Sliding Doors with Sam Hodges and James MacLeod

This extended guest episode was recorded as part of our season 2 finale.

In this episode, we are joined by two titans of television and entertainment PR who are generally all-around nice guys. Sam Hodges and James MacLeod started their PR career at the BBC together working on shows such as Strictly Come Dancing. They have gone on to have top comms roles at ITV, BBC, Netflix, Channel 4 and Twitter between them. 

During our conversation, we talked about what it is really like being at the top, moving a headquarters outside London, making the decision to switch industries from TV to tech, failure, reality TV, Ofcom and the most important question of all, how do shows get picked for Gogglebox. 

At the time of recording the podcast, James MacLeod had stepped down as Communications Director at Channel 4, and remained as an advisor on the government’s new consultation relating to the broadcaster's future ownership and its review of public service broadcasting. James started his career at the BBC as a publicist and then later joined ITV, leaving there as Head of Press, Broadcasting. 

Sam Hodges is a director at Aaqua. He has been the  Head of Communications at the BBC , and Twitter, the Director of Content Comms at Netflix and a partner at the agency Freuds.

 

Studio Lambert https://www.studiolambert.com/shows.html 

Pregnancy Loss Policy https://www.channel4.com/corporate/pregnancy-loss-policy

Menopause Policy https://www.channel4.com/corporate/menopause-policy 

Future4 https://www.channel4.com/corporate/future4 

BBC’s Alex Scott ‘proud’ of working class accent after peer’s elocution jibe

This article is more than 2 months old: Lord Digby Jones accuses Alex Scott of spoiling Olympics coverage by dropping her ‘g’s https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2021/jul/31/bbc-alex-scott-proud-working-class-accent-digby-jones-elocution 

 

@jamesmacleod https://twitter.com/jamesmacleod?lang=en 

Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jamesmacleodcomms 

@SamHodges https://twitter.com/SamHodges 

Linkedin:  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/samhodgescomms 

 

Season 2 of Have You Got 5 Minutes? Is hosted by Harriet Small and Rebecca Roberts, produced by Dave Musson, Mustard Yellow Media, and brought to in partnership with Nextdoor. 

Nextdoor is the neighbourhood app used by 1 in 7 households in the UK. For more information 

Nextdoor 

Twitter: @Nextdoor_UK

Website:  https://nextdoor.co.uk/ 

 

Follow us on Instagram @HYG5MPod 

 

Find Rebecca: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rebecca7roberts

https://twitter.com/threadandfable  

Linkedin: Rebecca Roberts 

Website: https://threadandfable.com/ 

Podcast: The Hear It podcast 

 

Find Harriet:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarrietSmallies  

Linkedin: Harriet Small

Website: https://www.commsoveracoffee.com/