bad wolf

The period after the First World War is a rich source of material for TV producers, with stories of soldiers coming back from the front, broken mentally and physically by the horrors they endured and struggling to return to the lives they left.

Dope Girls, a new drama currently airing on BBC One, looks at the homecoming from a different perspective – that of the women left behind who stepped into the roles of the absent men and now don’t want to step back.

This month marks 20 years since the first BBC Wales-made episode of Doctor Who was broadcast, effectively creating the Welsh drama hub we enjoy today. Aside from a Children in Need special and a TV movie starring Paul McGann, the series had been off-air since 1989 until it was revived in 2005 by the then Controller of BBC One, Lorraine Heggessey.

Production was bestowed on Julie Gardner, Head of Drama for BBC Wales, under the penmanship of Russell T Davies.

You don’t have to get a tattoo honouring your favourite production company if you want to get into TV… but it might help.

An audience member at RTS Cymru Wales’s event “How to write a TV drama” revealed that he wrote his master’s dissertation on the Bad Wolf theme in Doctor Who. It was his “absolute dream” to work for the production company, also called Bad Wolf, that makes the show, he declared. And to prove it, he said he had a tattoo on his left arm showing the Tardis graffitied with “Bad Wolf”.

Television’s least wholesome drama returned to BBC One early this month, offering more backstabbing, boozing, sex, snorting and frankly incomprehensible financial jargon.

Series 3 of Industry sees Pierpoint, in stark contrast to the behaviour of its employees, repositioning itself as an ethical investment bank when it takes on a new client, the green energy start-up Lumi. This is run by an aristo turned tech-bro, the aptly named Sir Henry Muck, and played with brio by Kit Harington, best known as Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow.

Based on The Warlord Chronicles trilogy by Bernard Cornwell, the 10-part ITVX drama The Winter King is an intense, action-packed series that transports the viewer back to the depths of Britain’s dark ages, where Arthur Pendragon has been banished from his kingdom. In December, the cast and crew spoke at an RTS Cymru Wales event about how they approached this Arthurian retelling.

Doctor Who is back, bigger and arguably better than before. RTS Cymru Wales was first off the mark, hosting a premiere in Cardiff two days before the show returned to BBC One. It was also 60 years to the day since the Time Lord first appeared on TV.

A roar rose from a sold-out audience at the conclusion of The Star Beast, which saw David Tennant and Catherine Tate return as the Doctor and his assistant after almost 15 years. Also back, as showrunner, was a visibly moved Russell T Davies.

I’m at Sony’s Culver City studios for a summit meeting between our film and television senior team and Sony’s music heads, led by the irrepressible Rob Stringer. We are looking at ways of working together to bring more music projects to the screen.

It’s a good group and a good day – a very good day. The most eye-catching presentation comes from Afo Verde, who heads Sony’s Latin American music. Modern Latin pop and rap has gone quickly from regional to mainstream, and Afo’s team is at the heart of it.

Fans of His Dark Materials have been going cold turkey since Philip Pullman’s fantasy drama ended its third and apparently final series on BBC One in February. But, according to executive producer Jane Tranter, who was speaking at a sold-out RTS Futures event last month, further helpings could be served up.

The three-part 'anti-Christmas Christmas Special', written by Prebble, will see child star turned actress Suzie Pickles (Piper) navigate a new agent, new PR and a new job – a Saturday night reality TV competition, dancing for likes on ‘Dance Crazee’. Having lost everyone close to her, Suzie returns to her first love – the public.

Bad Wolf co-founder Jane Tranter shoots back with a rapid reply when asked what her Cardiff-based production company is up to: “Dealing with high-level anxiety all the time, probably emanating from myself.”

If so, Tranter – speaking over Zoom – hides it well. Any stress would be understandable. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, Bad Wolf has brought the second seasons of fantasy epics His Dark Materials and A Discovery of Witches to the screen, and launched two acclaimed contemporary dramas, Industry and I Hate Suzie.