Thomas Michael Gillan Gutteridge (born 2 February 1952) is a British television director, producer and executive. He was formerly Chief Executive of FremantleMedia NA, having previously been founder and Chief Executive of Mentorn, from 1985 to 2001. In 2016 he was appointed Executive Producer of the television series BattleBots, which, after two seasons on ABC, in 2018 moved to the Discovery and Science Channels. He started his career as a BBC journalist.
Early life
Gutteridge was born in London in 1952, the son of a food technologist, and moved to Tyneside when he was 5. He was educated at Priory School Tynemouth, Newcastle Royal Grammar School and the University of York, where he studied English and Philosophy.
BBC career
Gutteridge joined the BBC as a News Trainee, and initially worked at Radio Derby, and in the Newcastle newsroom. He was later a producer and director on Nationwide, Tonight and Panorama. On 11 April 1978, he directed the first Budget Special programme to use live sound from the House of Commons. In 1979 he became producer of the weekly Tonight in Town, hosted by Valerie Singleton and Michael Billington. In 1983 he was seconded from the BBC's Music & Arts department to direct the BBC's General Election coverage.
In 1980 Gutteridge moved to Music & Arts department as Executive Producer, where he was responsible for the twice-weekly Russell Harty chat shows. In 1982, he produced and directed the comedy sketch series A Kick Up the Eighties, which discovered the talents of Rik Mayall (as Kevin Turvey) and Tracey Ullman, and which won a Scottish BAFTA. In 1983 and 1984, he produced and directed the BBC1 dance series The Hot Shoe Show, starring Wayne Sleep and Bonnie Langford, which in 1984 was nominated for a BAFTA as Best Light Entertainment Series.
Freelance career
TV and film
In 1984 he took leave of absence from the BBC to direct and produce the film of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Song & Dance.
In December 1985 he co-produced and directed the dance special Dash, with Wayne Sleep.
On 21 October 1985 he directed Blue Suede Shoes, a Rockabilly Special with Carl Perkins, which starred Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, Dave Edmunds, Rosanne Cash, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom.
In December 1985 he directed the ITV documentary Sixty Tiny Fingers about the Walton sextuplets.
In 1986 Gutteridge wrote and directed the ice ballet Fire and Ice, starring Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean for ITV, which won the Bronze Rose at Montreux, and also Best Director at the International Monitor Awards. It was broadcast on ITV on Boxing Day 1986.
Opera and ballet
The following year, Gutteridge wrote and directed the ITV ice ballet Sleeping Beauty, with Robin Cousins, which also won Best Director at the International Monitor Awards. Also in 1987 he directed a film of the Ravel opera 'L'Enfant et Les Sortileges' at Glyndebourne, conducted by Simon Rattle.
In 1990, he directed the full-length David Bintley ballet Hobson's Choice with the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
In 1991 Gutteridge directed an hour-long comedy special for ITV Lenny Go Home with Lenny Henry.
Mentorn
In 1985 Gutteridge founded the production company Mentorn (originally called Mentorn Films), and his early productions included the BBC1 documentary The Golden Gong (1987). In 1988 he produced and directed the ITV documentary about the animator Richard Williams, I Drew Roger Rabbit, which won an International Emmy nomination for Best Arts Documentary in 1989.
From 1987, the firm produced a number of weekly arts magazine series for ITV regional companies, including 01-for London for Thames TV, which was hosted by Richard Jobson, Neil Mullarkey, Mark Webster and Paula Yates, First Night for Central, Wideangle for Anglia, as well as the daily Box Office for Channel 4. It also produced the ITV weekly magazine Hollywood Report. By 1991, Mentorn had become Britain's largest independent television production company.
From 1989 to 1995 Mentorn produced and directed the entertainment series Challenge Anneka for BBC1, with Anneka Rice, which won the Bronze Rose at Montreux in 1991. The first series was broadcast from 8 September 1989 on Friday evenings on BBC1, and in 1990 the series moved to Saturday nights and ratings rose to 10 million viewers and was the second most popular show on BBC1.
In 2001 Gutteridge produced and directed a US version of the show for ABC called Challenge America, starring Erin Brockovitch.