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Tag Archives: Victoria
Still reigning
August 25, 2017 STAR POWERCatherine Flemming, ITV, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Jenna Coleman, Mammoth Screen, Nigel Lindsay, VictoriaMichael Pickard
Nigel Lindsay and Catherine Flemming reveal the secrets of ITV period drama Victoria as the series, starring Jenna Coleman as the British monarch, returns for a second season.
The second season of Victoria opens in Afghanistan, with shivering soldiers fending off the freezing conditions by huddling together beside a fire. It's a world away from the monarch's privileged existence inside Buckingham Palace, though she appears increasingly frustrated at the number of servants on hand to comfort her as she is pushed about in a wheelchair, just weeks after giving birth.
The opening scenes reveal a glimpse of the challenges facing Victoria as she learns to juggle her new responsibilities as a mother with those of a dedicated Queen. In the next room, Prince Albert is among a large group of politicians, including prime minister Robert Peel, as they discuss the next move for their troops abroad, preferring not to trouble Victoria with news of foreign affairs until the headstrong monarch barges in, going against both medical advice and her mother's wishes.
Picking up one month after the end of season one, Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes reprise their roles as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as they face challenges at home and abroad across eight new episodes. Produced by Mammoth Screen and distributed by ITV Studios Global Entertainment, it is written by series creator and executive producer Daisy Goodwin.
Nigel Lindsay (right) plays prime minister Robert Peel
Once again, the show is exquisitely shot and designed from the outset, with the stunning backdrop of the palace belying the real filming location, a disused aircraft hangar in Church Fenton, Yorkshire.
Coming to the fore this season is actor Nigel Lindsay, who plays Sir Robert. The politician initially enjoyed a fractious relationship with Victoria but she slowly warmed to him during season one. Now the series is back, Lindsay promises viewers will see a lot more of him now that he is prime minister.
"I'm in every episode, although there are a couple of episodes where they go off to France and Scotland and I stay at home to run the ship, but I'm around the whole time," he says. "I'm in charge, basically. I think they were thinking of changing the series to Peel & Victoria but I said no, it was too embarrassing!
"In season two, you see Victoria and Peel finally getting to understand and like each other. It takes a long time but you finally see that. There are still a lot of scenes where he's pretty stuffed up and going into the office just telling her what the order of the day is and they're not bonding, but they do by the end."
As ITV's spiritual successor to fellow hit period drama Downton Abbey, there was a lot riding on the success of Victoria. But after season one drew critical acclaim and record ratings, Lindsay says the atmosphere on set was more relaxed this time around.
"There's a little less pressure this year, although you want to keep the standards up," he admits. "But a lot of the crew is same, you know the other actors and you know your character, so everything is a bit more relaxed and I think that helps with the filming. If you're happy and relaxed when you're working, it tends to be borne out by the drama and shows how good the drama can be. I've had a really good time this year and I'm sorry to leave it."
Catherine Flemming (right) portrays Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent
When is a spoiler not a spoiler? When it's a historical drama, perhaps. As season two ends around 1845, it tallies with the end of Sir Robert's premiership and will see Lindsay written out of the series should it move forward with a third season in 2018. The real Sir Robert died in 1850.
"When I did my last ever scene on Victoria, I was expecting the traditional send-off – when a person finishes on set, you get a round of applause and it's all very moving," he explains. "But it was lunchtime and everyone forgot. As we finished the scene, they'd all buggered off to get their sandwiches. But Jenna, bless her, called everyone back and said, 'You do know this is Nigel's last scene.' So they call came back to say goodbye, which was very nice."
It's a story that speaks to the relationship Lindsay enjoyed with Coleman as their characters shared more time on set. Their final scene together saw the pair sitting around a large table discussing the queen's impending visit to France. "It was lovely," Lindsay recalls, adding that Coleman has really grown into her character this year.
"There was a lot of pressure on Jenna in the first season, playing Victoria in a series called Victoria. She got ill in the first season because she worked so hard; it was quite tough. But this season is more relaxed and I thought Jenna and I got a real rapport going by the end."
The same can't be said for Lindsay and the horse he had to ride during filming, with the actor finding himself literally left behind by Hughes in one horseback scene. "I sat in a carriage last year but this year I rode a horse in three different scenes," he says. "It was quite fun but Tom likes to give it a go on his horse so the trouble is, once he's off, my horse will follow because I don't know what I'm doing.
Jenna Coleman has received widespread acclaim for her portrayal of the monarch
"There was one scene where Tom suggested we ride off either side of the camera. I thought that was a really good idea but I didn't realise quite how fast he was going to be going, so I followed on behind as gamely as I could. My hat flew off but I think that was off camera."
Currently filming Netflix's forthcoming mystery Safe, also starring Michael C Hall (Dexter) and produced by Red Production Company, Lindsay says he finds it easier to embody a character in a period drama than in a contemporary series where a character might be similar to his own personality or situation.
"Obviously it's a little less naturalistic when you're doing a period drama but you get so much help on Victoria, from the set to the costumes to the language," he explains. "Something like [ITV crime drama] Unforgotten, I find quite difficult because I was playing what I am – the husband of somebody. When it's very near to yourself, I always find that more difficult. But you have to trust yourself that doing nothing is OK. If he speaks like you, that's fine. Whereas with Victoria, I get to take myself away into a different century with different clothes and a different accent. I find that easier to make myself believe that I'm somebody else."
As Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, German actor Catherine Flemming enjoys a combustible on-screen relationship with Coleman, as the monarch often chooses to ignore her motherly advice.
"Very often, children find it extremely difficult to accept what their parents think is best for them," she says. "In the case of Victoria, everyone seems to want something different from her, pulling her one way and the other. And as her mother, the Duchess tries to protect her child, but the child has other ideas. She is in the process of becoming a queen but, for the Duchess, she is still her little child. No wonder there are conflicts between them."
Off screen, that couldn't be further from the truth as Flemming describes Coleman, who picked up a Golden Nymph award in Monte Carlo earlier this summer for her role as Victoria, as "a really great young actress."
The second season picks up just one month after the debut run's conclusion
She continues: "She gives 150% in every scene she's in and it is a gift to play opposite an actor like that."
In the first episode of season two, which debuts on ITV this Sunday, Victoria appears to be as dismissive as ever of her mother and her advice, but Flemming hints at a rekindled relationship between the pair.
"There is a beautiful scene where I am allowed to hold my grandson, Victoria's youngest child, and I look at him and say to Victoria, 'He has your eyes.' At first she seems sceptical, but then she looks over my shoulder at the baby and seems to get soft all over, and says simply, 'Perhaps,' and her eyes get a little misty. This is the beginning of a new relationship between mother and daughter."
Understandably, the actor describes the greatest challenge on set as mastering English, admitting that, like her character, she came to England without a perfect command of the language. "But it was a great privilege to take part in the series. It is a dream to play the mum of Queen Victoria. I love history and am able to learn so much about this particular period of British and German history."
As German dramas become more popular among international audiences, Flemming is keen to work outside her homeland again in the future. For now, though, she is back in Germany working on Rübezahl, a family drama based on a local fairy tale, in which she plays Baroness Ottilie von Harrant, adversary of the gnome Rübezahl.
"It is true that German productions are gaining in popularity and in quality, especially when they tell their own stories instead of copying them from abroad," she adds. "For me it was a great education to see how such an amazing television series was produced in Great Britain and, yes, I would love to work abroad again."
tagged in: Catherine Flemming, ITV, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Jenna Coleman, Mammoth Screen, Nigel Lindsay, Victoria
Reign ends but royalty remains
December 9, 2016 Hit & MissCanal+, Charles II: The Power and The Passion, Daisy Goodwin, E! Entertainment, ITV, Magnificent Century, Mary: The Making of a Princess, Michael Hirst, Netflix, Peter Morgan, Reign, Showtime, Stephen Daldry, The Crown, The CW, The Queen's Sister, The Royals, The Tudors, Timur Savci, Versailles, Victoria, Wolf HallAndy Fry
On Wednesday, The CW announced that the fourth season of Reign, which debuts on February 10, will be the last. The news is no real surprise given that the show's ratings have been pretty modest since launch. Season three averaged 970,000 per episode, which puts it at the lower end of the channel's typical ratings. An IMDB score of 7.6 also suggests it won't be massively missed.
For those unfamiliar with the show, Reign is a period drama that chronicles the rise of Mary, Queen of Scots in 16th century Europe. It is not overly concerned with historical accuracy and is generally viewed as a guilty pleasure. It is significant, however, in that it is part of a broad array of TV shows that have placed royalty at the heart of their stories. So this week, to mark the end of Reign, we're looking at this sub-genre.
The Crown Netflix is reckoned to have ploughed US$100m into this exploration of Queen Elizabeth II's early life. Written by Peter Morgan and directed by Stephen Daldry, the show has received pretty much universal acclaim and is currently sitting pretty with an IMDb score of 9.
A second season has been commissioned and the intention is that the series will run for five or six seasons (though Morgan has not yet committed to such a lengthy run).
Victoria Vying with The Crown as the best royal series of the year is ITV's Victoria. Written by Daisy Goodwin, the show has a similar blueprint to The Crown. Starting with the early life of the famous 19th British monarch, the show is intended to follow her through her life, with season two already commissioned.
The show did well in the UK ratings, with an average audience of seven to eight million on Sunday evenings. It has also sold well internationally, although it's too early to tell how the global market is responding to the show. It will premiere on PBS in the US on January 15. Its IMDb score is 8.3.
The Tudors Michael Hirst's epic series for Showtime helped kick-start the global trade in lavish, semi-fictionalised TV series about monarchy, power, aristocracy and the like. Aired for four seasons between 2007 and 2010, episodes of the show typically attracted an audience of around 700,000-900,000 for the US cable network.
The series starts during Henry VIII's reign but doesn't always stick to the facts. Explaining why, Hirst said: "Showtime commissioned me to write an entertainment, a soap opera, and not history. And we wanted people to watch it." On balance, he argued: "Any confusion created by the changes is outweighed by the interest the series may inspire in the period and its figures."
US cable channel Ovation recently acquired all four seasons of The Tudors to accompany its investment in Versailles (below). Note: other series to have explored the Tudor period include the BBC's excellent Wolf Hall and ITV's 2003 miniseries Henry VIII. The Tudors achieved an IMDb score of 8.1, Wolf Hall 8.2.
Versailles Set during the reign of Louis XIV of France, this Canal+ drama rated well at home and has sold widely around the world. A second season is on its way and a third has already been commissioned, with production due to start in April 2017.
The first season rated pretty well on BBC2 in the UK and has been renewed. In the US, it aired on arts channel Ovation – which scored its highest ever ratings when it aired the first two episodes back to back (a combined total audience of 557,000).
