Even tho’ I was boarding my flight for Heathrow— heading to London for pitch meetings —not one UK television exec had actually responded to my inquiries yet. There were no meetings set. Yet, I'd already gotten the time off and purchased my plane ticket. So now I was on my way to London to do… something… I didn’t know what yet.
About a year before this, I was in Dublin Ireland and SUPER-geeked to be producing a music video with Bono and Kirk Franklin, for director Stephen Ashley Blake. So much FUN! We worked with a UK-based prod co for that, which was owned by a woman whose spare room in her London flat I was now headed to when I landed at Heathrow for my (non-existent) "pitch meetings".
The morning after I arrived, she invited me to tag along to a meeting she had at Channel4. I would wait for her in the lobby... Where else did I have to be?
Y’all. When I plopped down in a lobby chair, I noticed a 'house phone' right next to me. With nothing to lose, I called the office of one of the Channel4 execs upstairs— one I’d already tried from the states with no response. To my surprise, the exec picked up the phone. (I would later find out that the exec’s assistant had walked away and forgotten to forward the phones. So the exec picked up, slightly annoyed already.) So, I fast-pitched him *me* and soft-pitched him my TV series idea. We met the next day and (short version of the longer story) I SOLD MY FIRST-EVER NONFICTION TELEVISION PILOT to Channel4 in the UK. My own production company and no Showrunner experience at the time. Sheer EUPHORIA!!!!!
We don’t know what happens next nor where our current decisions in this election will take us in the next 2 days & beyond.
Yet #whenweallvote #election2020 we are showing up for the possibility of an amazing outcome— one that has the power to shift things in a better direction for this country.
2 days. #BidenHarris2020. We can do this
P.S. That Channel4 executive and I became very good friends and allies. Thanks for taking a chance on young-producer-me, Patrick Younge!