Topic: Jane Tranter

Jane Tranter (born 17 March 1963) is an English television executive who has been the executive vice-president of programming and production at BBC Worldwide's Los Angeles base since January 2009. From 2006 to 2008, she was the BBC's controller of fiction; in this capacity she oversaw the corporation's output in drama and comedy, as well as films and programmes acquired from overseas, across all television channels. Critics were concerned that the BBC had invested too much creative power in one person, and following Tranter's move to the United States, the position of controller of fiction was abolished and the responsibilities divided up among four other executives.

After studying English Literature at King's College London and taking a secretarial course back in Oxford, she joined the staff of the BBC in 1985, initially working as a secretary in the radio drama department. Two years later, she made the switch into television, working as a floor manager on popular dramas such as EastEnders and Bergerac.

Later that same year she was promoted to assistant script editor, working on the BBC's popular medical drama Casualty. She quickly caught the eye of producer David M. Thompson, who promoted her to act as script editor on the anthology drama series Screen One and Screen Two, essentially the same programme whose title changed depending on whether it was being screened on BBC One or BBC Two, the transmission channel varying depending on content and tone of the dramas produced.