Dubbed by one critic as the music video version of French history, the show hasn't achieved the same critical acclaim as The Crown or Victoria, but it is praised for its high production values.
Magnificent Century Timur Savci's sumptuous period drama was a big hit at home and also been sold into more than 40 territories. It did, however, receive some criticism from conservative elements within Turkey, who called it "disrespectful and hedonistic."
The show, which ran for 139 episodes between 2011 and 2014, is based on the life of Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. It was followed by Magnificent Century: Kosem, which jumps forward four decades to tell the story of a female ruler who began her life as a slave girl. This show, also produced by Savci, has sold well internationally. Season one of Kosem aired on Star and season two on Fox.
The Royals E! Entertainment's The Royals is currently into its third season with an audience in the 600,000 range. This after the show averaged one million-plus for season one and around 750,000 for season two.
The show is a novel take on the notion of royalty, since it is based around a fictional British royal family. Elizabeth Hurley plays Queen Helena, a matriarchal figure attempting to maintain the family's public image while dealing with a range of domestic problems. One of the key plot lines sees her son, Prince Liam, unexpectedly become first in line to the throne after his older brother dies. IMDb gives the show a 7.4 rating.
Mary: The Making of a Princess The Brits aren't the only ones with a royal family, of course. In 2015, Network Ten in Australia ran a TV movie about Mary Donaldson, a young Australian woman who married into the Danish royal family after a chance meeting at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The show, produced by FremantleMedia, got a meagre 6.1 rating on IMDb and mixed reviews, but actually rated well with around a million viewers.
Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne: Historical royal dramas are popular for a few reasons. One is that they are less politically sensitive than stories about current royals. Another is that it is easier to fictionalise a dead royal's life than a living one's. And not to be overlooked is the fact that there are more royal families to work with, since a few of them have ceased to exist.
In this lavish production, for example, the focus is on the love story between the son of Frederick III and the daughter of the Duke Of Burgundy in the 1400s. Budgeted at around €16m (US$17m), it is a coproduction between MR Film, Beta Film, ORF and ZDF.
The Queen's Sister As Mark Lawson observed in an article in UK newspaper The Guardian last year, TV producers tend to take a slightly deferential look at recent royals, saving the controversy for long-dead monarchs (notably Henry VIII). One slight exception to this rule is the Queen's late sister Margaret, who is generally portrayed in the media as something of a hedonist.
In 2006, Channel 4 told her story in a biopic entitled The Queen's Sister, with Lucy Cohu as Margaret. Critics were divided over the show, some calling it satirical, others tawdry. It secured a number of Bafta nomination and aired on BBC America. See Lawson's article here.
Charles II: The Power and The Passion A good example of how historic royals are fair game, this BBC production looks at the feckless and lazy side of this 17th century British monarch, restored to the throne after the death of his father's nemesis Oliver Cromwell.
Written by Adrian Hodges and starring Rufus Sewell, the show does make an attempt to be historically accurate, relying to some extent on Antonia Fraser's book Charles II. The show aired in the US and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. IMDb gives it a rating of 7.6.
tagged in: Canal+, Charles II: The Power and The Passion, Daisy Goodwin, E! Entertainment, ITV, Magnificent Century, Mary: The Making of a Princess, Michael Hirst, Netflix, Peter Morgan, Reign, Showtime, Stephen Daldry, The Crown, The CW, The Queen's Sister, The Royals, The Tudors, Timur Savci, Versailles, Victoria, Wolf Hall
Coleman reigns as Victoria
December 5, 2016 DQ TV, STAR POWERITV, Jenna Coleman, VictoriaMichael Pickard
From Doctor Who's companion to Queen Victoria, Jenna Coleman tells DQ about her decision to leave the Tardis and take the lead in ITV period drama Victoria. Ahead of its second season in 2017, she tells DQ editor Michael Pickard about how she gets into character, the challenges of making the show and what viewers can expect in future episodes.
tagged in: ITV, Jenna Coleman, Victoria
Buyers stick to the scripted in Mipcom
October 21, 2016 Hit & MissAdi Hasak, Anne, AXN, Ay Yapim, Cold Feet, David Linde, DRG, FremantleMedia International, Global Screen, Hibana, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Kevin Can Wait, Midnight Sun, Mipcom, Mistco, Moribito II: Guardian of the Spirit, Mother, NHK, Nippon TV, Participant Media, Pinewood Television, Resurrection, Rivals Forever, Sony Pictures Television, Star TV, StudioCanal, The Level, The Young Pope, Versailles, Victoria, Zodiak RightsAndy Fry
The sequel to Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit was screened in Cannes
The Japanese have a good strike rate when it comes to exporting animation and entertainment formats. But they have struggled with drama. There are a few reasons for this but, when it comes down to it, the core problem is that scripted shows that work in Japanese primetime don't travel that well.
The country's leading players want to do something about this because the revenues they are generating from the domestic media market aren't as strong as they used to be. So now they are looking at formats and coproductions as ways of building up their international profile and generating a new revenue stream. They are also starting to ask themselves if there is a way of making shows that can tap into the world drama zeitgeist that has propelled Korean, Turkish, Nordic and Israeli drama around the globe.
There were a couple of examples of the way Japan is seeking to shift its mindset at the Mipcom market in Cannes this week. One was a deal that will see Nippon TV drama Mother adapted for the Turkish market by MF Yapim & MEDYAPIM. The new show will be called Anne and will air on leading broadcaster Star TV. It's the first time a Japanese company has struck this kind of deal in Turkey.
Also this week, Japanese public broadcaster NHK screened Moribito II: Guardian of the Spirit, an ambitious live-action fantasy series based on the novels of Nahoko Uehashi – likened by some to JRR Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings.
Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria
Produced in 4K and HDR, this is the second in a planned trilogy of TV series, the first of which consisted of four parts. The show has been attracting interest from channel buyers beyond Japan's usual sphere of influence, suggesting the country may be starting to have the kind of international impact it wants.
Interestingly, NHK brought the actor Kento Hayashi to Cannes to help promote the Moribito franchise. Hayashi also starred in Netflix's first Japanese original, Hibana, another scripted show that has captured the attention of audiences and critics around the world.
Away from Japanese activity, companies that had a good week in Cannes included ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which said its hit period drama series Victoria has now sold to more than 150 countries, including new deals with the likes of Sky Germany, VRT Belgium and Spanish pay TV platform Movistar+. It also sold comedy drama Cold Feet – renewed for a new season in 2017 – to the likes of NPO Netherlands, ITV Choice Africa, Yes in Israel, TV4 Sweden and NRK Norway.
Further evidence of the appeal of lavish period pieces came with the pre-sales buzz around Zodiak Rights' Versailles, which is going into its second season. At Mipcom, the show was picked up by a range of broadcasters and platforms including BBC2 (UK), Amazon Prime (UK), C More (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland), DirecTV (Latin America) and Movistar+.
Timeless was picked up by Channel 4
Moving beyond period pieces, other shows that cut through the promotional clutter included Sony Pictures Television (SPT)'s time-travel drama Timeless, which sold to the UK's Channel 4 to air on its youth-skewing E4 network. The show was also picked up by the likes of OSN in the Middle East, Fox in Italy, AXN in Japan, Viacom 18's Colors Infinity in India and Sohu in China.
SPT also sold new sitcom Kevin Can Wait to Channel 4 in the UK, though perhaps the most interesting Sony-related story at Mipcom was the news that its international television network group AXN has joined forces with Pinewood Television to a develop a slate of six TV drama projects.
The series will be financed in partnership between Sony Pictures Television Networks and Pinewood Television. The plan is for them to air on AXN channels in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe, with a programming emphasis on high-impact action, crime and mystery. The deal was brokered by Marie Jacobson, executive VP of programming and production at SPTN, and Peter Gerwe, a director for Pinewood Television.
StudioCanal thriller Midnight Sun
Jacobson said: "As we look for alternative paths to expand original series development, Pinewood TV make for the ideal partners. We are look forward to developing projects with them that play both in the UK and on our channels around the world."
Other high-profile dramas to attract buyer attention at the market this week included StudioCanal's Swedish-French eight-hour drama Midnight Sun, picked up by ZDF in Germany, SBS in Australia, HOT in Israel and DR in Denmark.
Distributor FremantleMedia International licensed its big-budget series The Young Pope to Kadokawa Corporation in Japan, while Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution licensed The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story to French pay TV operator Canal+.
Another show that enjoyed some success this week was DRG-distributed The Level, a six-part thriller that was picked up by ABC Australia, UTV in Ireland, TVNZ in New Zealand and DBS Satellite Services in Israel, among others. Produced by Kate Norrish and Polly Leys, joint MDs of Hillbilly Films, the show follows a reputable cop with a secret that is about to unravel. The show has previously been picked up by Acorn Media Enterprises for the US market.
Jude Law in The Young Pope
Reiterating the growing interest in non-English drama, Global Screen enjoyed some success with Rivals Forever – The Sneaker Battle, which tells the true story of how brothers Adi and Rudi Dassler set up Adidas and Puma. France Télévisions acquired free TV rights and will air the series in early 2017 on France 3, while Just Entertainment in the Netherlands has landed video, pay TV and VoD rights. Other buyers included DR (Denmark), FTV Prima (Czech Republic), LRT (Lithuania) and HBO Europe (for Eastern Europe).
Turkish drama successes included Mistco's sale of TRT period drama Resurrection to Kazakhstan Channel 31. Eccho Rights also sold four Turkish dramas to Chilean broadcaster Mega. The four shows were all produced by Ay Yapim and include the recent hit series Insider. This continues a good run of success for Turkish content in the Latin American region.
While Mipcom is fundamentally a sales market, its conference programme is also a useful way of tuning into international trends and opportunities in drama. There was an interesting keynote with showrunner Adi Hasak, who has managed to get two shows away with US networks (Shades of Blue, Eyewitness) in the last three years despite having no real track record with the US channel business. He believes the current voracious demand for ideas has made this possible: "This is a small business, where everyone knows everyone. If you create material that speaks to buyers, they will respond."
