Lynn Sutcliffe Mighty Managing Director

Lynn began her career in theatre, before accidentally getting a job in television, which she found she enjoyed, and was quite good at. She worked in the independent sector for many years including spells at Hat Trick, Wall to Wall, MTV and Action Time.

In 1999, she took a three-month job at the BBC and ended up staying for seven years. During her time there she was part of the team responsible for developing, amongst other titles, The Weakest Link, Jet Set, Friends Like These, Dog Eat Dog, Hard Spell, and Strictly Come Dancing – which she was responsible for naming. In her spare time she went to LA and was Executive Producer on The Weakest Link – also training all the foreign hosts (98 in all).

As the BBC’s International Development Executive, Lynn secured the rights to The Apprentice and Dragons’ Den. She very symbolically left the BBC the week she turned 40 to become Head of Development at RDF Television. Successes during this time include Tipping Point, The Truth About Size Zero, Sing if You Can, Only Connect (working with sister company Presentable), How the Other Half Live, Wogan’s Perfect Recall and Don’t Forget The Lyrics.

In 2012 she moved on to be Director of Development at CPL where commissions included 75 eps of Decimate for BBC1, Married at First Sight for C4, Who Repairs Wins for UKTV and The Day the Cash Came for BBC1.

Wherever she is, Lynn always prides herself on having happy teams, who bring as much enthusiasm and passion to their work as she does.

She is particularly fond of costume jewellery, piano bars, pub quizzes and cats. She lives with her civil partner and their three children in South East London. She is quite fond of them too.

Hugh Rycroft Creative Director

Hugh’s career started in radio comedy, where the first person to buy one of his jokes was Armando Iannucci. Hugh went on to write several series of The News Quiz, as well as contributing to a host of other radio comedy shows. This is also where he started inventing quiz shows – Cross Questioned, Who Goes There?, and Parliamentary Questions were all hits for Radio 4, clocking up a combined total of 18 series.

Moving into television, Hugh was a regular writer on Mel and Sue’s Light Lunch (and its successor Late Lunch), followed by a spell as the go-to writer for BBC TV Entertainment, scripting the pilots and initial few series of Friends Like These and Dog Eat Dog.

It was around this time that Hugh decided to focus on inventing TV shows of his own. First came a couple of formatted comedy chat shows (God Almighty for Channel 5, hosted by Clive Anderson; and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner for BBC Two, hosted by Anne Robinson). Hugh also invented the hidden-camera-meets-comedy-game-show genre with The Sack Race (BBC Two, also prime time in America as Fire Me…Please!) and the celebrity quiz School’s Out (So Television), which had two successful series on BBC One.

In 2012, nine long years after Hugh first had the idea in an amusement arcade in Norfolk, RDF Television launched Tipping Point, which has become a daytime smash for ITV. Hugh also devised !mpossible and Curious Creatures for Mighty.

To relax (this is a man who knows how to enjoy himself), Hugh is a prolific question writer for Only Connect. He also likes going to pub quizzes, usually with Lynn.

Kate Howell Creative Head of Operations

Kate studied English Literature at Goldsmiths University. Starting out as a TV and Film Make-up Artist she moved into Development at the BBC. Kate worked on Strictly Come Dancing and How to Solve a Problem like Maria as part of the production team.

She then went to RDF Television to join Lynn and become Development Manager. Kate took time out of TV to develop two children before joining Lynn at Mighty.

Jennae Giddings Junior Researcher

Jennae graduated in 2021 with an English Language and Linguistics degree. After an unofficial graduation, Jennae knew she wanted to go into TV but did not know the steps towards this. Jennae applied to a kickstart programme with Westminster council and Somerset House where she was picked to join the Mighty team. This role has allowed Jennae to gain mountains of knowledge about the TV industry and she is keen to learn even more as she starts her career.

Kirsten Highet Head of Mighty Scotland

Kirsten began her career boiling pigs’ heads and sourcing large spiders for reality show Cruel Summer – perhaps the perfect introduction to television for a vegetarian arachnophobe. After almost a decade predominantly producing and directing movie specials for T4 and Channel 4, Kirsten decided the next logical step was moving to Thailand to film and fall in love with elephants in the jungle.

Kirsten returned to Scotland producing and directing property shows for Channel 4 and BBC One including Homes Under The Hammer. As a series producer she has delivered over 200 programmes for the BBC including Antiques Road Trip, Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, Money For Nothing, Get Away For Winter and Robot Wars. She has garnered a reputation as an unflappable programme-making machine, delivering high volume series without losing sight of the all-important details.

Kirsten lives in Glasgow with her partner, young daughter and cocker spaniel Ele. Short for Elephant. Obviously.

Martyn Bon Acting Head of Mighty Scotland

After several unfulfilling spells selling credit cards, manning helpline phones and processing adverts for the Yellow Pages , and a brief joy filled season selling Christmas trees...

Martyn found himself thrown into the world of TV and fulfilling the dreams of his ten-year-old self following footballers and rugby players all over the country. Martyn went on to produce coverage on everything from Champions League and Uefa Cup football to the Rugby World Cup.

Since then, his career has taken him on many adventures; filming gameshow contestants jumping from helicopters, comedians playing cricket in the middle of the sea, US reality stars wading through rivers, and former politicians on model railways. He has filmed with; cowboy builders and lovely builders, house hunters and holiday hunters, antique dealers, butchers, bakers and actual candlestick makers.

Over 15 years Martyn has worked on some of the most popular and recognisable formats on British TV including Location Location Location and Escape to the Chateau. As Series Producer he has overseen ratings success stories including more than 100 episodes of Money For Nothing.

In his quest to fill TV programmes with the same joy he found selling Christmas trees - it's fitting that Martyn was in charge of the award-winning Kirstie's Handmade Christmas for 2 very successful years before joining Mighty.

Martyn lives in a suburban reservation on the edge of Glasgow with his wife, two children and a garage full of home-made Christmas decorations.

Kim Winston Development Producer

Starting her TV career working for CBBC in Scotland, Kim headed to London where she landed her dream job on Strictly Come Dancing as Bruce Forsyth’s researcher. 10 series, 160 celebrities and 514 perfect scores later, she moved back North after having her twin children.

Kim has produced a number of entertainment shows and has recently co-presented the Official Strictly Come Dancing Podcast for the past two series.

Since returning to Scotland, Kim began working for Mighty Scotland where she has been Celeb Booking for !mpossible, Series Producing their new quiz WonderBall and currently working in development alongside the team in London.

Despite all her Strictly experience, Kim is a terrible dancer.

David Roper

You may recognise David as the pianist for Four Poofs and a Piano who featured every week on the BBC’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. David’s first venture into TV was as musical director for We’ve Got Your Number the national lottery programme with Brian Conley. He has since composed music for Dating Hell (Sky One) and Decimate (BBC One).