WFTV: HELEN BLAKEMAN
For this year’s Women in Film and TV (WFTV) Four Nations Mentoring Scheme North of England cohort, we spotlight Liverpool-born screenwriter, playwright and producer Helen Blakeman.
A storyteller whose career spans acclaimed theatre, BAFTA winning television and international animation, Helen joined the programme at an exciting time in her professional career, having co-founded her own production company, Title Page Films last year.
Helen’s creative journey began unexpectedly. A childhood acting class in Allerton led to a short role in Brookside, where she picked up a greater fascination for writing scripts rather than delivering them.
After two years with the National Youth Theatre, she studied drama at Liverpool John Moore’s University and went on to write Caravan, a play picked up by the Bush Theatre before she even graduated, a proud moment that launched her writing career overnight.
Her first TV film, Pleasureland, was shot in Speke, where Helen lived as a child, and marked the beginning of a steady progression through film and television. She went on to write for Hollyoaks, adapt Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Dustbin Baby, which earned both a BAFTA and an International Emmy, and create the long-running CBBC series Hetty Feather, alongside work on Call the Midwife and gradually expanding her career from writer to creative producer. Her latest project, Lucy Lost, is an animated feature for the Oscar-nominated Xilam Films. Adapted from a Michael Morpurgo novel and produced in France, it premieres this year and has been selected for Cannes and Annecy International Animation Film Festivals.
In 2025, Helen co-founded Title Page Films with Dustbin Baby producer Julia Ouston, formalising a shift she’d been moving toward for several years. The company is female led, with bases in Liverpool and London, and its slate spans film, TV and animation. For Helen, projects must “really speak to us and mean something to us”, a guiding principle reflected in stories that often centre on women who seek or bring about change. The slate draws on Helen’s longstanding relationships with British novelists and includes two animated features, several adaptations, a Liverpool based feature and a TV series she is determined to anchor in the region.
While the company thinks nationally and internationally, keeping work connected to Liverpool and the Northwest remains an important part of its vision. Regional storytelling remains central to Helen’s work. She speaks warmly about Liverpool’s character and how her writing resonates with the communities she grew up around. One moment stands out: during her play The Morris at the Liverpool Everyman, seeing buses of Morris dancers arriving from across Merseyside. “This is just brilliant exactly what I wanted,” she says. For Helen, it captured why she keeps returning to Liverpool stories: the city inspires, and, as she puts it, “we’re all storytellers.”
Helen joined the WFTV Four Nations Mentorship Scheme after being encouraged to apply by Lynn Saunders, head of Liverpool Film Office. Now part of this year’s North of England cohort, she is mentored by Debra Hayward of Monumental Pictures, a fellow Liverpudlian whose national and international experience offers invaluable insight as Helen grows both her projects and her company. The cohort of ten women has already created a strong sense of connection, something Helen sees as vital at this stage of her career.
As she prepares for her animated feature’s release and continues developing new work through Title Page Films, Helen remains focused on creating bold, meaningful stories, some grounded in Liverpool but resonating far beyond it, with the WFTV programme offering timely guidance for the next chapter.
WFTV will be launching their next Four Nations Mentoring Scheme very soon so if you’re interested in the programme look out for application details on their website and socials – Women in Film and TV | WFTV UK