James Donkin.
Director of Development, Entertainment
Prior to his time at Expectation, James developed/co-developed new television formats including Guessable (Comedy Central), Head Hunters (BBC1), Killer Camp (ITV2 + The CW), The Hit List (BBC1), Extraordinary Escapes (C4), British Museum History Hunters (More4), Ghost Bus Tours (ITV2), Apocalypse Wow (ITV2) and The Drugs Cafe (C4).
With a development and production career spanning over 12yrs, James was a Series Producer at TwoFour on Dolph Lundgren gameshow Take the Tower, Head of Development at Renegade Pictures (Evil Monkeys for ITV2, Used Car Wars for Dave, School of Rock CBBC and Our Wildest Dreams for C4) and co-developed and produced the RTS-Award winning Release the Hounds (ITV2, FOX), The Exit List (ITV) and Breakaway (BBC2) for Gogglebox Entertainment (now Primal Media).
Prior to that he worked in the Zodiak central development team, working on entertainment formats for its production companies across the world, including Sing If You Can (ITV1, Antena Tres Spain), The Guillotine (Telecinco Spain, TVP2 Poland), That’s My Kid (CTC Russia) and The Call (Italia 1).
He had an unusual start to his career in television, appearing in seven TV gameshows as a contestant before persuading 12 Yard Productions to accept him onto their trainee development scheme. As well as being a dad to two, former innovation consultant at WhatIf and showbiz journalist at various newspapers, he’s also a keen kick-boxer, scruffy dog-owner, quiz master, musical-lover and general games obsessive.