Participant Media CEO David Linde also talked about the way his company is starting to extend its influence beyond film into TV and social media. Known for movies like An Inconvenient Truth, Food Inc, Snitch and Spotlight, the firm's expansion into TV will see a new series about journalists breaking stories, developed by the team behind Oscar winner Spotlight.
tagged in: Adi Hasak, Anne, AXN, Ay Yapim, Cold Feet, David Linde, DRG, FremantleMedia International, Global Screen, Hibana, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Kevin Can Wait, Midnight Sun, Mipcom, Mistco, Moribito II: Guardian of the Spirit, Mother, NHK, Nippon TV, Participant Media, Pinewood Television, Resurrection, Rivals Forever, Sony Pictures Television, Star TV, StudioCanal, The Level, The Young Pope, Versailles, Victoria, Zodiak Rights
Victoria's reign extended by ITV
September 26, 2016 GreenlightABC, Atlanta, Better Things, Daisy Goodwin, Damien Timmer, Designated Survivor, Embeds, Entertainment One, Go90, His Bloody Project, ITV, Kevin Lygo, Magnum PI, Mammoth Screen, Mars, Netflix, Star Trek, Stick Man, Synchronicity Films, The CW, Verizon, VictoriaAndy Fry
In one of the least surprising renewal stories of the year, UK broadcaster ITV has commissioned a second series of ratings hit Victoria from Mammoth Screen. Scripted by Daisy Goodwin, the show has had an excellent first season – even managing to hold off strong competition from the BBC's returning hit Poldark.
Series one launched in late August and is currently averaging around 7.7 million viewers, which makes it ITV's top-performing drama of the year so far. ITV director of television, Kevin Lygo said: "Mammoth Screen and Daisy Goodwin have brought the characters so vividly to life in this series and we're thrilled with the reception for Victoria. We're pleased to be able to confirm Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes will return to continue the story on ITV." Just as significantly, Goodwin will again be writing and executive producing the series.
Season one starts with the young Victoria's coronation and explores how she becomes increasingly sure-footed in the fields of politics and diplomacy. It also looks at her close relationship with Lord Melbourne and burgeoning romance with Prince Albert, her eventual husband. As with series one, the new season will be a coproduction with PBS Masterpiece.
Goodwin added: "Even though she reigned in the 19th century, Victoria is a heroine for our times. In the next series she faces the very modern dilemma of how to juggle children with her husband and her job. As Victoria will discover, it's hard to be a wife, a mother and ruler of the most powerful nation on earth."
Tom Selleck in Magnum PI
Mammoth Screen's Damien Timmer, another executive producer on the show, said: "Following the audience response to Victoria, we are delighted that Jenna Coleman will be returning to her throne for a second series. The next few years of Victoria's reign are packed full of extraordinary real-life events, with constitutional crises, scandals at court and personal challenges aplenty for the Queen and Prince Albert. God Save the Queen!"
Meanwhile, in the US, the trend towards TV drama series revivals seems to be picking up pace. After CBS launched MacGyver this week with a decent 10.9 million audience, there are now reports that ABC is lining up a spin-off series based on the 1980s classic Magnum PI, which starred Tom Selleck. Echoing another recent trend in US TV, the plan is for the show to have a female lead – with Magnum's daughter moving to Hawaii to take over the business.
The reboot business is in full swing now with The X-Files, Gilmore Girls, 24 and Prison Break all having been revived, or coming up. The new Magnum will be written by John Rogers, whose TNT series Leverage ran for five seasons from 2008 to 2012. Rogers also created TNT's hit scripted series The Librarians.
Still in the US, there's good news for fans of Atlanta, the new comedy from Donald Glover that airs on FX. The network has just announced a second season. It has also revealed that it is returning Better Things, another comedy that has been performing well. "It's really gratifying to launch two new comedies that have received overwhelming critical acclaim right out of the gate and that are emblematic of FX's award-winning brand," said Nick Grad and Eric Schrier, heads of original programming for FX Networks and FX Productions. "It is clear to us Atlanta and Better Things have struck a nerve with viewers."
Donald Glover's Atlanta will return to FX
Atlanta follows two young, black cousins as they try to make it rich out of rap. International buyers will get to see what the fuss is about when Fox brings the show to the Mipcom market in Cannes next month as part of its slate. Better Things is co-created by Pamela Adlon and Louis C.K. Adlon plays Sam, a woman trying to raise her three daughters, while also attempting to hold down a career in Hollywood. Still with Fox's international ambition, the distribution arm of Fox Networks Group is also heading to Mipcom with Ron Howard's forthcoming space epic Mars. The six-part series, about a fictitious mission to colonise the red planet in 2033, will receive its world premiere in Cannes ahead of its debut on National Geographic later this year.
Also in the US, The CW is developing a new supernatural series called Stick Man with Cameron Prosandeh (Helix) and Tim Kring (Heroes). Stick Man is about an amateur documentarian who returns to her hometown to chronicle the events of her brother's murder and the ensuing trial. While there, she discovers evidence linking her brother's death to supernatural events.
Designated Survivor stars Kiefer Sutherland
There was also more evidence this week of Netflix's considerable clout in the international rights market following news that it has secured international streaming rights (excluding North America) to ABC drama Designated Survivor, starring Kiefer Sutherland. The deal was done with rights holder Entertainment One (eOne). Last month, Netflix also secured the rights to CBS's highly anticipated new iteration of Star Trek, which is coming some time in 2017.
In one of the week's more intriguing commissions, Verizon has greenlit a political comedy for its streaming service Go90. Executive produced by Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, the 6×30′ show is called Embeds. It explores five reporters covering the US presidential election and has been created by Scott Conroy and Peter Hamby. Go90also also recently commissioned a live-action series inspired by the Battlefield video game franchise.
Back in the UK, Scottish producer Synchronicity Films is developing a crime thriller based on Graeme Macrae Burnet novel His Bloody Project. The book, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, explores the sanity of a teenager convicted of a brutal triple murder in 1869 in a remote Scottish crofting community. Early discussions are underway with a major UK broadcaster, with screenwriters currently being considered."
Claire Mundell, creative director at Synchronicity, said: "We are delighted to have discovered this wonderful novel on our own doorstep. It's also great to work with an indie publisher [Saraband Imprint Contraband] that believes in backing undiscovered talent as much as we do."
tagged in: ABC, Atlanta, Better Things, Daisy Goodwin, Damien Timmer, Designated Survivor, Embeds, Entertainment One, Go90, His Bloody Project, ITV, Kevin Lygo, Magnum PI, Mammoth Screen, Mars, Netflix, Star Trek, Stick Man, Synchronicity Films, The CW, Verizon, Victoria
No losers as BBC's rebel battles ITV's royal
September 9, 2016 Hit & MissAtlanta, BBC, Canal+, El Chapo, FremantleMedia International, FX, HBO, ITV, Mammoth Screen, Narcos, Netflix, OWN, Poldark, Queen Sugar, Sky, The Young Pope, Univision, VictoriaAndy Fry
For the past week, the British media has had a lot of fun hyping up the ratings war between ITV's new drama Victoria and the BBC's returning series Poldark (both of which, ironically, are produced by ITV-owned production company Mammoth Screen). But the truth is both sides can be pretty happy with their performances.
Victoria, produced by Mammoth for ITV and PBS in the US, debuted at 21.00 on Sunday August 28 with 5.7 million viewers. Keen to build on its momentum, ITV then scheduled the second episodes of the eight-parter on the following night, a bank holiday in the UK. This episode attracted 5.2 million, suggesting the show had done a good job of retaining the audience's interest.
The direct clash between the two shows came the following week, when they were scheduled against each other at 21.00 on Sunday September 4. In this slot, Victoria secured 4.8 million viewers and then picked up a further 400,000 in a second showing an hour later on ITV+1. Poldark, meanwhile, attracted 5.1 million viewers to what was the first episode of its second series.
Poldark stars Aidan Turner
Different media outlets have interpreted these figures in different ways. For some, it has been an opportunity to attack Poldark by saying a) it was beaten by Victoria (with its amalgamated 5.2 million figure) and b) this year's Poldark launch was weaker than last year's, which attracted 6.9 million. However, neither of these interpretations should take away from the fact that it was a good opening for Poldark. The only meaningful comparison between the two will come after 14 to 28 days when we begin to get a sense of time-shifted viewing. By then, we'll also have a clearer idea of whether Victoria can sustain its ratings.
Good news for both broadcasters is that the critics have praised the two shows. Both have scored 8.4 on IMDb, putting them at the upper end of audience approval ratings.
Looking to the long-term, the Victoria vs Poldark battle is likely to become a pretty permanent feature on the UK drama scene. Neither broadcaster wants to give up the 21.00 Sunday-night slot to the other but both have plans to run and run with their respective series. Poldark has already been commissioned for a third season and could easily run for five or six. ITV is also envisaging a similar life span for Victoria.
Jude Law's performance impressed critics who saw the first two episodes of The Young Pope
Congratulations are of course due to Mammoth Screen for pulling off a remarkable feat. And to ITV, which gets to distribute both shows to the international market (it has just licensed Victoria to ITV Choice in Asia and the Middle East). It's also still something of a novelty for female screenwriters to run primetime dramas – so it's a positive sign that these shows are penned by Daisy Goodwin (Victoria) and Debbie Horsfield (Poldark).
Another show in the news this week is The Young Pope – a Sky, HBO and Canal+ co-production that sees Jude Law play a feisty young American Pope. The ten-part series has been hyped up a lot in recent months by its distributor FremantleMedia International (FMI) –and it looks like it could turn out to be the hit the company has been hoping for. The first two episodes were screened at the Venice Film Festival and received glowing reviews from the media. The Telegraph was especially enthusiastic, reporting that: "The first, feature-length episode is like the skin-prickling opening to a game of chess played across a board of gold and marble – with each piece, from king to pawn, gliding enigmatically into place for the coming battle". Law, says the Telegraph, is a "force of nature."
Narcos will air on Univision
FMI has also reported strong interest among buyers. Broadcasters that have already picked the show up include MNET (Pan-Africa), HBO (Pan-CEE), BETV in Belgium, OTE TV in Greece, 365 in Iceland, Sky in New Zealand and Hot in Israel. Nordic SVoD platform C More, which belongs to Sweden's TV4 Group, has also acquired the series. As part of the latter deal, The Young Pope will also air on TV4's free-to-air channel in Sweden. As for the partners in the show, Sky Atlantic will air it across its territories from October 27.
One of the most-talked about programmes of the last couple of years has been Netflix's Pablo Escobar drama series Narcos – a double winner at the 2015 C21 International Drama Awards. This week, Netflix announced it had renewed the show for third and fourth seasons. It's lucky that the creators called the show Narcos rather than Escobar – because the new series will follow the Medellin cartel after the death of the Colombian drug lord in 1993.
Queen Sugar opened strongly on OWN
As we've noted on several occasions, Netflix doesn't release audience figures – so it's difficult to know how well the Spanish-language show does on the platform. However, a deal between Netflix and Univision means the show is also due to air on the US Hispanic network in the near future, so it should soon be possible to get a perspective on its appeal. Interestingly, Netflix and Univision are also partnering a series called El Chapo, which is based on the life of Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzmán. In the US, this series will air on UniMás in 2017 before appearing on Netflix. Outside the US, the show will make its debut on the streamer.
