UK pay-TV operator Sky’s production outfit Sky Studios has struck a two-year funding and distribution deal with Clelia Mountford and Sharon Horgan’s prodco Merman Television. The pact covers overhead and development funding and a first-look distribution agreement, and will see the business expand its UK scripted team to develop global-facing drama. NBCUniversal Global Distribution will […]
Catastrophe creator Sharon Horgan is to develop a new ‘gritty’ drama for Amazon with Peaky Blinders producer Caryn Mandabach Productions and Shameless scribe Danny Brocklehurst. Dirty is a “funny, filthy, brutally honest look at modern lives”. It follows a principled woman who takes her first steps into a world of moral complexity. She discovers that […]
Sharon Horgan and Clelia Mountford’s Merman is to launch a digitally focused arm named Mermade. Mermade will specialise in the creation of non-broadcast content of all shapes and sizes, funded by and for social and streaming platforms, brands and publishers. It will have a particular focus on short-form episodic content. The development of Mermade follows […]
UKTV has partnered with RTÉ to bring Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) drama Women on the Verge to UKTV’s premium entertainment channel W. The six part series will be co-produced by Horgan’s Merman and House Productions. Women on the Verge is based on the best-selling book Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, by Lorna Martin, […]
Sundance Now, AMC Networks’ premium video streaming service, has picked up Sharon Horgan’s British TV series Motherland. The series, written and created by Horgan, Holly Walsh, and Graham and Helen Linehan, will make its exclusive US debut with the first two episodes premiering on the service on May 10. Motherland follows Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin), […]
Merman, the production company founded by Catastrophe’s Sharon Horgan and Clelia Mountford, has appointed FremantleMedia UK’s Rebecca Parkinson (pictured) as its head of production. Parkinson joins Merman from Fremantle’s scripted comedy label Retort and will oversee the production of all Merman projects in the newly created role. She will work closely with Mountford. The appointment […]
Amazon Studios has closed an exclusive two-year deal with Catastrophe creator Sharon Horgan. Catastrophe is an Amazon original series that earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding writing for a comedy series. Horgan is also co-writer and co-star in the show alongside Rob Delaney. In addition to her personal deal, Horgan and co-founder Clelia Mountford’s entertainment […]
US network NBC is developing a US version of cult BBC Three comedy Pulling. Original series creator Sharon Horgan (pictured) is attached to the new show as executive producer, alongside co-creator and writer Dennis Kelly. The 2006-2009 BBC series, from Silver River Productions, centred around three thirty-something women with unstable dating lives and living arrangements, […]
Shane Smith and his plan to take over the media world dominated delegate chatter at the Edinburgh International Television Festival last week. Jesse Whittock wonders what the Vice boss would make of the BBC’s latest comedy efforts. During his MacTaggart Memorial lecture on Wednesday, which met with a mixed reaction (at best), Vice Media CEO […]
Amazon Prime Video in the US will have the next two seasons of British relationship comedy Catastrophe. UK broadcaster Channel 4 this week ordered seasons three and four of the show, which comes from Avalon Television, Merman and Birdbath Productions. Amazon had invested in the first two seasons in exchange for exclusive on-demand rights in […]
