TV DRAMA
GENRE REPORT
need to do in order to stay relevant and current and have a properly diverse range of stories and voices.” Tom Winchester at Pure Fiction is fundamentally
about championing the voice of outsider. “My personal interest is taking under represented voices into a mainstream space.” Period drama has found itself an unlikely
genre to fly the diversity flag. While for Channel 4, anything before 70 years ago is a no no, the huge success of Bridgerton has commissioners salivating at the idea of a period drama, with a bit of subversion. “They never ever say they want a period piece,”
says Bedford at Tiger Aspect, “but our production slate has a lot of period shows in it. The key is that they tackle urgent contemporary questions.” Jewel in Tiger Aspect’s crown is Peaky Blinders “uniquely British but in no sense parochial, genuinely global in terms of flavours and appeal, recognisably about a family fighting to find a better place for itself. No- one thinks about it as a period show.” While scripts might depict struggles for a better
life on screen, behind the camera there’s a move to make working conditions better. At Sid Gentle, Sally Woodward Gentle says: “we’ve always kept the show on the road, always worked all hours and weekends in order to deliver. I think we‘ve got to get a bit kinder.”
HEADWINDS But while the BECTU/Pact working practices are
under review, the reality is having budgets to afford any improvements, that come alongside inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. Co-production has always been the name
of the game, but there’s increasing pressure to deficit finance and pull money in from different, international sources. “Nowadays, with content being global and
things being interconnected, you can’t just be focused on the UK, I don’t see it in those terms”
F U L L POS T P ROD U C T ION
says Chris Carey, md at Dancing Ledge: “Crossfire and Salisbury Poisonings sold as
fast as any dramas Fremantle has distributed.” Sid Gentle’s The Durrells became popular in the US during lockdown, it was even quoted in Brooklyn 99. Woodward Gentle sees US investment as routine. Drama producers are going to have to sharpen
their financial act as we head into 2023. “It is going to get tougher,” says Laurence Bowen. “I don’t think the industry is going to sustain the number of companies.” But, like most, he doesn’t see all the water draining out of the bath. “There’s so much competition between platforms that it doesn’t feel that it’s drying up any time soon.” At Channel 5, while they plan to grow beyond
their current 70 plus hours of drama, they are practised at working with smaller budgets, with £250k an hour buy-in, at most £375k. They’ve developed relationships with indies that are prepared to find ways make it work. For Paramount+, budgets leap. UK rights for
around £600k, £700k per hour, or partnership with its studio VIS for global rights. The Ex-Wife was co- produced by loyal Channel 5 indie Clapperboard Studios, along with Night Train Media and BlackBox Multimedia. Blackbox has bases in London, Italy and Spain.
Ceo Giuliano Papadia says, “increasingly, coming out of the pandemic we have seen producers opening up more to partnerships What really matters are the stories you are telling, not the geographical place where they were created.” Channel 5 drama chief and deputy chief content
officer UK for Paramount, Sebastian Cardwell, is realistic about headwinds. “If we have to slow down, we have to slow down. The plan is to solidify it as a genre on the channel.” Dalgleish, The Madam Blanc Mysteries, The Good Ship Murder stay, “these shows are driving the growth on My5.” And budgets are coming down. “The
conversations we’re having is ‘listen we’re looking for people to produce high end original quality returnable shows but for less money than we’re currently paying,’” says Woodward Gentle. “And that will probably roll out across the board.” At Dancing Ledge, ceo Laurence Bowen
ponders how a slow-down will affect the quality of ideas. “We’ve had a period of ambition and boldness and I wonder whether taking risk on commissions might become harder for big networks to justify. The real successes come out of that risk taking so it’ll be interesting to see if that will be sustained.”
THE BIG IDEAS What ideas have topped the list of industry
insiders in 2022, not including those on their own slate? Polly Hill and Tom Winchester both pick Heartstopper, Hill also cites Sister’s This is Going to Hurt. For Caroline Hollick at Channel 4, it’s Karen Pirie on ITV. “Mainstream crime drama can be so pedestrian and Karen Pirie was on another level. And it didn’t rely on an established name to bring in the viewers.” She’s also a fan of Bad Sisters on Apple TV+. “It managed such a tricky balance between comedy, grand guignol drama and genuinely moving emotional stories.” Lucy Bedford admires Maid on Netflix,
“mainstream, accessible, about a young woman trying to build a life for herself and her daughter, but also tackling a big question about poverty in America, what it is to be single mum.” The explosion in content means ideas need to
win the battle for viewers. “Audiences are highly sophisticated, educated, really smart. That’s an amazing call to arms for all our creatives to be brilliant, to be bold.” Bedford sees the increasing opportunity out there, but she also clocks the oncoming consolidation. “People will have to make choices, a lot is going to play out over the next few years: the best of times and the worst of times.”
‘The best thing you can say about any company is that they genuinely care about the show and take pride in its success.
That’s what we have with Core and Brassic.
They are inextricably woven into the fabric of the show.’
- DAVID LIVINGSTONE, Executive Producer 4 K H D R G R A D I N G 52
televisual.com Winter 2022 DOL B Y A TMOS A D R E D I T ON L I N E
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