Amanda Ross

Amanda Ross is a prominent British television executive known for her significant contributions to the television industry, particularly in developing long running formats, food and book-related programming.

She is co-founder and CEO of Cactus TV, a production company she founded with her husband Simon Ross in 1994. In a recent Broadcast Independent Survey 2023, Cactus was ranked as the fourth biggest supplier to the BBC and the fifth biggest supplier to ITV by hours.

Always closely involved in her productions, Amanda has won a Royal Television Society Award and been nominated for four others as a producer and a director. Amanda has been instrumental in creating and maintaining many long running TV programme brands including Saturday Kitchen for over 18 years (2006 – ongoing), Between The Covers for 8 series (2020-ongoing), and Richard & Judy, 5 nights a week for 8 years (2001–2009). and Intuition (Anglia, 1999). Most recently, she also hosted a live stage tour of Between The Covers, presented awards and made several podcast and radio appearances.

Early life and education Amanda Ross grew up in Pitsea, Essex, alongside her two brothers. They lived on a small holding with their grandparents overlooking the Thames estuary and kept a variety of animals. and she moved many times after that, living in several council estates in the area. She pursued her passion for drama and completed 3 A levels at SEEVIC in Thundersley.

Between Sixth form and university she worked in a bank, and later as an au pair for a family in Paris. At their properties in the South of France, she taught herself to properly cook, and regularly prepared dinners for 20 people.

She received a BA (Hons) in Drama and Theatre Arts at Birmingham University, where she fostered her ambition to be a children's presenter.

Career

Early career Shortly before graduating in 1984, Amanda got a job as trainee/researcher at Central Television. Here she earned her first TV credits, writing and working on make & do and cookery items for Saturday Starship. and Follow Your Nose (1992). Follow Your Nose was a gameshow format devised by Amanda Ross. In it, a team of children were set challenges around different tourist attractions. Each successfully completed challenge would earn the team a letter tile. At the end of the show, the children had to rearrange their letter tiles to quickly guess the ‘puzzleword’ related to where they were. If their guess took less than 30 seconds, the team would win a prize.

She started her own TV production company Cheeky Productions in 1993. The programme was presented by Amanda Ross, Andrew O’Connor and Iain Johnstone, and featured interviews with Harrison Ford, Arnold Kopelson, Andrew Davis and Clint Eastwood.

She produced and directed film packages for This Morning, Good Morning Anne and Nick, Film ’93, What's Up Doc, London Tonight, The Little Picture Show and Sky News. She coordinated booking of US talent for Jonathan Ross Presents (BBC 1 & VH1) and made live appearances on GMTV and The Time The Place.

Cactus TV In 1994, she founded Cactus TV, with fellow TV Producer and husband, Simon Ross. Cactus TV secured an unprecedented number of commissions from different channels in their first few years, and continued to gain a reputation as a dependable, hard-working indie under Amanda and Simon's leadership. award shows and musical spectaculars like Songs of Bond, The British Soap Awards and The British Book Awards. The format continues to be produced by ITV.

Richard & Judy

Thanks to the close working relationship developed during the production of The British Soap Awards, Amanda became aware that Richard & Judy had begun to feel unhappy at ITV, after 13 years of working on This Morning. This was big news as the presenter pair became so closely associated with the brand of This Morning, that many viewers referred to the show as the Richard & Judy show rather than its original name. The commission brought Amanda and Cactus’ name to a new level of mainstream prominence as Richard & Judy insisted that they'd like to be exclusively signed with Cactus to produce the new show, and it became the biggest single commission by Channel 4 to an independent production company, and remains so.

For the next eight years, Richard & Judy broadcast live to the nation each weekday at 5pm, establishing the coveted ‘5 o’clock slot’ and consistently attracting over 2 million viewers. The show generated numerous media stories, welcomed a wide variety of celebrities, from Madonna to Bill & Hillary Clinton, and received nominations for both a Royal Television Society Award and an Indie Award. During this series run, Cactus consistently ranked in top 10 independent production companies in Britain.

In 2004, Amanda made headlines again when she introduced the idea of a TV Book club, hosted by Richard and Judy. Her instinct was proven right when books featured on the programme enjoyed astronomical boosts in sales. The sales of ‘Starter For Ten’, David Nicholls debut novel, saw an 871% uplift in the week after it was discussed on the Book Club, and ‘Star Of The Sea’ by Joseph O’Connor had sales immediately multiply, going from just under 4000 books sold before transmission to over a million almost overnight. 'Star of the Sea' instantly went to No 1 in the Sunday Times Best Seller lists and stayed at the top of the charts for 13 weeks. Other notable choices included ‘The Lovely Bones’ by Alice Sebold, ‘The Time Traveler's Wife’ by Audrey Niffenegger, However, her influence on book sales was recognised by publishers who hoped to have their books featured on her show, and she could request a change to a book's publication date or cover. These awards were attended by many stars including Dame Helen Mirren, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ricky Gervais, and were hosted for the last three years by Bradley Walsh.

