Channel 4 buys French drama Witnesses

Channel 4 has acquired buzzy French drama Witnesses (Les Temoins).

The UK commercial broadcaster picked up French-language drama Les Revenants last year and another foreign-language series, Norwegian drama Mammon, earlier this year.

Mammon’s lacklustre ratings cast a question over whether the Channel 4 would buy more foreign-language series, but it has now picked up six-part series Witnesses from French distributor Newen.

The show is made by French prodco Cinétévé and was commissioned by French pubcaster France Televisions for the France 2 channel.

The crime thriller will have an official screening at MIPCOM next week. It follows events after a series of graves are desecrated and dead bodies left inside houses.

Newen picked up the rights to the show earlier this year and hopes to repeat its success selling Spiral (Engrenages) to the international market.