Senior producers and BBC Studios execs have spoken out about the public broadcaster’s plans to extend the 30-day iPlayer window into a full year, as BBC Two lags six months behind Amazon’s premiere date for big-budget co-production Good Omens. The future of the BBC’s catch-up service – where hit show Bodyguard racked up around 10.8m views […]
ITV, Masterpiece and Red Planet Pictures are set to work on a new Jane Austen drama based on her final novel Sandition. Austen’s original 11-chapter series has been extended into a 8×60 minute drama series by War & Peace writer Andrew Davies. Filming is expected to commence in spring 2019. The title is a Red […]
UK-based producer Red Planet Pictures has hired execs from Scott Free Productions and the BBC as part of a wider expansion of its ranks. The hires see former BBC development exec Sarah Barton joining as head of development from Scott Free, BBC Wales development chief Michelle Frances becoming literary acquisitions executive, Rowan Greenaway named development […]
Red Planet Pictures’ Simon Winstone is joining the production arm of UK pubcaster the BBC. He will be head of drama – Wales at BBC Studios, which this month switched from a non-profit organisation to a wholly-owned BBC commercial subsidiary. BBC Studios’ Welsh productions include sci-fi stalwart Doctor Who, soap Casualty (which head of continuing drama […]
UK-based drama producer Red Planet Pictures has recruited Channel 5 commissioner Simon Raikes to spearhead a push into unscripted. Red Planet was set up by veteran writer Tony Jordan in 2005 and its drama credits include BBC series Death in Paradise and The Ark. Raikes will be work up a slate of factual and fact-ent […]
BBC Worldwide has inked a development deal with Death in Paradise producer Red Planet Pictures. Worldwide, the commercial arm of the UK pubcaster the BBC, will provide development funding and marketing and support in return for an exclusive first-look at all Red Planet projects. “Red Planet Pictures has become synonymous with producing ratings-winning, ambitious and […]
Former Cineflix Studios and NBCUniversal International boss Pete Smith is hooking up with writer Tony Jordan to create a 10-part musical series about the Motown movement. Smith (left), who earlier this month was announced as managing director of Greek broadcasting group Antenna, is working with Jordan, film producer Duncan Kenworthy (Notting Hill, Love Actually) and […]
UKTV-owned pay channel Watch is getting its first original scripted drama, with scriptwriter Tony Jordan’s indie attached to create a 10-part supernatural thriller. Legion will tell the story of a criminologist on a global search for a cure for his 10 year-old daughter’s inoperable brain tumour who is forced to make a deal with the […]
A pair of CBeebies toons and three BBC One dramas are the first UK projects to officially qualify for new television production tax breaks. The CBeebies series are Karrot Entertainment’s Sarah and Duck (pictured) and Famous Flying Films and Mackinnon & Saunders-produced Calamity Island, while Red Planet Pictures’ crime series By Any Means, Origin Pictures’ […]
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 […]