It's been evident in recent times that there is a strong audience in the US for scripted series that place black actors at the centre of the story (Empire and Power being a couple of the most recent successes). There's more evidence of this from a couple of newly launched shows. The first is Queen Sugar, which has just debuted on OWN. Following the same pattern as fellow OWN drama Greenleaf, the Tuesday and Wednesday roll-out of Queen Sugar drew a healthy 2.42 million viewers. With The Haves and the Have Nots also doing well on OWN, the channel's drama output is currently firing on all cylinders.
Atlanta stars Community's Donald Glover (far right)
More good news for the black creative community has been the early response to Community star and rapper Donald Glover's comedy Atlanta, which has just launched on FX. Set in the world of local hip hop, the show has been warmly received by critics and secured a promising 1.1 million viewers in its 22.00 slot. With an 8.9 rating on IMDB, Atlanta could shape up as one of the year's surprise critical hits, though there was some grumbling among audiences that it was scheduled directly against the launch of Queen Sugar.
tagged in: Atlanta, BBC, Canal+, El Chapo, FremantleMedia International, FX, HBO, ITV, Mammoth Screen, Narcos, Netflix, OWN, Poldark, Queen Sugar, Sky, The Young Pope, Univision, Victoria
August 12, 2016 IN FOCUS, The Writers RoomDaisy Goodwin, Damien Timmer, ITV, Mammoth Screen, VictoriaMichael Pickard
Jenna Coleman swaps the TARDIS for Buckingham Palace in a forthcoming ITV period drama. DQ speaks to writer Daisy Goodwin and executive producer Damien Timmer about Victoria.
If the mere mention of Queen Victoria conjures up the image of a "boot-faced old bag in a bonnet," an eight-part drama starring Jenna Coleman (pictured above) could be about to change perceptions of Britain's second longest-reigning monarch.
Previously travelling the galaxy as Doctor Who's companion, the actor's first starring role away from the TARDIS is as the young queen in an ITV drama simply titled Victoria, which opens with her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18.
The series then follows the monarch through the first three years of her reign, including her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert (played by Tom Hughes).
While being a teenager on the throne might have thrown up some challenges for Victoria, series creator and writer Daisy Goodwin also faced a steep learning curve – this is her first ever screenwriting commission.
But she describes the experience as "a revelation, an education and a great privilege," adding: "To do something you feel very passionately about and have it realised so splendidly is something most writers spend their entire career waiting for and it's happened to me right out of the gate. I'm totally thrilled. And I find none of it boring because I've never done it before."
Goodwin reveals her "affair" with Victoria started when she was 18 and studying history at Cambridge. "I was reading her diaries and came across this extraordinary entry that described how head-over-heels in love she was with Albert and it made me laugh," she recalls. "I had a moment where I realised she was a teenager who was having to learn how to be queen in the full glare of the public eye."
Goodwin went on to have a successful television career, not in drama but in the factual space, first with Talkback Productions, where she devised shows such as Grand Designs and How Clean is your House?. She then founded Silver River Productions, before her first novel – the Victorian era-set My Last Duchess – was published in 2010. Her second, The Fortune Hunter, landed in 2014.
"I was reminded what an interesting character Victoria was – and at the same time I have a daughter who's a teenager and the same height as she was, just under five foot. We had a huge row one morning and I looked at her and wondered what would happen if she woke up tomorrow to find she was the most powerful woman in the world. I thought that was the starting point for a fascinating drama and I like the idea that Victoria's a teenage queen with all that that implies."
Victoria will premiere on ITV on Sunday August 28
In particular, Goodwin says she was drawn to the idea of making a historical drama with wit, verve and humour. "Just because it has bonnets doesn't mean it has to be stuffy in any way," she asserts. "I've tried to tell the story as it would have unfolded at the time. Our perception of Victoria is always as a boot-faced old bag in a bonnet, which is the old Victoria, but in her early years there was huge unease about whether this little girl could take on this hugely important role. That's what I've tried to convey in the early part of the series."
As a historian and Victoria expert, it would be understandable if Goodwin felt pressure to ensure the series' factual accuracy – but she says she isn't fazed by the prospect of criticism for any dramatic licence in her scriptwriting.
"Obviously I've fiddled a bit with chronology, but dramatically it was necessary," she says. "I know enough about the history to know what I'm doing. Where I've changed things, I've done it for dramatic effect. But I have been faithful to the emotional truth of the characters I'm writing about. So all the real people, that's who they were and, as much as possible, I've tried to use their own words. When people see episode one, the things they think I've made up are the true bits."
UK broadcaster ITV was obviously impressed by Goodwin's pitch, handing out a series order despite only one script being written at the time. Mammoth Films (Poldark) then came on board to produce, with Damien Timmer, Goodwin and Dan McCulloch executive producing. ITV Studios Global Entertainment is distributing Victoria worldwide.
Perhaps the biggest piece of the jigsaw, however, was who would play Victoria – the young woman who went on to rule for 63 years and was Britain's longest-serving monarch until she was overtaken by Elizabeth II on September 9, 2015.
"One of the things we had to get right was Victoria, who was really small and very diminutive – something that hasn't always been captured in previous translations of her life," Timmer says. "But it's one of the things that give her such huge power – she's this small dynamo. From the beginning we agreed we were looking for a real powerhouse of an actress and, in my mind, Jenna was the obvious person.
The show has been producer by Mammoth Screen, which is behind BBC1's Poldark
"Doctor Who is always shrouded in secrecy and it wasn't clear whether she would be available. While we had Jenna as our holy grail, we did do some investigating elsewhere – but when we discovered it could work with Jenna, we were utterly thrilled because it's impossible to imagine anyone else in that part now. Victoria's a real force of nature – when she was happy she made the room laugh, but when she lost her temper it was probably rather scary. Jenna conveys that in a way that always feels truthful. She manages to be both very sympathetic and properly brutal."
Goodwin, who describes Coleman as "miraculous," adds: "Our Victoria is a heroine but she gets things wrong as often as she gets them right. We're lucky to have an actress in Jenna who can do bad things but makes you realise why she's doing them. You understand where she's coming from and you feel towards her like you do your teenage daughter."
While crowning Coleman as Victoria was a major coup, the rest of the production wasn't without its challenges. In particular, production designer Michael Howells was tasked with recreating Buckingham Palace, with numerous staterooms, ballrooms and a throne room, as well as quarters for Victoria and her family and the downstairs servants.
"It's boring to go on about how big a set is but the detail and scale are truly impressive," Timmer says. "That's one of the distinctive things about this – the central character's home is also one of the biggest palaces in the world. You can't cheat with that, you can't hide. You've got to do it properly. It's a big place to fill and you've got to believe the life of the palace. It's stuffed to the gills with courtiers and when there's a ball, these are big spaces to fill. But it's also a home, somewhere intimate scenes can play.
"The exterior of Buckingham Palace now is not at all what it looked like in Victoria's reign, which is the key to the show. You think you know what the story will be, but think again. The truth is much more interesting than the story we all think we know."
Timmer also praises Goodwin – a self-confessed super fan of another ITV period drama, Downton Abbey – for the cast of characters she has built around the young monarch, with actors including Rufus Sewell, Alex Jennings, Paul Rhys, Peter Firth and Catherine Flemming among the ensemble.
"One of the challenges Daisy set herself was portraying the world around Queen Victoria," he explains. "You have her family, the world of the servants below stairs and all manner of important dignitaries. It's a big cast and Daisy has managed to make sure all the actors are very well served. It's rare to encounter a cast as jolly as this lot are because although it's an ensemble, they really feel they're getting enough attention because the scripts managed to serve them all very well."
But what is it that sets Victoria – due to air later this year on ITV and in 2017 on US network PBS – apart from other period dramas?
"Unlike most costume dramas where it's the woman trying to get the attention of a man, in this you've got a woman who from the beginning is the boss," Goodwin says. "And that makes it different to pretty much any other costume drama out there. Plus it's a story people think they know but they don't know. There's also enough real history there for people who are interested in the period, so I hope it will satisfy on those two levels."
tagged in: Daisy Goodwin, Damien Timmer, ITV, Mammoth Screen, Victoria
Brits dominate Rose D'Or scripted
July 13, 2016 The Writers RoomAbi Morgan, Birdsong, Brick Lane, Canada, Catastrophe, Channel 4, Daisy Goodwin, Debbie Horsfield, Episodes, Happy Valley, Hat Trick Productions, Hugh Rifkind, Mum, Phil Clarke, Poldark, Raised by Wolves, River, Rob Delaney, Rose D'Or Awards, Sally Wainwright, Sarah Phelps, Sharon Horgan, Stefan Golaszewski, Stellan Skarsgård, The Hour, The Iron Lady, This Is England '90, VictoriaAndy Fry
Big Talk Productions' Mum aired on BBC2
The Rose D'Or Awards were dominated by the UK last year with wins in nine out of 11 available categories – and following this week's release of the Rose D'Or shortlists for 2016, it looks like the UK stands an extremely good chance of repeating its success.
One thing is for sure, the UK will win both the sitcom and the newly created drama series categories. In sitcom, the three shows slugging it out are Episodes from Hat Trick Productions, Mum and Raised by Wolves, the latter two from Big Talk Productions.
In drama, the contest is between Happy Valley, River and This Is England '90. The winners will be revealed in Berlin on September 13.
Looking first at the dramas, Happy Valley (written by Sally Wainwright) and This Is England '90 (Shane Meadows/Jack Thorne) have already received plenty of plaudits. River, a six-part drama for the BBC, is probably the least-known of the three, despite being written by one of the UK's top talents, Abi Morgan.
Having started out writing for theatre, Morgan's earliest credits were in TV (Peak Practice, My Fragile Heart), but more recently she has moved effortlessly back and forth between film and TV. Her best-known films include Brick Lane, The Iron Lady and Suffragette, while stand-out TV credits include novel adaptation Birdsong, The Hour and River.
Six-part drama River earned positive critical notices in the UK press
Regardless of whether River triumphs in Berlin, Morgan certainly got the thumbs up from critics. In the UK, The Daily Telegraph critic Michael Hogan said the series was "beautifully written by Abi Morgan, stylishly directed and superbly acted. [Lead actor] Stellan Skarsgård delivered a powerhouse performance: sad and soulful in one scene, sardonically spiky and manically energetic in the next. With his craggy face and crumpled demeanour, the haunted detective prowled the streets of London like a wounded bear. I'm torn between wanting River to get recommissioned and wanting this series to stand alone as six near-perfect episodes."
