A respected annual table of the best places to work in the UK TV sector has again included three Bristol firms – two of them repeating their success from 2024.
While natural history production company Silverback Films is named in the prestigious Best Places to Work in TV line-up for the second consecutive year, Animation studio A Productions has now clocked up three appearances.
Offspring Films, which specialises in factual programming and natural history, makes its debut in the table, which is staged by leading industry website and magazine Broadcast to identify and recognise outstanding employers in the TV production industry.
Firms taking part are reviewed and rated on criteria such as company culture, staff satisfaction and rewards, training and fairness.
This includes quizzing management about pay and best practices, while employees are asked to share their views on areas such as leadership and planning, training, development and resources, role satisfaction and environment.
The scores are weighted in favour of the employees’ responses.
Some 32 companies made the cut this year based on their results in the survey and were presented with coveted awards at a special ceremony.
A Productions, which makes iconic children’s content for TV and film in the UK and around the world, put its hat-trick of Best Workplace Awards down to investing significantly in its team.
It has a dedicated welfare manager offering staff one-to-one support, flexible working policies, an extensive mentoring programme, regular social events, a virtual suggestion box and a half-day Friday ‘wellness afternoon’ for staff every month in addition to holiday, among many other initiatives. 
It also has an established an ever-evolving equality, diversity and inclusion programme – which includes unconscious bias training and regular workshops for staff on topics such as neurodiversity and mental health – outreach work with schools, colleges and universities, recruitment via non-traditional routes, and apprenticeships, internships and placement opportunities.
It recently offered a free animation course to budding animators who were all newcomers to the industry, pictured, with two participants offered a role at the end.
The firm’s output includes JoJo and Gran Gran, produced by BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions in association with A Productions for CBeebies, two animated specials for Sesame Workshop and segment animations for the iconic Sesame Street series; as well as Pip and Posy Let’s Learn, produced by Magic Light Pictures for Sky Kids.
A Productions joint managing director Katherine McQueen said: “We pride ourselves in ensuring that A Productions is a diverse, inclusive and enjoyable place to work, where everyone can fulfil their potential and feel valued.
“It’s important to us to engage staff regularly in sharing their feedback and shaping the way we run the company, with our team’s wellbeing central to our ethos.” 
Offspring Films is an award-winning television production company, making what it calls “extraordinary shows that stand out for their modern visual style and clear engaging storytelling.”
Its output includes Animals at Play, pictured, for the BBC, Earthsounds and Earth At Night in Colour for Apple TV+ and One Wild Day for Sky.
Silverback, a long-term collaborator of David Attenborough’s ground-breaking wildlife documentaries for the BBC since it was founded in 2012 by leading natural history TV figures Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, was praised for putting its trainee and junior production co-ordinators on overseas and foreign filming courses.
The firm’s output has also included The Hunt, a seven-part series which revealed the remarkable strategies used by hunters to catch their prey, and Secret Lives of Orangutans for Netflix.
Last year’s Bristol winners also included documentary maker Drummer TV.
