Brookside creator Phil Redmond made creative tsar

The man who created TV series Grange Hill is to spearhead a Liverpool drive to make more money from the creative sector.

Phil Redmond, creator of Channel 4's Brookside and Hollyoaks, is to chair a Creativity and Innovation Commission.

Mayor Joe Anderson wants to review how the city can maximise the potential of creative industries.

The commission includes local and national experts from the world of culture, media and sport.

Nearly 12,000 people are employed across the city region in the media, publishing and ICT, architecture, design and the performing arts.

Mr Anderson said: "Liverpool has long been recognised as a creative city and has produced some of the world's best writers, artists, comedians, musicians, playwrights and sports people."

Mr Redmond said: "What is it about this particular place that created the world's first wet dock that revolutionised global trade that in turn made it, at one time, one of the richest places on earth?

"How that influenced its culture so that even through economic decline it further inspired people and their ideas that then went on to have global impact - whether engineering, architecture or literature or football or shopping or music, education, science and the arts the list of Liverpool firsts continues to expand."