Aside from its UK screening on the BBC, River has also been available via Netflix internationally. In Canada, Globe and Mail critic John Doyle added his voice to Hogan's, calling the show a masterpiece of melancholy crime drama: "It is the sort of drama critics rejoice in seeing. It is a stunningly successful hybrid of Nordic noir and the traditional, gloomy British police procedural. It is about solving a murder, but mainly about the intricacies of the human mind dealing with loss and terrible grief."
The Rose D'Or sitcom category, meanwhile, brings international recognition for Stefan Golaszewski, writer of BBC2's Mum. Golaszewski previously wrote Bafta-winning sitcom Him & Her for BBC2. In Mum, he tells the story of a woman seeking to rebuild her life following the death of her husband.
Rose D'Or-winning sitcom Catastrophe is set for third and fourth seasons
When the show was commissioned, Shane Allen, controller of comedy commissioning, said: "Commissioning Mum was a delightfully easy decision after seeing the sure-footed pilot. Stefan is a unique author and this is a very confident next chapter in what promises to be a distinguished career in comedy. All his hallmarks are there – painful authenticity, comedy grotesques, emotional tenderness, revelation and depth – it's a class act. I think it will connect with a lot of people as a refreshing take on an overlooked stage in life."
Conveniently for the sake of narrative flow, last year's Rose D'Or-winning sitcom Catastrophe is also in the news this week, with Channel 4 commissioning a third and fourth season of the critically acclaimed show. Created by and starring Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, the second season of Catastrophe was C4's second-highest performing comedy of the year. The show has also been streamed in the US by Amazon Prime and picked up for adaptation for French-speaking Canada.
Announcing the news, Phil Clarke, C4's head of comedy, said: "I am thrilled to commission a third and fourth season. It's a welcome return for the brave, razor-edged, excruciatingly honest and painfully funny portrayal of a modern, long-term relationship."
Big Talk Productions' Raised by Wolves
Critics have also been effusive in their praise of the show. The Guardian's Will Dean said it "inverts the classic romcom with sexual honesty, a barrage of swearing and a wonderfully dysfunctional support cast. Catastrophe is a modern great. All 12 episodes [the first two seasons] were superb in pretty much almost every aspect. At its heart it's an ordinary love story, couched in some first-class swearing, about sexual honesty, served with a side-plate of adultery, lust, elderly parents, flirtatious colleagues, money worries and a dead dog. The love story we deserve."
The Times' Hugh Rifkind added that it is "the funniest British comedy of the past five years. I shan't say more, because it is so funny that me telling you the funny bits would be considerably less funny than you actually watching it, which is definitely what you should do. It's tight and sparse and there's never a wasted moment. In a nutshell, the best bits are about all the terrible things you never quite say to your friends, family and significant other, and what would happen if everybody just said them."
Announcing the recommission, Horgan and Delaney said: "We are thrilled to be making a third season of Catastrophe. Rob and Sharon are a blast to spend time with. And we're not talking about ourselves in the third person, we're talking about the characters. We're eager to breathe life back into Rob and Sharon. Okay, now we are talking about us. In the first season Rob and Sharon went through a lot (us) and even more in the second season (back to the characters). We're looking forward to putting Rob and Sharon (both us and the characters) through further pain for your enjoyment (now we're talking about you)."
This Is England '90, written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne, is up for a Rose D'Or
Delaney recently took part in a panel session at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, during which he talked about the challenges of delivering great comedy. He talked about the need to keep ego under control, even when the world is telling you how great you are. "I had this fear of becoming this walled-off guy who wouldn't listen. So I'm a real believer in humility," he said.
Explaining why he persisted with comedy as a career, Delaney said: "I realised after the global financial collapse that no career is safe, that everyone else knows how comedians feel. So I thought I might as well do exactly what I want to do."
He was also very refreshing on the subject of encouraging diversity, observing that it is "insane" not to draw on diverse voices. "My advice is to be selfish, make money by embracing diversity," he quipped.
Finally, in the UK, there are reports that the new season of BBC period drama Poldark will go head-to-head on Sunday night with ITV's new period drama Victoria (September 4, 21.00). Fortunately, most of us have time-shifting technology these days, so my guess is that people will store Victoria so they can avoid the ad breaks.
Poldark is written by Debbie Horsfield while Victoria is created and written by novelist Daisy Goodwin in her screenwriting debut. Alongside the likes of Sally Wainwright, Sarah Phelps and Abi Morgan, these shows may be indicators that female writers are starting to hold more sway in primetime – a section of the schedule that, from a writer's point of view, can sometimes resemble a London gentleman's club. Or Muirfield Golf Club.
tagged in: Abi Morgan, Birdsong, Brick Lane, Canada, Catastrophe, Channel 4, Daisy Goodwin, Debbie Horsfield, Episodes, Happy Valley, Hat Trick Productions, Hugh Rifkind, Mum, Phil Clarke, Poldark, Raised by Wolves, River, Rob Delaney, Rose D'Or Awards, Sally Wainwright, Sarah Phelps, Sharon Horgan, Stefan Golaszewski, Stellan Skarsgård, The Hour, The Iron Lady, This Is England '90, Victoria
MipTV scorecard: Which dramas stood out?
April 8, 2016 Hit & MissAMC, Close Murders, Dominique Delport, Feed the Beast, Frank Spotnitz, Guan Yue International, ITV, Lionsgate, Marcella, Medici: Masters of Florence, MipTV, Netflix, Onza Entertainment, Ovation, Public Enemy, Rai, Studio+, The Department of Time, Versailles, Victoria, Zodiak RightsAndy Fry
Jenna Coleman in Victoria
There were 11,000 delegates at MipTV this week, 3,900 of whom were content buyers. And top of their shopping list was drama, with a wide array of titles being picked up by free-to-air, pay TV and SVoD channels and platforms.
MipTV doesn't see much activity from the major US studios, which prefer to focus on the LA Screenings next month. So this meant the attention was more on European and Asian drama, with a few US cable titles also attracting attention.
A big winner at the market, for example, was ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which sold its period drama Victoria into the Nordic region, the Netherlands and Canada. There was also interest in BBC Worldwide's Anglo-French fashion drama The Collection, which sold to SVT Sweden and DR Denmark.
As the above titles indicate, British dramas tend to secure an initial wave of sales in Scandinavia and other English-speaking markets before picking up deals in other territories. This point was underlined by deals done on Capital. Distributed by FremantleMedia International, the adaptation of John Lanchester's novel has been sold into the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
If there was a clear trend in terms of sales, it was the continued importance of SVoD platforms, which seem to be doing almost as many drama deals as traditional networks.
The Book of Negroes has been picked up by US streamer Hulu
Hulu picked up eOne's The Book of Negroes, while All3Media International sold Irish drama Red Rock to Amazon Prime Video in the US. Channel 4's international drama strand Walter Presents, meanwhile, acquired two series from Keshet International – Baker & The Beauty and Milk & Honey – plus Spanish drama Locked Up.
Perhaps the most high-profile SVoD deal of them all saw Netflix acquire Marcella from Cineflix Rights. Created by The Bridge writer Hans Rosenfeldt and produced by Buccaneer Media for ITV in the UK, Marcella delves into the psychology of a troubled female detective investigating a serial killer. Larry Tanz, VP of global television at Netflix, said: "We got involved with the series early on in the process to gain the opportunity to bring Hans's great storytelling to our members around the world."
Other dramas that secured good deals at the market include the Content Television-distributed Line of Duty, which sold to DirecTV Latin America, BBC Worldwide Benelux and Hulu in the US, which picked up VoD rights.
There was also an interesting deal that saw Zodiak Rights' Versailles picked up by US pay TV channel Ovation. Ovation isn't really known as a drama buyer, so it's another good indication of the demand for event dramas.
One company that has got more interesting to the international market in recent years is Italian public broadcaster Rai, which until recently was only really interested in commissioning mainstream scripted shows for primetime slots on flagship channel Rai 1. But there has a been a definite shift as a result of the wider changes taking place in the international drama market.
Marcella, starring Anna Friel and now airing on ITV in the UK, was acquired by Netflix
On the one hand, the company is now producing edgier, younger-targeted drama for Rai 3, with the result that it is attracting more attention from international buyers. An example at the market was Close Murders, which was on the verge of being picked up by Franco-German network Arte at Mip.
On the other, Rai has started getting interested in supporting English-language event dramas. At the market, for example, it was one of the backers of Wild Bunch TV's epic new period drama Medici: Masters of Florence, which has now been greenlit for a second season.
One new development at the market was the launch of the Mip Drama Screenings, a showcase for 12 new drama titles that was held on April 3 in the JW Marriott Hotel. The event, heavily skewed towards European content (but with a Chilean and an Israeli-originated show involved) was well received by buyers and put the spotlight on some interesting series.
Writer/producer Frank Spotnitz, whose Medici was among the shows screened, called the screenings "an excellent platform. We had the undivided attention of 400 buyers who were able to watch extended excerpts and trailers in a nice theatre, with proper sound and picture quality. When you are running around at a hectic TV market like MipTV, a focused and quiet environment is valuable for both the filmmakers and the broadcasters. I hope the screenings expand in the future."
Belgium's Public Enemy won the Coup De Coeur following the Mip Drama Screenings
At the end of the screenings, one show is given an award called the Coup De Coeur for being the best of the bunch according to the buyers. This year it was Belgium's Public Enemy, which is distributed by Zodiak Rights.
It's too early to know how Public Enemy's success at the screenings will impact on its sales – but it certainly should help. Sarah Wright, director of acquisitions at Sky and one of the executives on the advisory board that selected the show, said: "We chose Public Enemy because we felt it was brave, it was strong, it was fresh, it had twists and turns. It feels like something that will travel."
Last week, we name-checked a few scripted format deals. By the end of MipTV a couple more had bubbled to the surface. Onza Entertainment sold the format for Spanish drama The Department of Time to China's Guan Yue International, while Russia's NTV commissioned a local version of Nordic Noir hit The Bridge.
In a related development, Lionsgate licensed its new show Feed the Beast (starring David Schwimmer and Jim Sturgess) to AMC's UK pay TV channel. This show, about two friends who launch a restaurant, is based on a Danish scripted format.
This market was very much billed as being about Germany – this year's Country of Honour. But it was noticeable that France was actually among the most high profile in terms of deal-making. StudioCanal, for example, used the market to announce that it was acquiring stakes in a number of international production companies, including Spanish powerhouse Bambu, producer of hit shows like Velvet, Gran Hotel and the first Spanish-language series ordered by Netflix. The firm's sister company Canal+, meanwhile, launched Studio+, which is billed as the first global premium series offer for mobile devices.
