Our People
Anne Wood – Founder and Creative Director
Anne came to television from education, via publishing, and could see no reason why Children’s TV should not be of the same quality as a good children’s book.
By this time, Anne was already a TV producer of long-standing, having produced several award winning series for Yorkshire TV such as ‘Book Tower’ and ‘Ragdolly Anna’ (inspired by her daughter’s love for a very special ragdoll). She had also been Head of Children’s at TVAM producing ‘Roland Rat’ and ‘Rub-a-Dub-Tub’.
The huge following that developed for these programmes gave Anne Wood an inkling of the gap between children’s needs and the provision of good television for them. Since that time, Anne has devised and created innovative and pioneering programmes for younger children. All of these programmes fulfil Anne’s driving principle “I want children to be happy inside – in this uncertain world they need to feel secure and loved, only in this way can they grow into confident and creative individuals”. The continuing worldwide success of Ragdoll programmes bear witness to the truth of this belief.
Anne was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and won The Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Award in 1998. Two years later in 2000 she received a Special BAFTA for her outstanding contribution to Children’s Television and received her CBE for services to Children’s Broadcasting. In 2003, she was awarded The Olswang Business Award from Women In Film and Television and in March 2007, she received the Harvey Lee Award for her outstanding contribution to broadcasting from the Broadcasting Press Guild. In 2010 Anne received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Mother and Baby magazine and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Birmingham in 2013 and from the University of Sheffield in 2015.
Christopher Wood – Producer and Company Director
Christopher is the son of Ragdoll Founder, Anne Wood. Ragdoll is a family run company.
Christopher trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and spent 10 years in the professional theatre, before joining Ragdoll full-time in 1998.
Producer credits include Brum, Blips, Boohbah, Dipdap, Abney & Teal and Twirlywoos.
Mark Hollingsworth – Business Affairs Consultant
Mark qualified as a Chartered Accountant and advised on the formation of Ragdoll Limited in 1985. During the next few years, he spent an increasing amount of time on Ragdoll affairs and in 1996, after negotiating the terms of the BBC commission of Teletubbies, he joined the company as Commercial Director.
Appointed Chief Executive Officer in July 2008, Mark oversaw the development of the organisation and led the implementation of the company’s business strategy. He was also CEO of Ragdoll Worldwide Limited, the joint venture between Ragdoll and BBC Worldwide and directed the sale of the Ragdoll Worldwide to DHX Media.
