SHE grew up in Edinburgh, and used to visit Glasgow to go clubbing at the Tunnel.

Now Channel Four’s chief executive, Alex Mahon, is looking for the right home for Channel Four’s new commissioning base in Glasgow, which will have tens of millions to spend on new programming for the channel.

The programmes which will receive the green light from the new Glasgow hub will not be tied to a specific genre, or budget: it will have access to a portion of the £250m available for programmes made outside London by the channel in the next five years, she said.

“We are always looking for good shows, that are popular, that are innovative, and have impact: we need hits,” she said.

Ms Mahon said that the broadcaster’s base in the city is for the long term: the office, which will be opened in late 2019, will remain in place in the event of Scotland becoming independent.

Ms Mahon acknowledged that the ongoing constitutional debate had played a part in their deliberations on choosing both the new HQ, which will be sited in Leeds, and the commissioning hubs, in Glasgow and Bristol.

“We did think about it, we did ask about it, we would kind of be idiots not to,” she said.

“We concluded, we assumed that if Scotland separated in some way, there would still be sensible trade arrangements in place, and we would still be wanting to creatively represent the whole of the UK.

“It didn’t stop us, and that’s the important thing.”

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Glasgow, its bid led by broadcaster and writer Stuart Cosgrove, won the creative hub plan at the end of October, after failing to lure the new HQ, a move which is part of a major revamp of the channel’s operations outside London.

Ms Mahon was born in London, but grew up in Newington, Edinburgh, before leaving Scotland to go to Imperial College London, where she gained a PhD in Physics.

In her subsequent career became chief executive of Shine, the leading independent TV producer, among several other titles.

As a youth she worked ‘for years’ in the City Cafe in Edinburgh, and would travel to Glasgow for clubbing in the late 1980s, she said.

Ms Mahon said: “I am not in any way conflicted, I am actually excited we are in Scotland.

“From growing up in Edinburgh and spending a lot of time here, I know what a rich cultural heritage Scotland has got.

“I know from being in television for 20 years, how strong the independent production community is here, so I am super excited about it.”

She said Glasgow won the hub on its own terms, but the public backing from the rest of Scotland, notably Edinburgh and other cities, as well as the existing “cultural heritage” of Scotland was also a factor.

The office will have around 40 staff: they will commission drama, comedy or factual programmes, but there will not be a studio.

READ MORE: Glasgow's 'audacious' bid for C4 HQ

She added: “What we are expecting from this is to see more voices, more accents, more representation from outside London, and that will include Scotland.

“When we do things well, it is shows from other places: Derry Girls, Gogglebox, Kiri - when we do that very well, they are successful, because they resonate.

“It is not about being parochial, about making Scottish things for Scotland, it is about making things from here that are for the whole of the UK.”

The chief executive said she hoped the new home would make a “totemic impact”, although it is likely to be based in an existing building.

The channel, she says, is keen to tap into talented young people who want to work in broadcasting, but do not want to, or cannot, move to London.

She said: “We might look at areas that are still growing, that might come up a bit in the next ten years: we will not be building a building, we are not rich, we just have got to find the right one.

“When the channel started in 1982, it was in a warren of rented offices in Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia [London], which was not a classy area at the time....we have to find what’s right for Glasgow. For us, it’s not about having the fanciest place in the world.

“Although, I’d love to have a big ‘Four’ outside.”

READ MORE: Glasgow's new broadcaster base

Glasgow, she said, had made an “amazing pitch” for both the national HQ and the smaller commissioning hub.

She said: “They were so passionate about what Glasgow could offer and so clear about the independent and creative community here, and also clear about what we can add.”

The move is part of the channel’s plan to “change the flavours and the values and the accents and the communities that you see on screen and change the way that decisions are made about what is on screen...it is hard to get that diversity of thought and creativity and backgrounds that go with that if everyone works and lives in London.”