The 20-part series is due to launch over Christmas and is written by former EastEnders writer and Hustle creator Tony Jordan.
The show features some of Charles Dickens’ most popular characters living and interacting on one street. Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s business partner from A Christmas Carol, has been murdered and Inspector Bucket (Stephen Rea, The Honourable Woman) is sent to investigate.
It is the question that British writers and commissioners perennially ask: which system works best – the UK’s single voice or the US’s showrunner model?
Former head of BBC Worldwide Productions turned independent producer Jane Tranter tried to answer this key question with a panel of writers, who outlined their experiences to see how they compared.
She pointed out that, during her seven years in the US, it was not a subject the industry there generally debated openly.
In a smooth transition, the personable Polly Hill has become the BBC’s new Controller of Drama Commissioning. She takes over without so much as dropping a script from LA-bound Ben Stephenson.
Her new job is one of the most coveted and powerful positions in UK television. Hill is responsible for the wide range of drama across BBC One and BBC Two, an estimated budget of £200m annually, spiced with the challenge of devising a new online policy, principally for BBC Three. She also has oversight of EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.
AMC Networks President and CEO Josh Sapan lays claim to having the world’s largest collection of antique lightning rods. "They’re architectural and a form of industrial art. I just got captivated by them," he explains.
One or two of them can be found lying around his office on Penn Plaza, a few blocks from the Empire State Building, alongside examples of another passion. This is his collection of panoramic photographs of people and places from the last century.
