This article examines the rise of the 'celebrity entrepreneur' on television through the emergence of the 'business entertainment format' and considers the ways in which regular television exposure can be converted into wider media and political capital. Within television studies there has been a preoccupation in recent years with how lifestyle and reality formats work to transform 'ordinary' people into celebrities.As a result, the contribution of vocationally skilled business professionals to factual entertainment programming has gone almost unnoticed. This article begins by looking at the construction of entrepreneurs as different types of television personalities as well as how discourses of work, skill and knowledge function in business shows. It then outlines how entrepreneurs can utilize their newly acquired televisual skills to cultivate a wider media profile and secure various forms of political access and influence. Integral to this is the centrality of public relations and media management agencies in shaping media discourses and developing the individual as a 'brand identity' that can be used to endorse a range of products or ideas. In turn, policy makers and politicians have attempted to mobilize the media profile of celebrity entrepreneurs in an attempt to reach out and connect with the public on business and enterprise-related issues.

Abstract:Together with 'creativity', the concept of 'talent' has emerged within UK and global policy discussions as being central to unlocking economic success within the creative industries. At a crucial time of political and technological change, Scotland finds itself competing within a highly competitive global market to identify, attract and retain creative talent and strengthen its skills base. As such, developing 'talent' is a key aspect of the Scottish Government's Strategy for the Creative Industries (2011). However, while creativity has been interrogated across academic disciplines in recent years (Schlesinger 2009;, Bilton 2010, talent remains under-theorised within the academy and lacks a clear definition across policy and industry. Taking the screen industries as its focus, this paper draws on empirical data derived from a series of knowledge exchange workshops funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh designed to initiate dialogue between academics, policymakers and stakeholders within Scotland and beyond. In doing so, it examines the various ways in which screen 'talent' is conceptualised by these groups and raises questions regarding how particular understandings may impact on policies designed to identify, attract and retain a diversity of skilled screen industries workers both onscreen and behind the scenes. We argue that there should be greater precision regarding the discourse used in policy to emphasize the importance of the development of particular and discrete craft skills rather than a stress on flexibility and mobility. We suggest that policymakers and educators must acknowledge and encourage transparency regarding the precariousness of building a career within the screen industries.

This article examines the UK Film Council's objective to reorganise and reallocate public funding for film from 2000 onwards. I argue that the model adopted by the UKFC was innovative on two levels. First, it separated public funds available for film production into three separate streams and then hired industry professionals to head each individual fund. I also examine how the funds developed over the lifetime of the organisation, with each appointed head shaping the principles of their respective funds in accordance with the wider objectives of the UKFC. Drawing on strategy documents, internal papers and interviews with key personnel, I argue that the UKFC worked to position itself as a 'vanguard organisation' seeking to shake up an independent sector seemingly reliant on state handouts and introduce a commercial perspective to the industry. This mission met an abrupt end, however, when the incoming Coalition government closed down the organisation in 2010.

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A unique The Rise and Fall of the UK Film Council provides a unique study of the making of film policy in the UK set in its political, economic and international contexts. The UK Film Council was responsible for supporting film in the UK for over a decade. What objectives did it pursue over time? How effective was the UKFC as a model of public support for film? And what strategic lessons can be drawn from its experience? As well as offering a critical overview of the political, policy and technological contexts which framed the organisation’s creation, existence and eventual demise, this book analyses the tensions between differing sectoral, commercial and cultural agendas, and between national and global interests in an increasingly transnational film industry. Drawing on interviews with leading film executives, politicians and industry stakeholders, including all the UKFC’s chairs (Alan Parker, Stewart Till and Tim Bevan) and its CEO John Woodward, the book provides a probing and an empirically grounded analysis of the rise and unexpected fall of this key and iconic strategic support body for film. At the same time it provides a timely and significant investigation into the contemporary policy environment for film in the 21st century.