The UK’s booming production schedule in television drama saw a record £2.6 ($3.63) million paid in contributions to the High-end TV (HETV) Levy fund last year, according to UK body Creative Skillset. Over 100 high-end productions including Game of Thrones, Poldark, Luther, Derry Girls, The Durrells, Black Mirror, Shetland, Call the Midwife and Peaky Blinders, made the payments […]
ITV has commissioned The Singapore Grip, a drama that will be adapted by Atonement screenwriter Christopher Hampton from J.G. Farrell’s classic novel. The six-part series is an epic tale set in World War II, which centres on a British family living in Singapore at the time of the Japanese invasion. The series will be executive […]
Canadian specialty networks operator ZoomerMedia has acquired a package of ITV Studios Global Entertainment programming, including the rebooted comedy-drama Cold Feet. The package comprises Big Talk Productions-created Cold Feet, food series Gino’s Italian Escape: Hidden Italy, 50 episodes of Come Dine with Me and drama Brief Encounters. Cold Feet, which follows the relationships of a […]
The BBC, A+E Studios and Acorn are coproducing a TV adaptation of Agatha Christie novel The Witness for the Prosecution, which will bow on BBC One in the UK, and Brit-centric streaming service Acorn TV in the US. The novel will be adapted by Sarah Phelps who penned the recent successful TV version of Christie’s […]
BBC Worldwide has today launched its download-to-own BBC Store, promising access to the “most comprehensive collection of BBC programmes ever collected”. The Store is a joint effort between the BBC’s commercial and public service arms, and is accessible both through the BBC’s iPlayer catch-up service and from a standalone website – with BBC Store mobile […]
The extension of a deal with US broadcaster PBS has given Amazon US rights to a swathe of UK drama including Wolf Hall and Poldark. Amazon already has UK series from the Masterpiece strand including Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge. The new, extended, deal gives Amazon Prime Instant Video subs the aforementioned BBC period series […]
ITV has acquired Mammoth Screen, the UK drama prodco behind Poldark, for an undisclosed sum and cofounder Michele Buck is exiting the business. UK broadcaster ITV already owned a chunk of Mammoth Screen after paying £1 million (US$1.5 million) for a 25% stake back in 2007. ITV Studios Global Entertainment already distributed Mammoth programming in […]
Polly Hill has been appointed controller of drama commissioning at the BBC, replacing the outgoing Ben Stephenson at the UK pubcaster. Hill has been head of independent drama since 2011, ordering series including The Missing, The Honourable Woman, Death in Paradise and Poldark. She said: “Under Ben Stephenson’s leadership BBC Drama has thrived, it’s in […]
PBS will launch several new scripted series from the UK in its winter/spring schedules. The US public service channel, which has enjoyed great success with UK drama Downton Abbey as well as the likes of Call the Midwife, is coproducing some of the drama for its expanded Masterpiece strand and has acquired several other titles. […]
Danny Cohen’s final drama commissions as the controller of UK terrestrial channel BBC One include a series about the inventor of Chester Zoo and a Charles Dickens-themed show from Tony Jordan. Cohen will soon become the BBC’s director of television overseeing all four main BBC channels and other programme-related services. He said: “It has been […]