Velvet, produced by Spain's Bambu
The new company will produce exclusive premium drama series for smartphones, tablets and a dedicated app. Each series will consist of 10 10-minute episodes, with an average budget of €1m (US$1.14m). Studio+ president Manuel Alduy said the service will launch in September in France with 25 complete original series, before opening in Europe, Russia and Latin America in partnership with major local telecoms. Early series include drama Amnesia starring Caroline Proust, action series Brutal and Urban Jungle and thrillers Kill Skills and Madame Hollywood. Sixty more shows are currently in development.
Explaining the thinking behind the series, Dominique Delport, president of Vivendi Content (Canal+'s parent company), said 60% of smartphone users watch shortform video. He said the directing talent for the new series comes from advertising and music, sectors that have experience of reaching Studio+'s target audience of 15- to 35-year-olds.
tagged in: AMC, Close Murders, Dominique Delport, Feed the Beast, Frank Spotnitz, Guan Yue International, ITV, Lionsgate, Marcella, Medici: Masters of Florence, MipTV, Netflix, Onza Entertainment, Ovation, Public Enemy, Rai, Studio+, The Department of Time, Versailles, Victoria, Zodiak Rights
Drama takes centre stage in Cannes
April 1, 2016 THE BUSINESSAmazon, Entertainment One, ITV, Keshet, MipTV, Netflix, Roots, Stuart Baxter, VictoriaMichael Pickard
A feast of drama will be served in Cannes when MipTV hosts its first ever Drama Screening event next week. DQ previews the line-up and the rest of this year's market.
Drama will once again be the focus for the television industry when executives arrive in Cannes for this year's MipTV, which begins on Monday.
It's an event at which the genre has traditionally taken a back seat. US studios generally have a quieter presence at a market held just a few weeks before the LA Screenings – when networks and cable channels announce their programming line-ups for the new season ahead – while mini-markets such as Mip Formats and Mip Docs have given those genres their own platforms.
This year is different, however, with the launch of Mip Drama Screenings, which will see 12 series presented to delegates for the first time. Bodo (Poland), Bordertown (Finland), I Know Who You Are (Spain), Ku'Damm 56 – Rebel With A Cause (Germany), Mathilde (Russia), Medici: Masters of Florence (Italy), Public Enemy (Belgium), Ramona (Chile), Section Zéro (France), and The A Word, The Secret and Victoria (all UK) will be previewed for 350 acquisition executives from around the world.
The day of screenings comes on top of the world drama premiere on Monday evening, which this year will be Roots (pictured top), the remake of the 1977 miniseries based on Alex Hanley's book. A+E Studios International is distributing the show, which will debut in the US on Monday, May 30.
Ku'Damm 56 hails from Germany, the Country of Honour at MipTV 2016
Others dramas being launched include Beta Film's The Embassy, NHK's Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, Endemol Shine International's Turkish series Intersection, and Cannabis from Lagardère Studios Distribution.
Among the panel sessions taking place inside the Palais des Festivals, executives will discuss trends, channels and platforms, financing and the emergence of web series. The spotlight will also fall on Germany – MipTV's Country of Honour 2016 – and the Nordics.
Meanwhile, Drama Quarterly editor Michael Pickard will moderate a discussion on Tuesday called Scripted Formats: What's Hot, What's Next?.
But what other industry talking points will be up for debate in the south of France?
For distributors, identifying the needs of a multitude of buyers is now key if they stand any chance of completing a deal, such is the wide range of content providers now on the market.
Among them, international producer-distributor Entertainment One (eOne) has a slate of new shows it hopes will appeal to the majority of broadcasters, whether free or pay TV, linear or online.
Its new series include comedy-drama You Me Her, procedural Private Eyes (starring Jason Priestley) and serial Cardinal. It is also distributing Designated Survivor, from Mark Gordon and starring Kiefer Sutherland, and is on board Sharp Objects, an adaptation of the Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) book with showrunner Marti Noxon and star Amy Adams.
Outlining where demand lies around the world, Stuart Baxter, president of eOne International, says: "The reality is the US networks have got fewer and fewer slots available for procedurals but international free TV channels, particularly in Europe, love them. They want closed-end episodes and long runs – they love 23 or 24 episodes in a season. Whereas the international pay TV and OTT market love more serialised, expensive and talent-driven shows."
Since their entry into original content production, Netflix and Amazon have certainly shaken up the industry – and their appetite for library content means distributors have been eager to sell them series from their back catalogue.
Jenna Coleman in Victoria, which looks likely to generate a lot of buzz at MiptTV
Yet when it comes to these streaming giants and the general demand of international broadcaster groups to take multi-territory rights to an individual show, the question is no longer about doing a deal but about what sort of deal can maximise a show's international audience.
Keshet International made a big splash at Mipcom last October when it sold global rights for its spy thriller False Flag to Fox International Channels.
"Everybody is working with Netflix and Amazon and working out how to work with them at the same time," Baxter admits. "We've got shows with them and we like them as partners. But there are shows that are less suitable for them and some shows where it's better for us to do territory-by-territory deals, rather than global deals with one platform.
"The challenge comes if they will only do global deals. It forces us to make a decision on whether we do territory-by-territory deals and it depends how early in the process that happens."
So while distributors try to push their series past the noise created by the vast competition, buyers will be on the hunt not only for the best content but also the best deal. It promises to be a fascinating duel that could determine the path for deals in the future – and whether streamers have the right to place their 'original' tag on a show after securing worldwide rights.
Beyond the dealmaking, the bar continues to be raised in terms of the ambition and production quality of television drama, which can only be good for audiences, no matter where they watch the show. Watch out for Victoria to lead the charge for the buzziest title at the market.
See you on La Croisette.
tagged in: Amazon, Entertainment One, ITV, Keshet, MipTV, Netflix, Roots, Stuart Baxter, Victoria
Mip's miniseries and serials
March 29, 2016 GreenlightAmerican Gods, Bordertown, Intersection, Ku'damm 56 – Rebel With A Cause, Marcella, Medici: Masters of Florence, MipTV, Roots, Section Zéro, The Secret, Victoria, Wolf CreekAndy Fry
With MipTV imminent, miniseries and serials continue to be a major focal point for many international buyers. This week we preview a dozen of the limited-run dramas that will attract attention at the Cannes market.
American Gods is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's iconic fantasy adventure novel by FremantleMedia North America (FMNA) for US pay TV channel Starz. It is distributed by FremantleMedia International. On the eve of Mip, FMNA began to provide details on the key cast, something that will be of interest to buyers in Cannes. They key addition is Emily Browning (Legend), who has been cast as Laura Moon. Other announced cast members include Ian McShane, Ricky Whittle, Sean Harris, Yetide Badaki and Bruce Langley. The series begins shooting next month.
Bordertown is a coproduction between Federation Entertainment and Fisher King Productions for Finnish public broadcaster YLE. The 11-part show follows a police investigator who moves to a Finland-Russia border town with his family for a quiet life but instead gets caught up in a serial killer case. The show is one of 12 titles to feature in the new MipDrama Screenings.
Intersection is a 13-part drama distributed by Endemol Shine International that aired on free-to-air channel Fox in Turkey and has just been renewed for a second season. Set in Istanbul, the thriller follows a love triangle involving a playboy businessman, a car designer and a beautiful woman. The three main stars – Ibrahim Çelikkol, Belçim Bilgin and Alican Yücesoy – will be in Cannes.
Ku'damm 56 – Rebel With A Cause is a three-part family drama produced by UFA Fiction for ZDF/ZDF Enterprises and written by Dorothee Schon. Set in the 1950s, it tells the story of young women of the era and their struggle for equality. (Read more about Ku'damm 56 here.)
Marcella is a new drama from Cineflix Rights. Produced by Buccaneer Media for ITV and written by Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge), it stars Anna Friel (Limitless) as a UK detective investigating a serial murder case where the modus operandi of the killer bears a striking resemblance to an unsolved spate of killings from a decade before. The series also stars Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey), Sinead Cusack (Jekyll & Hyde) and Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones), among others.
Medici: Masters of Florence is an eight-part English-language Italian series about the rise of the Medici family and the Italian Renaissance, with a €24m (US$26.91m) budget. Produced by Lux Vide SPA and Big Light Productions, it features Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) and Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) and is directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan. The show will be broadcast in Italy by Rai and distributed internationally by Wild Bunch TV
Public Enemy is a 10-hour drama from Belgium, aired domestically by RTBF and distributed by Zodiak Rights. It centres on Guy Béranger, a dangerous child murderer whose eventual release leads to an outcry from the nearby small village and the rest of the country. When a young girl subsequently disappears, the entire village is in uproar. Chloé Muller, a young inspector based in Brussels, is assigned to the investigation to protect the despised Béranger, bringing her face-to-face with the fears and secrets of the seemingly peaceful community.
Roots is a reboot of the classic 1970s series and is again based on the acclaimed book by Alex Haley. Distributed by A+E International, it's a detailed portrait of American slavery, recounting the journey of one family and their will to survive and ultimately carry on their legacy despite great hardship. Roots boasts a stellar cast and will debut on May 30 across History, A&E and Lifetime channels in the US. The series starts with the capture of Kunta Kinte in his homeland of The Gambia and follows his transportation to America where he is enslaved.
Section Zéro is an eight-part French drama that was first introduced to the international market last year. Attending MipTV as part of the new MipDrama Screenings, it is produced by EuropaCorp Television, Bad Company and Umedia for Canal+ France with StudioCanal as distributor. The show is set in 2024 and sees an elite police squad battle it out with powerful corporations and their robots. StudioCanal has called the series a mix of Fargo, The Returned and Mad Max.
The Secret is a four-hour crime drama from Hat Trick Productions in association with Northern Ireland Screen. Starring James Nesbitt (The Missing) and based on a book by Deric Henderson, it focuses on a real-life double murder. Nesbitt plays Colin Howell, a respectable dentist and pillar of the community, while Genevieve O'Reilly (The Honourable Woman) is Sunday school teacher Hazel Buchanan. Howell and Buchanan met at their local Church in Coleraine, Northern Ireland and embarked upon a passionate and destructive affair, which climaxed in an elaborate plot to kill both their partners. The show is being distributed by Hat Trick International.
Pick up the latest DQ in Cannes
Victoria is an eight-part historical drama from ITV Studios Global Entertainment. Produced by Mammoth Screen, it follows the early life of the celebrated UK monarch, who ascended the throne aged just 18. The series has already been picked up by PBS in the US and will be screened to an audience of 350 at the first-ever MipDrama Screenings on Sunday April 3.
