Aisling O’Connor is the Head of TV Commissioning for BBC England, with a brief to re-invent the TV offer for the BBC England audience and to grow portrayal for the nation of England on Network as part of the BBC’s Across the UK commissioning strategy. She is based in Birmingham but works across six offices in England. She runs a growing indie slate of primarily factual programmes and also runs a large team making inhouse local Current Affairs. She recently relaunched England Current Affairs, delivering new series We Are England to prime-time BBC One in January 2022.

Aisling started her career in television 27 years ago at London Weekend Television
and has worked at all levels of production. She has been a BBC Daytime Commissioning Editor, a Music and Arts Commissioning Executive for BBC Two and BBC Four, an Executive Producer on the BBC’s flagship investigative current affairs programme Panorama and a Senior News and Current Affairs Adviser in BBC Editorial Policy.

While a BBC Daytime Commissioning Editor Aisling looked after 17 series concurrently including The Housing Enforcers, Great British Menu, Wanted Down Under, Heir Hunters and Bargain Hunt. As a Music and Arts Commissioning Executive she looked after programmes as diverse as The Secret of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony for BBC Two and The Quizeum with Griff Rhys Jones for BBC Four. As Head of TV Commissioning for BBC England Aisling’s recent commissions include the series Brickies and Angels of the North for BBC Three, Commando: Britain’s Ocean Warrior, Villages By the Sea and Yorkshire Midwives On Call for BBC Two, Scarlett’s Driving School and Soldier: Made In Yorkshire (W/T) for BBC One and Jazz UK: Spitting Fire for BBC Four.

The two highlights of her career to date were executive producing U2 Innocence and Experience Live in Paris for BBC Music and flying to Chile (economy) to make a speech about public service broadcasting to broadcasters from around the world.
Aisling is from Killiney in Dublin, Ireland and lives in Hastings, UK.