naked Attraction.”

“I’m absolutely passionate about what that show did to transform what people thought about different types of bodies,” Hunt said. “But it was disruptive, it was surprising, and we had lots of programming like that, and that was a great personality fit for me.”