Wolf Creek is a new psychological thriller based on the international feature film of the same name. Produced by Screentime for Stan in Australia, it focuses on a 19-year-old girl seeking revenge against the murdering psychopath who killed her parents and little brother. The six-hour series is being distributed by Zodiak Rights.
If you're in Cannes for MipTV and want to read more about Marcella, Victoria and much, much more, pick up the spring 2016 issue of Drama Quarterly.
tagged in: American Gods, Bordertown, Intersection, Ku'damm 56 – Rebel With A Cause, Marcella, Medici: Masters of Florence, MipTV, Roots, Section Zéro, The Secret, Victoria, Wolf Creek
Bigger and better
February 23, 2016 CHANNELSChurchill's Secret, Cold Feet, Downton Abbey, Hans Rosenfeldt, Jericho, Marcella, Steve November, VictoriaGün Akyuz
Steve November, drama director at ITV, promises a bigger drama slate over the next two years and wants to make the channel the 'place of choice' for established producers and fresh talent alike.
Now that juggernaut period drama Downton Abbey has come to an end – the final sixth season bowed out with just under nine million viewers, while a one-off Christmas Day special drew almost seven million – the Sunday 21.00 slot has opened up opportunities for ITV to cast its net wider for new dramas.
Steve November, director of drama, is not actively seeking to replace the Edwardian drama with more period pieces. Instead, he has identified a growing viewer appetite for contemporary stories. "We've approached it saying we've no idea what the new Downton is going to be," he says. "It's going to be a show that captures the public's imagination… that viewers fall in love with over several series. But whether that's a contemporary show or a period show, or even a Sunday night show, we don't know."
Steve November
The commercial broadcaster, which turned 60 last September, has to make its broad, mainstream content mission appeal to rapidly shifting viewer patterns, yet "it's always, always popular mainstream," says November. "That's unashamedly what we are and want to be, but of the highest quality. There's absolutely no disconnect between popular and the highest quality, so it's aiming to be as broad in our appeal as we can be, accessible to everybody, but delivering something unexpected, something fresh, and real truths so that when you come to ITV you get what you want but you also get something more."
ITV also relies on big returning shows to collectively build its drama brand. These programmes represent the majority of its drama output, "but we can't have a schedule that's only familiar," says November. "We need to be constantly offering new things that are moving the ITV experience forward, evolving it, developing it. So it is a constant mix."
In fact, post-Downton, this year ITV will swing much more in favour of new dramas, says November. "It's going to look like quite a new and fresh schedule and we hope a portion of those dramas will be returners, but there's always room for the new."
November says ITV's drama strategy is built around a "collective vision" for the channel. Alongside his five-strong commissioning team, "viewers can dictate as much as we do where the market is going, what they'd like to see, and we're trying to predict and supply that," he says. "So it's about responding to many things around us, to what viewers seem to be wanting, to what other channels are doing, to our brand and identity and how we can evolve that. This is 60 years of history to work with so it's a very purposeful redefining and evolving of the brand that's so well established."
Jekyll and Hyde failed to meet expectations
But with global multiplatform players now providing increasingly credible alternatives outlets to producers and viewers, ITV needs to open up its range. "We're in a very, very competitive market for ideas nowadays," says November. "Obviously the opportunities for UK writers and producers to be taking their ideas abroad or to new competitors in the market, to be working with players like Amazon and Netflix, mean that in order to get those fresh new takes, we have to be very proactive and make sure that we are, as far as possible, the best place and the place of choice for writers and producers to work."
The bigger challenge for all broadcasters, he notes, "is keeping people watching scheduled live TV, keeping our viewers, making drama and programming generally that demands attention from viewers."
A development at ITV last autumn was the return of drama to early peak on Sundays with the launch of Jekyll and Hyde at 18.30 in late October. The 10-part period drama from in-house production arm ITV Studios caused a stir among some viewers for content deemed unsuitable for younger children. But November insists the show was right for the slot and that "most importantly" it was "doing something quite different to other shows at that time, particularly those on the BBC."
The end of Downton Abbey has left ITV with a hole to fill in its 2016 drama line-up
It might have been different, but Jekyll and Hyde ultimately failed to achieve what ITV wanted, with creator Charlie Higson announcing on Twitter in early January that it would not be back for a second season. "It was a grand adventure while it lasted," he wrote.
ITV plans to increase its drama output in each of the next two years, says November. The channel has already lined up a varied slate of new series, including Victoria (8×60', pictured top) from Mammoth Screen (Poldark, Endeavour), focusing on the early life of the British monarch. It also marks the screenwriting debut of novelist and producer Daisy Goodwin.
November says his drama commissioning team is committed to fostering new writing talent. "We're all feeling pressure in that you can't wait for the traditionally successful names. But it's exciting for us and it's incumbent on the business to create opportunities for talent," he says, citing Chris Lunt, whose first 21.00 drama commission was crime miniseries Prey, which returned for a second season before Christmas; and Daisy Coulam, who got her first authored show on ITV with Grantchester. "Good writing is good writing and we pride ourselves as a team on judging writing solely on its quality, not on who wrote it. We'd love to hear from new talent across the board, it's exciting."
However, ITV continues to mine its back-catalogue for returnables. After 12 years off air, Cold Feet is being revived as a new eight-part series, while Tennison is a prequel to Lynda La Plante's iconic crime drama Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren and ran to seven series. The six-part latter, written by La Plante and coproduced by Noho Film and Television and La Plante Global, is being lined up to coincide with this year's 25th anniversary of the launch of Prime Suspect.
"Of course, we've got to balance that with the absolutely new and the fresh. We can't load our schedule with old brands and old IP," comments November. "It'll be very selected shows that we think have got a real chance of a genuine new life."
The original Cold Feet, the cast of which is reuniting for a revival this year
Dramas on this year's slate appear to fulfil that mission. Adding to Cold Feet and Tennison are several from ITV Studios, including the 12-part warrior drama Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands and eight-part historical drama Jericho (both now on air) and four-parter Tutankhamun. The latter follows the discovery of the tomb of the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh and stars Max Irons and Sam Neill.
External commissions include crime drama Marcella from Buccaneer Media, written by Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge) and starring Anna Friel; three-part drama Doctor Thorne, Julian Fellowes' next project for ITV after Downton, adapted from Anthony Trollope's book series and made by Hat Trick Productions; and The Halcyon (8×60') from Left Bank Pictures, a drama set in a five-star London hotel in wartime 1940.
Hillbilly Television will also produce six-parter The Level, about a police officer leading a double life, while CPL Productions is behind 80s-set Brief Encounters.
The slate also includes several new single dramas, like Churchill's Secret, produced by Tinopolis-owned Daybreak Pictures and starring Michael Gambon as Sir Winston Churchill and Lindsay Duncan as Clementine Churchill.
While ITV's peaktime drama commissions are not slot-driven, November says the common denominator is "21.00 primetime, post-watershed drama. Even if you're talking about a two-hour piece drama like Endeavour that might start at 20.00, we still want it to have a 21.00 emotional and narrative sensibility. It's got to fit that taste and tone."
In particular, November highlights "a real desire and hunger for contemporary at the moment." ITV has commissioned several new period pieces and the exec says he is looking for a "light, bright, exciting contemporary hit" to balance with these, pointing enviously at BBC1's Doctor Foster. "I wish we had that show. Big, romantic thrillers and family relationship dramas are real priorities for us at the moment."
Jericho is airing now
ITV remains entirely focused on commissioning for British viewers. "The international aspect can bring funding, talent and all the other parts of the equation. But first and foremost I only want to look at shows that are going to work for our audience in the UK on their UK broadcast," November adds.
The drama director says ITV's licence fees are very competitive and realistic against the backdrop of rising budgets, typically ranging between £500,000 (US$745,700) and £800,000-plus per hour, depending on the show.
"Excitingly for me and hopefully for producers, our commitment to drama remains absolutely solid and is, in fact, growing," November says. "We have more hours in 2016 than we had in 2015, and it will be the same again in 2017. In 2017 we're looking at a schedule with plenty of opportunity and a real commitment to drama, knowing that's what we need to drive our brand and viewers."
tagged in: Churchill's Secret, Cold Feet, Downton Abbey, Hans Rosenfeldt, Jericho, Marcella, Steve November, Victoria
Billions attracts millions, Midwife delivers
January 22, 2016 Hit & MissBBC, Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, Billions, Call the Midwife, ITV, Jessica Jones, NBCUniversal, Netflix, PBS, Rebecca Eaton, Showtime, Sky, Victoria, War and PeaceAndy Fry
Billions gave Showtime its best ever opening
Pan-European pay TV broadcaster Sky has just announced that its Sky Atlantic channel will now be the exclusive home to programming from CBS's premium US cable network Showtime in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy.
Previously, Sky licensed select Showtime content on a case-by-case basis – one example being the excellent scripted series The Affair.
The deal is an important one for Sky, which is facing increased competition for content rights (and not just for drama) from the likes of BT, Netflix, Amazon and Viacom (owner of Channel 5). It's also significant for Showtime, which is keen to see its brand better known around the world. This deal gives it access to 21 million European pay TV households at a single stroke.
One of the titles included in the new deal is Billions, an ambitious drama set in the world of New York high finance. The show, which stars Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis, has just debuted to strong audiences in the US.
David Nevins
According to Showtime, Billions is its best-ever launch, attracting 2.99 million viewers to its premiere. This is marginally more than Showtime's previous best, which was Ray Donovan in 2013 with 2.91 million viewers.
Showtime president and CEO David Nevins said: "It's a testament to the timeliness of the subject matter, the power of its stars and the brilliance of the show creators that Billions has had such a big start."
The way Showtime derives its 2.99 million figure is an interesting snapshot of how viewing in the digital era is measured. Around 1.6 million of the viewing total was generated by a preview of the show that was offered to Showtime subscribers in advance. The other 1.4 million was the cumulative total for multiple broadcasts of the show on its premiere night (last Sunday). The first of these contributed around 900,000 to the evening's 1.4 million total.
Notwithstanding this fragmented viewing pattern, the 2.99 million total is a very impressive launch for Billions. The show also got an 8.4 rating on IMDb, which suggests it is in good shape on the audience appreciation front. If it continues in the same vein across its first season of 12 episodes, it will fit in well among other strong Showtime series such as Shameless, Homeland, Ray Donovan, The Affair and Penny Dreadful.
That would also be good news for Sky, which generally does well with Showtime titles – in fact, the two are coproducers on Penny Dreadful.
Call the Midwife's new season pulled in eight million viewers, two million more than its slot's average
In recent weeks, we've flagged up a number of BBC UK dramas that have done well in the post-Christmas period. Today we can add another one following the successful return of Call the Midwife on Sunday evenings at 20.00.
