Amanda Ross (television executive)
[1] Cactus specialises in broad-based entertainment, features and chat shows, making programmes for many major UK broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, UKTV and Channel 4.
Always closely involved in her productions, Amanda has won a Royal Television Society Award[5] and been nominated for four others as a Producer and a Director.
[10] Most recently, she also hosted a live stage tour of Between The Covers,[11] presented awards and made several podcast[12][13][14] and radio appearances.
[14] After a year in the role, she toured Germany as a singer with a 30-piece big band in order to get an Equity card to further progress her performing career.
She coordinated booking of US talent for Jonathan Ross Presents (BBC 1 & VH1) and made live appearances on GMTV and The Time The Place.
Cactus TV secured an unprecedented number of commissions from different channels in their first few years, and continued to gain a reputation as a dependable, hard-working indie under Amanda and Simon's leadership.
[17][20] For the youth market, Cactus created the lively current affairs discussion show Mad For It (ITV), which was nominated for three RTS Awards, and Off The Wall (Anglia).
[2] Most prominently during this time period, Cactus created and produced The British Soap Awards, originally hosted by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan from 1999 to 2002.
[2] This was an annual awards ceremony celebrating the best moments in British soap operas, and was the highest-rated entertainment show for 3 successive years on any TV channel, capturing a remarkable 53% audience share, amounting in 12.8 million people tuning in.
[37][38] For the next eight years, Richard & Judy broadcast live to the nation each weekday at 5pm, establishing the now highly coveted ‘5 o’clock slot’ and consistently attracting over 2 million viewers.
[16] Amanda was responsible for all the book choices, and over the years helped make best sellers of authors, including David Nicholls, Kate Mosse and Victoria Hislop.
[48] Other notable choices included ‘The Lovely Bones’ by Alice Sebold, ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ by Audrey Niffenegger,[47] ‘Cloud Atlas’ by David Mitchell, ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ by Jodi Picoult and ‘Restless’ by William Boyd.
[15] Amanda never made any money from the sales, unlike her American counterparts,[43][48] as that was the condition of promoting books on British television.
[51] These awards were attended by many stars including Dame Helen Mirren, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ricky Gervais, and were hosted for the last three years by Bradley Walsh.
[53][54] In October 2008, Cactus transferred Richard & Judy to UKTV's Watch,[55] where their show continued to attract A-list celebrity guests until its final broadcast on July 1, 2009.
[56] In 2006, Cactus won the tender to produce Saturday Kitchen, a live cooking and entertainment show on BBC One with a brand new format created by Simon and Amanda.
[57] Under Amanda and Simon's leadership the show got a fresh look from its initial seasons 2002-2006, with their new format points like 'Heaven & Hell' and the 'Omelette Challenge',[58] and instantly became a slot winning success.
[2] Amanda Ross attracted a whole new line-up of chefs including some of the world's best, Michel Roux, Antonio Carluccio, Jamie Oliver, Angela Hartnett, Thomas Keller, Rick Stein, Nathan Outlaw, Marcus Wareing, Gennaro Contaldo, Ching-He Huang, Yotam Ottolenghi and Theo Randall.
[60][14][13] Broadcast live from Cactus Studios every Saturday morning, the show features incredible dishes prepared by some of the world's top chefs, along with entertaining conversations with popular TV celebrities and the best clips from the BBC's food archive.
[63] Recent guests include Kit Harrington, Danny Trejo, Mel B, Stanley Tucci, Rob Brydon, John Bishop, Gary Barlow, Mo Gilligan, Tom Allen, Dan Ackroyd, Paloma Faith, Hugh Bonneville, Jennifer Saunders, Antonio Banderas, Idris Elba and Dawn French.
[67] Since launching Richard & Judy Book Club, Amanda created and produced a significant number of book-based campaigns on TV, earning numerous awards for her contribution to the British publishing industry.
In 2020, Cactus announced another addition to their impressive book-based TV offering – a primetime BBC Two series Between The Covers hosted by Sara Cox.
[68] In each episode, Sara is joined by four different celebrity guests who each bring in a book they love, a BYOB that they want to persuade everyone else to read and review curated new releases.
Amanda Ross said the idea for the tour, which spanned theatres in London, Oxford, Nottingham, Birmingham, Reading and Brighton, came from feedback from viewers that "the TV show is too short, and that they would love to join in the ultimate fantasy book group".
She received an RTS Educational Television Award in 2007 for her role in the Channel 4 "Lost for Words Season", which focused on children's literacy.
[102] From a young age, Amanda loved keeping pets including many rescue cats, even naming her first TV production company after her dog Cheeky in 1993.
[28] They attribute their successful working relationship to the fact they are interested in different aspects of the business and always respect and trust each other's knowledge and input on the way the company should be run.
[49] Over time they also began producing small batches of their own olive oil that Amanda gifts to friends, chefs and special guests on Cactus TV productions.
