Andy Harries

It would be no exaggeration to say that British TV drama and comedy over the past 30 years would have looked very different without Andy Harries, a producer with his finger on the popular pulse, but never at the expense of quality.

While working in-house at Granada and then for his own production company, Left Bank Pictures, Harries’ hits have included Cold Feet, The Deal, Quiz and, of course, The Crown. There have also been acclaimed films, most notably The Queen and The Damned United. 

I leave Corfu airport (a week’s holiday sailing around the coast with pals) for Düssel­dorf and England’s opening match in the Euros against Serbia. James Graham and I are guests of the FA, all part of the research for Dear England 2.0, a four-part BBC series adapted from his hit play, which we will shoot in 2025 with Rupert Goold directing and Joe Fiennes reprising his alter ego England manager Gareth Southgate.

YouTube Red has commissioned its debut drama, which will be a sci-fi series from Left Bank Pictures who produced The Crown for Netflix.

They have agreed a deal for Origin, a 10 part sci-fi thriller, created and written by Mika Watkins who has previously written for Sky 1's Stan Lee’s Lucky Man.

At a recent RTS Futures event, the topic of what YouTube meant for the future of television was discussed.