John Rocha’s daughter Zoe is the talk of London
Stephen Fry told me in 2013 of a certain young Dubliner who had worked as head of production/executive producer at his TV company in London since 2009: “It is absolutely safe to say that we’d be a) bankrupt, b) imprisoned, c) on the dole, or d) the laughing stock of the media world, if it were not for the fantastic professionalism, charm, brilliance and flair of Zoe Rocha, who has kept us solvent, optimistic and productive without ever playing the financial tyrant.”
Since being Fry’s saviour a few years ago, Zoe — the daughter of Eily Doolan and internationally-feted designer John Rocha — has become the talk of London. She’s gone on to even bigger and brighter things. Zoe has just execproduced two fab new dramas for Sky: It’s Me, Sugar, about the making of Some Like It Hot (which airs on April 12 and has Gemma Arterton playing Marilyn Monroe), and Backstage at Live Aid about the July 1985 benefit concert (it goes out on April 19 and stars Jonas Armstrong, the lead in the BBC’s Troy, as Bob Geldof.) “Bob’s Irish and I’m Irish,” laughed Zoe, adding that “in my new role as MD of The Fyzz Facility, I’m focusing on developing high-end international drama but I just can’t help but still be drawn to working on these comedies for Sky... they are always beautiful little snapshots of an iconic period of time and I’ve been incredibly lucky to attract some of the best talent around to help bring that vision to life. Plus, because I’ve been doing this so long now, many of the cast and crew have become really great friends, so it’s basically just a very intense whirlwind of stress and laughter for a few weeks. Who could possibly say no!” Zoe told me.