When the UK first went into lockdown in March 2020, Fremantle lawyer Damian Kent told an RTS London event, “productions had to be suspended or stood down generally, so that meant looking at cast, crew and suppliers’ contracts. It meant going to broadcasters and producers, and agreeing what payments needed to be made.... It was an additional cost on the budget.”
The annual RTS Futures Careers Fair returned early this month in a new and bigger form, with exhibitors from the length and breadth of the UK.
Held over two days, More than 2,200 people signed up for the-two day virtual event, hoping to get their foot on the first rungs of the TV ladder.
“This year’s virtual careers fair has been a huge success. We have welcomed more attendees, and offered more sessions and industry exhibitors than ever before,” said RTS Futures Chair Alex Wootten. “It has also been more accessible and inclusive.
The prospect of a brand-new Michael Winterbottom drama starring Kenneth Branagh as a pandemic-beleaguered Boris Johnson has already got mouths watering among audiences and critics alike, and This Sceptred Isle is just one of Sky’s bumper line-up of 125 new Sky Originals promised for 2021.
Keeley Hawes, Rita Ora and Dame Judi Dench are among the other big names bringing star power to Sky, with the broadcaster announcing 30 exclusive original films and 30 documentaries, all part of an impressive roster that promises 50% more original content than last year.
With three dramas shooting early this year, Chernobyl producer Sister has run into a familiar problem for many producers of scripted shows – finding studio space in the UK.
Sister’s head of production, Magali Gibert, says it has been difficult to find what it needs for upcoming adaptations The Power (for Amazon) and This is Going to Hurt (for the BBC and AMC) and crime drama Landscapers (Sky and HBO).
It is just over two years since Comcast bought Sky for a massive £30.6bn, but it is only now that the company has appointed one of its own senior executives to run the European pay-TV giant. Last month, the dynamic Dana Strong, head of Comcast Cable’s consumer services business, was announced as the successor to Jeremy Darroch, who led Sky for 13 years and was chief financial officer before that.
Oh, noooo. The D word. Surely not Donald? No, not that D word – the other one. The one that makes your heart sink a little, too. The one that reminds you of years of struggle. The one that tells of endless meetings with fellow campaigners in drab rooms, banging heads against brick walls.
The first series of BBC One’s The Mallorca Files aired at the tail end of 2019 and proved a huge hit with critics and daytime audiences. On the surface, it’s fluff, but it’s also clever, funny, and beautifully shot and acted.
More than anything, The Mallorca Files recalls the wildly successful 1980s comedy drama Moonlighting, in which Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd sleuthed and flirted in equal measure.
Comedy is hard graft. But comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan made light work of an RTS session that turned the spotlight on the pair’s hilarious Sky One factual entertainment series, Rob and Romesh Vs. The third season starts this month.
The show sees the likely lads gamely taking on unfamiliar worlds and situations. It could be basketball or, more unlikely still, ballet.
Just three days into 2021, the BBC secured its first big hitter of the year: A Perfect Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, drew in 6.2 million viewers. That’s on a par with previous series premieres such as Seven Worlds, One Planet (6.8 million), Dynasties (5.7 million viewers) and Blue Planet II (10.4 million).
Viewers have been kept waiting for a second outing of Back, David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s bitingly funny Channel 4 sitcom, which returned to our screens at the end of last month.
The delay had nothing to do with a lack of commissioning courage – how could anyone find fault with the filth and comic fury of Simon Blackwell’s scripts, the ever-watchable Mitchell and Webb or the fantastic ensemble cast?
