Training school ambition for Littlewoods Building

A Liverpool-born TV producer responsible for the likes of Have I Got News for You and Derry Girls has said he wants to bring a film and TV production school to the city's Littlewoods Building studios project.

Hat Trick Productions co-founder Jimmy Mulville is now part of a group working with Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram and industry experts to provide an education hub inside the building on Edge Lane.

He said conversations about how to fund it were taking place behind the scenes with government and private sector investors.

Some opposition politicians in Liverpool have been sceptical that the mammoth regeneration project will ever come to fruition, due to the costs involved.

'Big opportunity'

While remediation work on the landmark site has been completed, the conversion of the building into a film studio will require millions of pounds in funding.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has so far committed up to £17m.

Mulville said he was working with the London Screen Academy, a free school in the capital which provides16-18 year olds with vocational training in aspects of film and television production.

He said adding a school in Liverpool would be "the jewel in the crown" of the film studio project and would be part of the same academy trust as its southern counterpart.

Mulville said conversations with government had been positive.

He said: "They see it as a big opportunity in one fell swoop to not just bring the creative industries to the North West, but also to level up and to increase the skills uptake in an area where it's needed."

The Treasury has been asked to comment on the plans.

'I owe the city'

There has always been the intention for an education provider to be part of the Littlewoods studio project.

Liverpool John Moores University had been signed up as an anchor tenant, but pulled out in 2022.

Born and raised in the Walton area of Liverpool, Mulville said he felt he "owed the city" for his education and council grant which saw him graduate from Cambridge University.

He co-founded Hat Trick Productions in 1986. His other credits include Drop the Dead Donkey and Room 101.

Mulville said he would love students to learn "inside a thriving production centre, opposite two state-of-the-art studios" and that they would be "rubbing shoulders with the people who are actually doing what they want to do" in film and television.

He added: "I'm very happy to sell this idea. Someone once said to me, what's the secret of pitching?

"I said find something brilliant to pitch, and I think this IS something brilliant to pitch."