Mentorn

Mentorn Media is a British independent television production company established in 1985 and owned by Welsh international production group Tinopolis since 2006, it is known for producing a wide range of programming for broadcasters in the UK and internationally and they are responsible for producing content across various genres, including factual, documentary series, current affairs, and entertainment including well-known shows such as Question Time, Traffic Cops, and An Idiot Abroad.

Mentorn Media

Formerly	Mentorn Films (1985–1997) Mentorn Barraclough Carey (1997–2002)
Founded	1985; 40 years ago (1985)
Founders	Tom Gutteridge
Headquarters	London , England
Parent	Tinopolis
Divisions	Mentorn Scotland
Website	mentorn.tv

History

In January 1997, Mentorn Films merged with fellow independent specialist factual production outfit Barraclough Carey Productions; a company that was founded by former documentary filmmaker and former BBC editor George Carey and film and television producer and former head of BBC documentaries Jenny Barraclough forming the largest entertainment and production company, Mentorn Barraclough Carey. Mentorn Films founder Tom Gutteridge became chief executive and majority owner of the merged production company, co-founder George Carey became creative director, and Jenny Barraclough became a director.^[1]

In September 1999, it was announced that The Television Corporation (TVC) had struck a deal to acquire Mentorn Group alongside its production division Mentorn Barraclough Carey, its international distribution arm Mentorn International, and fellow production company behind Robot Wars TV21.

On 28 January 2000, Mentorn Group had closed its Manchester-based production division MBC North.^[2]

Six months later in July of that same year, Mentorn's parent holding company Television Corporation had acquired independent sports production company behind UK coverage of annual cycling-race Tour de France Venner TV.^[3]

In December 2001 a year following the acquisition of Mentorn Group by Television Corporation (TVC), Mentorn Media who had produced its programming from Scotland had boosted its Scottish production operations by opening a new production office based in Glasgow and launched a Scottish production division entitled Mentorn Scotland that would produce programmed out from its Scottish production office as Mentorn's production subsidiary Folio became a unit within Mentorn Scotland with managing director and founder of Mentorn's subsidiary Folio Charles Thompson and head of programming Jane Rogerson.^[4]

In January 2002, Mentorn Media's parent company Television Corporation (TVC) merged Mentorn's international distribution arm Mentorn International with Sunset+Vine's distribution arm into forming a mega international distribution division entitled Television Corporation Distribution with Mentorn International managing director Mark Roland heading Television Corporation Distribution.^[5]

Acquisition by Tinopolis

In October 2005 three months after former BBC director of sport, Peter Salmon joined Mentorn's parent Television Corporation as chief executive, Welsh independent TV production group Tinopolis announced its potential takeover approach to acquire London-based television production company Mentorn Media including its Scottish production office Mentorn Scotland and its international distribution arm Mentorn International alongside its parent production group Television Corporation (including its production offices in both Oxford and Glasgow) and its fellow production subsidiaries Folio Productions, Sunset+Vine and Redback Films in a deal that would expand Tinopolis' sports production activities and boost its operations in London.^[6]

In December 2006, Mentorn Media alongiside its Welsh production parent Tinopolis announced it had restructured its Mentorn Media subsidiary as it exited from the scripted production operations by placing Mentorn's drama production output into a new independent drama production company under Mentorn Group entitled Daybreak Pictures that would produce Mentorn's future drama productions with former Channel 4 and Mentorn head of drama David Aukin became Daybreak Pictures' creative director whilst former Mentorn executive producer Hal Vogel and Mentorn's CEO John Willis will be heading Mentorn Group's new drama production subsidiary Daybreak Pictures as its directors, Arwel Rees managing director of Mentorn's parent Tinopolis had become chairman of Daybreak Pictures.^[7]

By December 2012 seven years following Tinopolis' acquisition of London-based production company Mentorn Media alongside its Scottish production office Mentorn Scotland, its international distribution arm Mentorn International, Mentorn International the former international division of Mentorn Media and Tinopolis' distribution subsidiary had been merged into Tinopolis' London-based global media distribution company Passion Distribution including Mentorn Media's programming library when Mentorn Media's parent Tinopolis had acquired the latter distribution company as Passion Distribution became the latter's new distribution unit and Mentorn's new distributor with Passion started distributing Mentorn's future programmes worldwide.^[8][9][10]

Filmography

Television series

Title	Years	Network	Notes
Question Time	1979–present	BBC One	Took over production from Brian Lapping Productions
Scratchy & Co.	1995–1998	ITV
Traffic Cops	2003–present	BBC One/BBC Three/5[11]
Paradise Hotel	2003–2019	Fox/MyNetworkTV & Fox Reality Channel (United States)	First American production co-production with 395 Productions
The Big Questions	2007–2021	BBC One
Debate Night[12]	2019–present	BBC Scotland	via Mentorn Scotland
Roarsome Dinosaurs	2022	Channel 5
Dinosaur with Stephen Fry[13]	2023	Channel 5	co-production with Krempelwood Entertainment