Story Team Assistant

Job Introduction

Are you passionate about Drama? Ready for the opportunity to progress your career? Then this is the role for you

It's an exciting time to be part of our team with all of our award-winning Continuing Dramas that brings audiences together week after week. From EastEnders, Doctors and Casualty to River City and Pobol y Cwm, our programmes remain a constant source of gripping entertainment, featuring cliff-hanger storylines and much-loved characters with whom our viewers have grown up.

EastEnders is the multi award winning soap broadcast four times a week on BBC ONE. It currently ranks as one of the most watched TV dramas in the UK tackling many controversial and taboo issues previously unseen on television in the UK. Through great writing and attention to detail the show manages to successfully balance gritty realism with high drama and entertainment to keep its millions of dedicated viewers coming back for more, on-screen and on-line, every week.

The Story Team Assistant is an office-based role reporting to the Story Producer and will support the Story Producer and Story Team to develop episodes on time, on budget and to the highest possible creative standard. They will work as a proactive member of the Story Department, providing first class, comprehensive secretarial and administrative support, primarily to the Story Producer.

Main Responsibilities

The postholder will be solely responsible for the following duties:

- To provide a highly efficient level of secretarial and administrative support to the Story Producer and Story Team. The postholder will be responsible for the day to day running of the story office and be the first point of contact on behalf of the Story Producer
- In conjunction with the Story Producer, to arrange all elements of quarterly four day story conferences and monthly story planning meetings as required. This includes complex diary co-ordination with internal and external attendees, as well as liaison with venues. To fully minute the story conferences and accurately transcribe within a short timescale
- To maintain constantly changing diaries, organise and schedule meetings and conferences and associated information as appropriate
- To take accurate minutes at Planning Meetings and incorporate changes in to material for Commissioning Document in a short time frame
- To distribute commissioning documents and associated story documents to production staff and writing team using appropriate technology and document security measures
- To compile episodic character summaries for the planning and commissioning documents as necessary
- To liaise with the Archivist and Research Team as required regarding programme history information for inclusion in story documents
- To compile material for story conferences, including but not limited to, story material, clips of new characters’ material and character photographs as necessary
- To compile story trails from story documents and scripts for artists involved in episodes that are recorded out of story sequence (double banks)
- In conjunction with the Series Story Scheduler, monitor artist usage over the individual contractual periods. To be aware of the need to reach each artist’s guaranteed minimum appearances
- To read and interpret complex scheduling charts in order to establish artists’ provisional work patterns.
- To plan cast members’ Rest Weeks and process accordingly and notify artists of gaps due to storyline breaks with required amount of notice
- To liaise with the Company Manager regarding special projects that require artists’ involvement

People working on EastEnders are a talented, experienced and creative bunch. To join them and make this programme the most talked about on the channel, it’s really important you have the necessary skills we’re looking for. You should have:

- Proven experience working in a highly demanding secretarial or administrative role
- Excellent secretarial, administrative and inter-personal skills with proven experience of office and information technology in particular, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and databases
- Experience organising and attending complex conferences to include travel, hospitality and minute taking
- The proficient use of shorthand or comparable note-taking method and the ability to transcribe accurately in a timely manner at heavily attended, multi day story conferences
- Sound command of English and the ability to format paperwork appropriately
- The ability to understand the principles of multi-stranding filming and recording patterns
- An understanding of, and the ability to handle highly confidential and commercially sensitive information with tact and sensitivity
- Experience of compiling and editing clips
- Experience dealing with writers, actors and agents
- An informed interest in television drama production and especially EastEnders
- Excellent knowledge of the administrative support required by the Production

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