Soho Stories - A Thousand Flowers

Television executive and broadcaster Paul Jackson charts the rise of independent producers, from the isolated minnows of the early 1980s to the global monoliths of today. Thirty years ago, virtually every home-grown programme on British television was made by either the BBC or ITV. Today, the biggest and most successful shows - from Big Brother and Spooks to The Apprentice and X-Factor - are made by independent producers. Paul Jackson explores how the birth of Channel 4 spawned a whole new sector and gave us both Television Scrabble and hard news.