Zeppotron was a daft idea that somehow came good. Formed in 2000 from a core of the writing and production team behind The 11 O’Clock Show, it’s a company that has always had comedy at its heart, and a name that people find difficult to spell.
Over the years we went from passing the time by pretending to run a van hire business to winning some actual commissions. Charlie Brooker’s cult website TV Go Home became a TV series as did the Innovations catalogue parody, Unnovations. More commissions soon followed and Zeppotron now finds itself with a portfolio of non-scripted and scripted comedy hits including Would I Lie to You? (BBC One), 8 Out of 10 Cats (C4), 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (C4), Channel 4’s Alternative Election Night (C4), The Mash Report (BBC Two), Frankie Boyle’s New World Order (BBC Two) and The Rack Pack (BBC iPlayer original feature film).
Along the way we made Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe (BBC Four), The Law of the Playground (C4), Space Cadets (C4), Spoons (C4), A Touch of Cloth (Sky 1), You Have Been Watching (C4), John Cooper Clarke presents Clarkie’s Christmas Crackers (BBC Arts), the first series of Black Mirror (C4) and much, much more.
Zeppotron has a reputation throughout the industry for making brilliantly produced, high quality comedy and comedy-entertainment shows. We attract the very best talent, both on and off-screen, and pride ourselves on being a company that broadcasters can trust and that people like to work for.
Zeppotron: making some people laugh since the year 2000.
Our Team
Peter Holmes
Managing Director
Peter Holmes co-founded Zeppotron in 2000 and became joint Managing Director in 2012. He is a creative with a track-record in writing, producing and creating a wide range of comedy and entertainment formats. He devised the multiple award winning and four times BAFTA-nominated panel show Would I Lie To You? and has executive produced all 13 series of the show. His other exec producer credits include Frankie Boyle’s New World Order , Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back, Let’s Play Darts for Comic Relief, Spoons and the first original feature film for the iPlayer, The Rack Pack.
Peter began his career as a writer on The 11 O’Clock Show and has written for many shows including Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe, You Have Been Watching and 8 Out of 10 Cats. He co-wrote the second series of the much-loved Aardman claymation series Rex The Runt.
TV aside, Peter has contributed to the cult website TV Go Home and its spin-off book and co-wrote Would I Lie To You? Presents The 100 Most Popular Lies of All Time for Faber & Faber.
Debra Blenkinsop
Director of Operations
Debra Blenkinsop started her career making sitcoms, dramas and entertainment programmes at various companies such as Humphrey Barclay, Discovery and LWT before moving to Talkback to work on The 11 O’Clock Show where she met the rest of the team that were to become Zeppotron.
She has been at Zeppotron as Head of Production since the company was founded in 2000, becoming Director of Operations in 2012, and has since become Director of Productions for both Shine TV & Zeppotron in 2024.
She is the absolute linchpin of the company, being involved in every show Zeppotron creates, from development to delivery.
Richard Cohen
Director of Programmes
Richard Cohen started his career in the movie industry, working behind the till at Blockbuster video. He moved into television in 2006, spending two years at Hat Trick Productions before joining Zeppotron as a researcher on 8 Out of 10 Cats.
Since 2010, Richard has worked full time at Zeppotron as Producer, Series Producer, Executive Producer and now Director of Programmes. He’s series and exec produced 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown since the very first episode, produced three BAFTA-nominated series of Would I Lie To You?, and was instrumental in making Last One Laughing UK a smash hit.
Richard’s also worked across 10 O’Clock Live, Charlie Brooker’s You Have Been Watching, Room 101, as well as helping develop and shape new projects at Zeppotron.
A tireless champion of new comedy talent, he’s helped make 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown one of the best showcases for fresh comic voices.
He’s perpetually on the lookout for snacks and absolutely refuses to look directly into a camera.
Chris Cohen
Head of Development
Chris Cohen is Head of Development at Zeppotron.
Chris first joined Zeppotron in 2012 and has helped develop a whole host of Zeppo’s funny formats including Last One Laughing, One Night In and The Ranganation. He’s also helped develop some awful shows too, but none of them made it on to telly so they don’t count and we don’t have to talk about them, especially not here.
Zoe Waterman
Development Producer
Zoe Waterman is a BAFTA-winning Producer, working both in development and on production.
Zoë began as a trainee with the MAMA Youth Project, before progressing through BBC Comedy, working on shows like Inside No. 9, Upstart Crow, and Brian Pern.
Since joining Zeppotron in 2016, she has been developing countless non-scripted and scripted projects, and produced some of Zeppotron’s best loved shows, including Would I Lie To You? and Last One Laughing UK.
With her passion for comedy, she has developed strong relationships with stand-ups, writers and other comic talent, and is heavily involved in live comedy, producing live nights round London.
Specialist subjects : Frasier and mid-noughties emo music.
Charlotte Hopkinson
Production Executive
Charlotte Hopkinson is one of two production executives at Zeppotron. She started her career in television way back in 1994 working as a Script Secretary on Drop The Dead Donkey. Over the years since then she’s worked as a Production Co-ordinator on sitcoms, dramas and feature films and as a Production Manager on studio shows like Have I Got News For You, Room 101 and They Think It’s All Over.
She joined Zeppotron in 2005 and, after 9 series of 8 Out of 10 Cats and 8 series of Would I Lie To You (with a few other shows along the way), she said goodbye to the freelance world and became a Production Exec in February 2016.
Helena Parkhill
Production Executive
Helena Parkhill has been a Production Executive at Zeppotron since 2016, she does the early budgeting, scheduling and planning of Zeppotron’s productions and sees them through from production to delivery and transmission.
Starting her TV career as a Production Secretary on TFI Friday back in 1999, Helena then moved on to become a Production Manager working on a wide variety of productions, from single camera documentaries, to prime time chat shows, to live OB, multi camera music events.
Helena joined Zeppotron as a freelance Production Manager in 2009 and went on to work on many of their best known shows.
Lucy Pullinger
PA
Lucy Pullinger joined Zeppotron in 2004, and we can’t get rid of her.