Ross booking policy and the stature of the show made it a destination for Hollywood stars. She secured exclusive interviews with the likes of Bill & Hillary Clinton, George Clooney, Tony Blair and Madonna.

In October 2008, Cactus transferred Richard & Judy to UKTV's Watch, where their show continued to attract A-list celebrity guests until its final broadcast on July 1, 2009.

Saturday Kitchen

In 2006, Cactus won the tender to produce Saturday Kitchen, a live cooking and entertainment show on BBC One with a brand new format created by Simon and Amanda. Under Amanda and Simon's leadership the show got a fresh look from its initial seasons 2002-2006, with their new format points like Heaven & Hell and the Omelette Challenge, and instantly became a slot winning success. The only retention from the previous incarnation was the name. Ross originally cast James Martin to host from June 2006 to March 2016. Matt Tebbutt currently hosts the series.

Recent guests include Kit Harrington, Danny Trejo, Mel B, Stanley Tucci, Rob Brydon, John Bishop, Gary Barlow, Mo Gilligan, Tom Allen, Dan Ackroyd, Paloma Faith, Hugh Bonneville, Jennifer Saunders, Antonio Banderas, Idris Elba and Dawn French. Celebration Kitchen and Christmas Kitchen, further cementing its place as a beloved staple of British weekend television.

Cookery School In 2013, Ross opened an award-winning cookery school with Michel Roux Jr. Described as "a destination for keen cooks and amateur chefs seeking insight, inspiration and instruction from a host of culinary luminaries",

Between The Covers Since launching Richard & Judy Book Club, Amanda created and produced a significant number of book-based campaigns on TV, earning numerous awards for her contribution to the British publishing industry.

In 2020, Cactus announced another addition to their book-based TV offering – a primetime BBC Two series Between The Covers hosted by Sara Cox. In each episode, Sara is joined by four different celebrity guests who each bring a book they love, a BYOB that they want to persuade everyone else to read, and review curated new releases. The aim of the series was to encourage people to read for pleasure and was one of the few shows that was first produced during Covid lockdown restrictions.

As an expansion of the successful franchise, a live stage version of the TV series, Between The Covers Live! went on its first tour in June 2024, hosted by Amanda Ross. The New Book Pick selected for this tour was 'Ministry of Time' by Kaliane Bradley, now a Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller. Kaliane also joined them on stage to discuss her inspiration and writing process.

Amanda Ross said the idea for the tour, which spanned theatres in London, Oxford, Nottingham, Birmingham, Reading and Brighton, came from feedback from viewers that "the TV show is too short, and that they would love to join in the ultimate fantasy book group".

A bookshop was set up at each venue to give the audience an opportunity to buy the books discussed and speak more to the panel during book signings.

In a recent Broadcast Independent Survey 2023, Cactus was ranked as the fourth biggest supplier to the BBC The show was nominated for a TV Choice Award.

This inclusive approach is also applied to Cactus’ ongoing shows. In 2024, Amanda produced the first ever ‘Pride Special’ on Saturday Kitchen, which was positively received by the press.

Ross oversees all of Cactus' book and writing initiatives, creating and producing a number of major book-based campaigns on TV, including Richard & Judy's Book Club (and associated Summer Read), the televising of The Galaxy National Book Awards and The Crime Thriller Awards, The Specsavers TV Book Club, The Zoe Ball Book Club and Between The Covers. In 2007 her book choices accounted for more than 26 per cent of all books sold in the UK, reportedly boosting the publishing trade by over £200 million.

Ross was named No 1 in The Observer newspaper's List of the 50 most powerful people in publishing. She won a British Book Trade Award for inspiring wider reading in 2006, and The Bookseller Award for expanding the market in 2006 and 2007, and an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2009. She received an RTS Educational Television Award in 2007 for her role in the Channel 4 "Lost for Words Season", which focused on children's literacy. She was voted in the top five of London's "Literary Life" in the Evening Standards "1000 Most Influential People 2008".

In 2007, Red magazine ran a feature on Amanda calling her one of their ‘Red Hot’ women. They commended her abilities as a tastemaker, consistently championing thought-provoking, entertaining and compelling’ reads.

Over the years, Amanda has acted as a judge on many BAFTA TV panels, Royal Television Society panels

Personal life Amanda resides in London with her husband, Simon Ross (TV executive producer, co-founder of Cactus TV, brother of Jonathan Ross) and their two adopted sons.

From a young age, Amanda loved keeping pets including many rescue cats, even naming her first TV production company after her dog Cheeky in 1993.

Amanda first met Simon in the late 1980s when visiting her former colleagues on Crosswits at Tyne Tees Television.