Pictured: Jess Search at the British Broadcasting Challenge away day in May 2023.
Jess Search, one of the founding members of the British Broadcasting Challenge, has died tragically at the age of 54.
Jess was one of the founders of Britdoc, the producer of a stream of important documentaries, and a former Chair of the policy organisation, IPPR.
She was dedicated to making what was happening in the world visible and to helping people change things. Climate change, democracy, compassion, finding a voice and providing a platform for righting injustices were what drove her.
It is especially hard that she died when she was becoming so effective: she was bristling with ideas and knew the people who could help make them happen. She combined a dashing charisma, a very particular intelligence: she was wild, beautiful, sensible, shrewd and enormously likeable.
She helped found our campaign because she believed in public service broadcasting as a cornerstone that could make everything she cared for possible. One of our other founders said ‘she was the soul of the group’. She has gone too soon. She will be hugely missed.
