DLT Entertainment Expands Podcast Division With Head Of Audio Appointment
Award-winning podcast producer Ben Walker joins DLT
London: 7th March 2022: Award-winning production and distribution company DLT Entertainment, has appointed podcast and radio producer Ben Walker, as Head of Audio for DLT Entertainment UK’s podcast division, effective immediately. Ben will be tasked with expanding DLT’s footprint in the podcasting and radio sectors and continue to build on their already successful slate, specialising in comedy and comedy entertainment formats.
Walker joins DLT following the company’s expansion into podcasts in May 2020, having produced DLT’s latest comedy entertainment 6-part series Panic Room hosted by John Robins for Audible – which was released in January 2022. Based in the London office, he will oversee and continue to grow the team as they work with a wide range of talent within DLT’s Agencies (Blue Book Artist Management, Andrew Roach Talent, The Galton Agency, Gag Reflex) as well as talent across the industry, to develop and produce comedy content in audio format, with the potential to be adapted for other mediums.
Walker brings with him a wealth of experience across comedy and drama production and development, and was recently awarded the Gold Award for Best Drama Producer and Bronze Award for Best Arts Producer at the Audio Production Awards for his work with Bertelsmann Content Alliance’s podcast label Storyglass – where his credits include Max & Ivan: Fugitives, The Harrowing, and Who Exploded Vivien Stone. Other credits include producing UKTV Gold’s sitcom The Rebel and Radio 4’s anthological comedy series The Casebook of Max and Ivan, creating Sky One quiz Relatively Clever, developing UKTV Gold’s sitcom Bull, and devising and producing the Sony Radio award-winning sketch series Here Be Dragons. Ben kicked off his audio comedy journey at the BBC Radio Comedy department, where productions included Radio 4 stalwarts The News Quiz and The Now Show, alongside sports sketch show Look Away Now and music comedy format Danny Robins Music Therapy.
Further production and development credits throughout his career include award-winning independent comedy podcasts RHLSTP with Richard Herring, raucous panel show Do The Right Thing, interview series The Things We Do For Love with Isy Suttie and anarchic gameshow Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown.
The new hire marks a progressive step in DLT’s podcast division as they continue to develop and expand their eclectic slate of entertaining and original audio series alongside DLT’s sister company Impatient Productions.
Donald Taffner Jr., President of DLT Entertainment, said: “Having seen the work Ben did on Panic Room we knew we had to bring on board this fantastic producer with his finger of the pulse of what listeners want, and it’s a really exciting time for him to join the team as we go from strength to strength with our podcast and comedy offering.”
DLT continues its role as owner and manager of the largest independent theatre in the West End, the Shaftsbury Theatre, where hit musical & Juliet reopened in September to sell out audiences and television production and distribution where it had a record year in program sales resulting from the worldwide COVID production shutdown.
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Further information:
Lily Hawkins, on behalf of DLT Entertainment: Lily.Hawkins@premiercomms.com | +44 200 7292 5094
Charlie Wainwright, on behalf of DLT: charlie.wainwright@premiercomms.com | +44 020 7292 7372
NOTES TO EDITORS
About DLT Entertainment:
With headquarters in London and New York, DLT Entertainment Ltd. is engaged in every aspect of television distribution and production around the world, as well as stage production in the US and in the UK where it owns London’s Shaftesbury Theatre Theatre and talent representation business with ownership positions in MMB Creative, The Soho Agency, Blue Book Artist Management, Andrew Roach Talent and The Galton Agency.
Founded in 1963 as a distribution company by Don Taffner Sr., the company added television production to its portfolio in 1977. It has enjoyed terrific success in its fifty-six year history with legendary hits on both sides of the Atlantic including the multiple award-winning and BBC Trust praised sitcom My Family, As Time Goes By, Three’s Company, Too Close For Comfort and Meet My Folks. In addition, DLT has built a reputation as a leading distribution company with classics such as The Benny Hill Show, The World at War, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, The Russ Abbot Show, Michel LeGrand and Friends, and Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit.
In 2018 DLT expanded its own production activities in the United Kingdom through the acquisition of Vera Productions whose past productions include Getting On, Million Pound Jewellers, Bremner, Bird, and Fortune, and numerous Dispatches such as President Trump’s Dirty Secrets and Politicians for Hire: Cashing in on Brexit. 2020 saw further expansion with an investment in Mark Watson’s Impatient Productions.
2020 saw the creation of a podcasting division with the release of When No One’s Watching featuring Richardson & Matt Willis and recently produced Very Modern Quests starring Alice Levine's for Audible.
DLT is also a significant player in the artist management business with key investments in The Soho Agency, Milburn Browning Associates, Blue Book Artist Management, The Galton Agency, and Andrew Roach Talent.
The Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where & Juliet continues its West End run, is owned by DLT.