Gaffer promises no drama, delivers six series
CH 02 · THE GAFFER · Creative director & fixer. 20 years of telly.
🎙 NOW SHOWING · CH 02 · THE GAFFER SPEAKS
DAVID. IN HIS OWN WORDS.
Everything this company is, explained by the man who built it. Press nothing — it's already playing.
▶ AUTO-PLAYING NOW · SOUND'S OFF UNTIL YOU TAP IT — WE'RE BOLD, NOT RUDE
CH 02 · The Gaffer · In person
The face behind twenty commissions
Twenty years across BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV. Twenty commissions. four million views in seven days without spending a penny on ads. He runs the shoot, holds the budget and picks up the phone himself.
Stubborn, not difficult. Direct. Done taking anyone's nonsense on your behalf. That is exactly why your shoot stays calm.
OUR ETHOS · STRAIGHT FROM THE BOSS
✨ STAFF FIRST. NO BULLIES. THAT'S NOT A MANTRA — THAT'S THE WHOLE COMPANY.
Six minutes. No script, no PR polish, no comms person hovering with a lanyard. Just David on what this company stands for — and what it will never, ever stand for. Because Ballsy is the only UK agency to say it out loud: staff come first. Not "talent first, if there's time." Not "client first, crew eventually." Staff. First. Full stop.
And the other half of the deal, in writing, on the record: we do not work with bullies. Not the shouty exec. Not the diva who's "just passionate." Not the producer who thinks a runner is a punchbag with a walkie. Doesn't matter if you're the runner or the talent — same standards, same rules, same door if you can't meet them. Our standards aren't small print. They're the headline.
Bold. Ballsy. Brave. It runs through every department of this company like a watermark — development, shoots, fixing, the lot — because that's why Ballsy exists in the first place. David spent twenty years watching this industry chew brilliant people up and call it "paying your dues." So he built the opposite: great telly without killing anyone in the process. That's not the poster on the wall. That's the mission. The awards are just what happens when a crew isn't terrified.
NOW SHOWING · CH 02
DAVID 🏆
Creative director and fixer. Both. Always. Never one without the other.
THE STORY
💡 TWENTY-PLUS YEARS OF MAKING TELLY THAT GETS COMMISSIONED.
BBC. Channel 4. Channel 5. ITV. Brand work for British Airways and Virgin. David spent two decades in UK broadcast learning exactly what commissioners want — then moved to the Costa del Sol and learned exactly how to shoot it here. That combination is the whole point of Ballsy: the person writing your treatment is the same person clearing your beach.
Over twelve years in Spain. Fluent in commissioner, conversational in Spanish, dangerous in a pitch meeting.
THE PLOT TWIST NOBODY COMMISSIONED
❤ THREE MONTHS IN A COMA. TWO YEARS LEARNING TO WALK. BEST NOTES SESSION OF HIS LIFE.
David got seriously ill. Not "big lunch" ill — three-months-in-a-coma ill. No trailer, no warning, straight to black. Then the recovery: two years learning to walk again, one step at a time, which for a man who'd spent two decades sprinting round studio floors was quite the format change.
Here's the thing nobody tells you about coming back from that: you see television completely differently. When you've genuinely fought for every single step, you can spot fake jeopardy from across the room. You know what a real stake looks like. You know what a real character sounds like. And you know — right down in your bones — that people's time on this earth is too precious to waste on boring telly.
That's where Ballsy comes from. Not a branding workshop. A hospital bed, a bloody-minded refusal to stay in it, and a promise: every idea out of this company has to be worth someone's precious time. Brave, bold, Ballsy — because David's already done the alternative, and the alternative is beige.
- 🛌 Three months in a coma — the only deadline he's ever missed.
- 🚶 Two years learning to walk — still quicker than most commissioning decisions.
- 📺 Woke up with one rule — life is far too short for boring telly.
- 💪 Fought for every step — so he can smell fake jeopardy through a screen.
THE ASSETS 🍑
✨ SHOW US WHAT YOU'VE GOT.
20+
YEARS OF UK BROADCAST
4
MAJOR UK BROADCASTERS
2
GLOBAL BRANDS · BA & VIRGIN
1
EGO · KEPT ON A LEAD
CAUGHT ON CAMERA
TUNE IN
💡 GOT AN IDEA? A SHOOT? A MILD EMERGENCY?
David reads everything sent to this address. Usually before his second coffee.
EMAIL DAVID@BALLSY.TVOFFICIAL TITLE: CREATIVE DIRECTOR & FIXER. UNOFFICIAL TITLE: THE REASON THE WHATSAPP NEVER SLEEPS. 📱
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