BAFTA-winning producer from Castleford lands latest award

Gill Isles, who attended Airedale High School, was named beast producer at producer by Women in Film and TV (WFTV) for her work on the BBC comedy series, Detectorists.

The plot revolved around a metal detecting club in a fictional town in Essex.

Gill, 46, was handed her gong by actor and the star of the show, Mackenzie Crook, at the recent ceremony in London.

Gill said: “It’s a honour to win anything because producers don’t usually get recognised because people don’t really know what we do!

“I was completely thrilled and it’s really good that comedy was recognised as well, because it’s often overlooked, like a poor relation to drama.

“I only produce comedy shows so I'm really proud.”

WFTV said gill had ‘pushed comedy boundaries’ to produce ‘radically new and different shows comedies quite unlike anything else seen on British television’ to win the award.

Gill, who admits it was a lifelong dream to work in television, has a CV that reads a like a who’s who of modern-day comedy.

Among those she has worked with includes Ronnie Barker, Johnny Vegas, Craig Cash and Steve Coogan.

But it was her work with Peter Kay, in which she produced the popular BBC series Car Share, that helped bring her to the forefront of the industry.

As a producer, gill works closely with the writer and the director, in this case, peter Kay.

It helped land the show a coveted BAFTa award.

"It helped bring me to prominence in my field, but what is brilliant is that I get to work with some very funny people,” added Gill. "It's more of a vocation that a job, it’s not nine-to-five, you put your heart and soul into it and you end up living and breathing it.”