News round-up: BBC extends ‘Mallorca Files’; Beta, ZDF JV preps drama duo; ‘Dance Revolution’ lands in Poland

The Mallorca Files

BBC returns to Mallorca Files

The BBC has extended its big budget daytime drama The Mallorca Files into a 10-part second season, ahead of the show’s premiere at the end of the month.

The series, co-produced by Cosmopolitan Pictures and Clerkenwell Films, is set on the eponymous Spanish island and revolves around a UK detective and her German counterpart as they solve crimes.

Dan Sefton (The Good Karma Hospital, Trust Me) will again oversee the writing team, which will include Damian Wayling (Riviera, Call The Midwife), Liz Lake (Riviera) and Tim Whitnall (The Hide). Dominic Barlow is series producer while Bryn Higgins and Rob Evans return as directors with Christiana Ebohon-Green and Craig Pickles.

Cosmopolitan founder Ben Donald and Murray Ferguson are executive producers, together with Sefton on the show, which debuts on BBC One at 14:15 on 25 November. The first season will become available in its entirety on VOD service iPlayer after the first episode airs on the pubcaster’s flagship channel.

Beta, ZDF JV Intaglio preps drama duo

Frank Doelger

Intaglio Films, the scripted drama joint venture between Beta Film and ZDF Enterprises, is developing two new English-language primetime drama series.

Doing Good and near-future surveillance thriller Concordia are being developed for German public broadcaster ZDF and have Intaglio’s creative director Frank Doelger (Game Of Thrones, Rome) onboard as executive producer for both series. Friedemann Goez (Atlantic Crossing) produces.

Doing Good, which is set in Berlin and New York, has been created by Peter Berry (Gangs Of London) and explores the moral compromises decent people have to make in order to do good in an evil world.

Concordia, meanwhile, is from Mike Walden (The Frankenstein Chronicles) and follows what happens in a community where every aspect of its citizens’ lives are documented and suspected crimes prevented before they happen. They join upcoming series The Swarm on Intaglio’s slate, which is being directed by Alan Taylor, who has worked on thje movie spin-off from The Sopranos.

Doelger said: “To be adding two projects of this scale, alongside our hugely ambitious series The Swarm, after launching Intaglio only last year is incredibly exciting.

“Our goal as a company is to produce unmissable television for global audiences by tapping into urgent and compelling subject matter and these shows do exactly that. The mixture of wit, ethical dilemmas and heart-racing twists in Doing Good and the nuanced exploration of life in a voluntary surveillance state with Concordia are all elements that will ensure both shows resonate internationally.”

Dance Revolution lands in Poland

Dance Revolution

Polish prodco Golden Media Polska has acquired remake rights to Dance Revolution, the primetime dance competition from Québecor Content and Fair-Play.

The show, which originally aired on Canada’s TVA and is sold by ITV Studios-owned Armoza Formats, requires contestants to be judged with a 360˚ shot of their most spectacular ‘revolution’ dance move using state-of-the-art technology.

The dancers’ performances and their ‘revolution moments’ will decide the four finalists, who will showcase their talent in the hope of winning a cash prize.

The format was sold into Russia last month and has also aired in China, having been further developed by Hunan TV and Armoza for the local market.

Natural history fuels Flame for ATF

Flame Distribution has added a variety of natural history shows to its slate ahead of ATF in Singapore later this month.

Colours, from Making Movies and Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion, was produced for networks ZDF, CICC and Arte and explores the influence colours have on our lives.

It is joined by wildlife series Predator Bloodlines from WildEarth TV, which captures the daily lives of six animals of the Maasai Mara and Greater Kruger National Park, and kids-skewing #Beasts, which is from Wildflame Productions for S4C and counts down the world’s most dangerous animals from the most poisonous, to the strongest and smartest creatures on the planet.

Other series on the slate for ATF include travel-adventure-food TV series Appetite For Adventure!, produced by The Posh One Studios for Z Living Network USA, and Super Volcano. The latter is from Wildflame Productions and was originally commissioned by Discovery in the US and the UK’s Channel 5.