Now in its fifth season, the show attracted an impressive eight million viewers. Although this is down a bit on the last couple of seasons, it is still well ahead of the slot average of six million. The show also does extremely well internationally, with BBC Worldwide having sold it to around 100 territories including the US, France and Australia.
The show is a classic example of how hyper-local subjects (midwives London's East End in the 1950s and 1960s) can appeal to global audiences if they contain strong stories and universal characters. It's interesting to note as an aside that both Penny Dreadful and Call the Midwife are made by the same production company, Neal Street (now part of All3Media, which itself is owned by Discovery and Liberty Global).
Still with the BBC, we took the view last week that anything above 4.5 million viewers for episode three of War & Peace would be a solid result. So the 5.1 million that tuned in represents a strong endorsement for the show.
The Andrew Davies adaptation also won numerous plaudits from the British press, with the Daily Telegraph giving it five stars and calling it "utterly captivating." There's no question that Davies' writing is also benefiting from some terrific performances by the likes of Paul Dano, James Norton, Tuppence Middleton and everyone's favourite fairytale princess Lily James. Being able to call on the likes of Stephen Rea, Gillian Anderson, Jim Broadbent and Ade Edmondson as supporting cast reinforces the credentials of the show yet further.
ITV, by contrast, has been having a more mixed time with its drama recently. After Jekyll & Hyde's cancellation, the broadcaster's latest fantasy epic, Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, is also struggling to find its footing. The latest episode attracted two million viewers, which isn't really enough for a mid-evening slot. The performance of the two shows raises questions about whether there is really room for fantasy drama in the heartland of free-to-air commercial primetime. Maybe fantasy works better when it is tucked away slightly out of sight on pay TV (the way it is in most mainstream bookshops).
Beowulf has started disappointingly
ITV is, however, on much firmer ground with Victoria, its upcoming eight-part period drama written by novelist and erstwhile TV executive Daisy Goodwin. This week, PBS in the US announced it has acquired the show, which it will schedule in the slot formerly occupied by fellow ITV acquisition Downton Abbey.
The eight-part series, starring Doctor Who's Jenna Colema, follows Victoria from when she first becomes Queen in 1837 at the age of 18 through to her marriage to Prince Albert (Tom Hughes).
Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of PBS's Masterpiece strand, said: "Downton Abbey has proved that millions of viewers will turn up year after year for a beautifully crafted period drama. Victoria has it all: a riveting script, brilliant cast and spectacular locations. And it's a true story. This is exactly the programming Masterpiece fans will love."
Finally, an interesting story in the US regarding Netflix and Amazon ratings. The SVoD platforms are notorious for not releasing data on the performance of their shows. But Alan Wurtzel, head of research at rival NBCUniversal, provided some insight at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour.
Krysten Ritter plays the titular character in Netflix hit Jessica Jones
Using data from a company called Symphony Advanced Media, Wurtzel said that Netflix series Jessica Jones averaged 4.8 million 18-49 viewers per episode in the 35 days after its November launch. By a similar count, Narcos attracted 3.2 million and Master of None attracted three million. Amazon's critically acclaimed series The Man in the High Castle drew 2.1 million 18-49 viewers.
If these numbers are accurate, then all of the above shows would compare favourably with most US cable shows. No real surprise, then, that Jessica Jones has been given a second season.
That said, NBCU's analysis must be handled carefully. In response to Wurtzel's findings, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said he hoped NBC didn't "spend any money" on the Symphony research since it was "really remarkably inaccurate data." However, people will keep speculating until Netflix finally decides to reveals some numbers itself.
tagged in: BBC, Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, Billions, Call the Midwife, ITV, Jessica Jones, NBCUniversal, Netflix, PBS, Rebecca Eaton, Showtime, Sky, Victoria, War and Peace
International Drama Summit: Round-up
December 4, 2015 THE BUSINESSA+E Networks, Agatha Christie Ltd, Amazon, And Then There Were None, Anne Mensah, BBC, Beth Willis, C21 International Drama Summit, Cameron Roach, Channel 4, Clive Bradley, Content London, Daisy Goodwin, Damien Timmer, Dynamic Television, Hard Sun, Hilary Strong, ITV, Jekyll and Hyde, Klaus Zimmermann, Mammoth Screen, Morgan Wandell, Neil Cross, Piers Wenger, Polly Hill, Sky, Steve November, The Man in the High Castle, Trapped, VictoriaMichael Pickard
The international drama community gathered at the BFI on London's South Bank for three days of screenings, panel sessions, case studies and awards. Michael Pickard looks back on C21 Media's International Drama Summit, part of Content London.
On the south bank of the River Thames, hundreds of producers, writers and broadcasters from around the world gathered in London for C21 Media's International Drama Summit this week.
Held at the British Film Institute, the event took in three days of screenings, panel sessions and interviews covering the hottest talking points in the business – from budgets and coproductions to what commissioners are looking for to fill their schedules.
Audiences took in the first images of new Icelandic drama Trapped, written by Clive Bradley and produced by Dynamic Television. Producer Klaus Zimmermann discussed the challenges of working with nine commissioning broadcasters, among them SVT, DR1, DRK, France Télévisions and BBC4.
Figures from all areas of the drama industry descended on London for C21's International Drama Summit
Bradley also spoke about his positive experience working in a US-style writers room for the first time. "It's always going to be true that if you have four rather than one brain that you will create more," he said. "The turnaround was always going to be very quick because you've got at least eight months to do 10 episodes."
There was also a packed house for a first glimpse at ITV's forthcoming period drama Victoria, starring former Doctor Who companion Jenna Coleman. "Jenna was born to be queen," said Damien Timmer, from producer Mammoth Screen.
Writer Daisy Goodwin added: "I've tried to tell the story of a teenager growing up with a crown. She's not the queen you expect. It's drama but everything that happens is true."
Among the drama case studies, the creative teams from shows including Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, The Collection, Dickensian, Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, Capital and Jekyll & Hyde took to the stage to reveal secrets from behind the scenes.
Agatha Christie Ltd CEO Hilary Strong said she always envisioned And Then There Were None to be a coproduction, with the three-parter due to air on BBC1 in the UK and Lifetime in the US.
"Working with Joel [Denton, A+E Networks ] and A+E has been a real revelation. This is a BBC show, it's inherently British, but A+E didn't demand we put any US stars in as per the old coproduction thing. That is over. Instead, we knew it needed a cast that resonated [in the US] so there was a dialogue."
DQ editor Michael Pickard (far left) discusses ITV's Jekyll and Hyde with the team behind the show
Elsewhere, executives discussed spiralling budgets, creating an increasing need to piece together funding through multiple streams – whether via licence fees, private funding, distribution financing or pre-sales.
And while there was plenty of talk about the alleged saturation of the TV drama market, it was clear that many executives simply believe that while there might be too many shows, there aren't enough great shows.
Morgan Wandell (pictured top), head of drama series for Amazon Studios, said as much during his keynote session when he warned producers against making run-of-the-mill, "industrial grade" procedurals.
He told delegates that Amazon Studios is aiming to make shows that are a "step above" what is already on offer, such as the SVoD platform's recently launched The Man in the High Castle.
"If you're making industrial-grade procedurals then good luck, but you do run the risk of being washed out," he said, adding that some producers and writers "have built up specific muscles in TV. We've stripped away narrative tropes they relied on."
Meanwhile, UK commissioners noted the changing television landscape as genre tastes and viewing habits continue to evolve.
BBC drama commissioner Polly Hill claimed TV audiences are now more open than ever to "complex, tricky" plots as she unveiled a new series from Luther creator Neil Cross set in a pre-apocalyptic London.
Sky head of drama Anne Mensah took to the stage alongside commissioning editor Cameron Roach
Hard Sun, which will air in 2017 and is produced by Euston Films, follows detectives Elaine Renko and Robert Hicks, partners and enemies, who seek to protect their loved ones and enforce the law in a world slipping closer to certain destruction.
Hill told the Drama Summit that the success of the BBC's recent drama slate, including Sherlock and Happy Valley, was evidence that "mainstream is really moving and big audiences will watch really complex, tricky subjects."
Sky head of drama Anne Mensah and drama commissioning editor Cameron Roach described the differences between the networks they look after. Watching Sky Atlantic was compared to buying a ticket for a blockbuster film, while Sky Arts was likened to an art house cinema – though not for niche storytelling.
The pair said story was key across the board, however, adding that the pay TV broadcaster's development team is now commissioning year-round for all three networks, including Sky1, and that channel boundaries remain fluid depending on the project.
ITV director of drama Steve November was more specific when describing his channel's needs for the next two years. With shows such as Victoria and Jericho coming up in 2016, the broadcaster is well placed to retain viewers following the end of long-running hit Downton Abbey, which concludes with a Christmas special later this month.
And while ITV remains keen on period dramas – with Dark Angel and Doctor Thorne also coming up next year – November said he was looking for a range of new contemporary dramas to fill the 21.00 slot.
ITV drama director Steve November
"I have got to be honest, I watched [the BBC's] Dr Foster with a degree of envy and I wish we had that show," he said. "Big romantic thrillers and a family relationship drama are real priorities for us."
Channel 4 drama team Piers Wenger and Beth Willis also talked about the challenge of building a year-round drama slate, and how they approach traditional genres such as crime, period and sci-fi in a fresh way (see No Offence, Indian Summers and Humans respectively).
Deputy head of drama Willis said: "If it could be on another channel, we shouldn't be doing it. We're always looking for shows with an edge."
Wenger, C4's head of drama, revealed there are a variety of funding models in play at the broadcaster, such as its international coproduction strategy that saw Humans produced with US cable channel AMC.
As the conference drew to a close, the challenges of the future came into view – keeping viewers tuning into linear broadcasts, judging success in ways other than overnight ratings, piecing together financing in a world where there are no longer any set models for production and finding ways to tell new stories in an increasingly competitive market.
There will never be a formula for creating a hit series, but the ambition to find the next big hit is continuing to drive the business forward in new and innovative ways, ensuring the appetite for television drama will remain undiminished for some time to come.
tagged in: A+E Networks, Agatha Christie Ltd, Amazon, And Then There Were None, Anne Mensah, BBC, Beth Willis, C21 International Drama Summit, Cameron Roach, Channel 4, Clive Bradley, Content London, Daisy Goodwin, Damien Timmer, Dynamic Television, Hard Sun, Hilary Strong, ITV, Jekyll and Hyde, Klaus Zimmermann, Mammoth Screen, Morgan Wandell, Neil Cross, Piers Wenger, Polly Hill, Sky, Steve November, The Man in the High Castle, Trapped, Victoria
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