Kathleen Hutchison
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Kathleen Hutchison is a British television producer, whose credits include Playing the Field, Holby City (of which she was the Series Producer, then Executive Producer for many years) and Casualty @ Holby City.
On 21 September 2004 Hutchison was appointed Executive Producer of the popular BBC television soap opera EastEnders, after the then Executive Producer Louise Berridge resigned following prolonged critical and public criticism of the show.
Hutchison had the task of reversing the fortunes of the BBC's flagship soap. In previous months viewing figures had suffered when up against ITV's Emmerdale.
Within her first three days at the helm, Hutchison axed the unpopular Ferreira family and went on to axe other unsuccessful characters; Den Watts, Andy Hunter, Juley Smith and Derek Harkinson. It was for this she became know as "The Hatchet". It is believed she had planned to axe many more characters in order to reverse public opinion and resuscitate the flat-lining ratings. She also introduced six new characters; Jake and Danny Moon, Johnny Allen, Stacey Slater and Ruby Allen, and Tina Stewart. Out of these characters Stacey is the only character left in the show.
But by January 2005, backstage at the studios in Elstree, where EastEnders is filmed, tensions ran high. As she reportedly ordered plots to be binned, filming was becoming dangerously late and the cast were coming in having learned their lines to find scripts ripped up and new ones in their place. Hutchison apparently ordered the cast and crew to work weekends and until the small hours of the morning, to make sure scenes were filmed, and scriptwriters were apparently up in arms over the number of rewrites they were asked to do. In 2005 it was reported that because of these problems, that for the first time in the show 20 years history, it would be forced off air due to lack of scripts, this was later denied by the BBC.
On 26 January 2005 a major crisis meetings took place at Elstree, after cast and crew members complained about their workload and bruising personality clashes on set. In this meeting Kathleen Hutchison - after just four months at the helm of the BBC highest rating show - was sacked as executive producer of EastEnders. Hutchison left the studios and the BBC without saying goodbye to any cast or crew members. One cast member later claimed that everyone cheered when her departure was announced.
The following day, she said, "I’ve enjoyed my brief time at EastEnders and wish the show the very best."
John Yorke, BBC Controller of Continuing Drama Series, took total control of the show himself and became acting Executive Producer for a short period, before appointing Kate Harwood.
John Yorke said, “Kathleen has done a fantastic job of managing EastEnders during this period of change - I am very grateful to her for all her hard work and for leaving the show in such a strong position for us to build on.”
However, when hearing about her departure the cast apparently broke into applause, among cast members said to be delighted at Hutchison's departure were Wendy Richard and Natalie Cassidy.
Later, Michael Higgs, whose character Andy Hunter was axed by Hutchison, said, “Kathleen was hated by everyone - cast, crew and schedulers alike, it was quite something.”
