My friend Polly McDonald, who has died aged 74, worked for many years in television as a production assistant, production manager and executive producer. Later she became a life coach specialising in career consultancy in the media industry.
Polly began her TV career in the early 1970s at Thames Television, where she trained to be a production assistant and then worked with the company’s production teams covering live sports events.
In the early 1980s she moved from Thames to work as a production assistant for a company providing live basketball coverage for the newly launched Channel 4, before becoming a production manager and executive producer with another firm, Childsplay. It supplied Channel 4 with a series of youth shows, including Streetwise, which featured Andy Serkis, Paterson Joseph and Tara Fitzgerald.
In the 90s she joined Crucial Enterprises as their managing director, working with Lenny Henry, who had set up the company, to produce programmes that developed and showcased black talent. For Crucial she was executive producer on the series Chef (1993-96), Funky Black Shorts (1994) and Neverwhere (1996).
It was in 2000 that she took on a new direction as a life coach, drawing on her experiences in the media industry. She had many private clients but was also commissioned to work for corporate entities, including Channel 4, the BBC, L’Oréal and Imperial College, providing advice to individuals within their organisations and working in that role until her retirement.
Polly was born Fiona McDonald in Lichfield, Staffordshire, to Gordon McDonald, an engineer, and Ann (nee Simmons). She went to George Dixon grammar school in Birmingham and in her late teens became a renowned dancer at the Shoop Shoop club night. It was the coolest event in the city during the late 60s, and Polly, with her stack heels, blond hair piled high and stamina, managed to keep going for hours.
After school, following a short stint working at the newly launched BBC Radio Birmingham, she changed her name to Polly and headed for London to train with Thames.
Throughout her life Polly was a well-loved figure. Irreverent, direct and funny, she was someone who could be relied upon to remain a loyal friend.
She is survived by her sister, Mary, three nieces and a nephew.