Actualités

When it comes to intrigue and drama, bookkeepers don’t instantly spring to mind. But Payback, the latest series from the team behind the monster hit Line of Duty, centers on a widow, Lexie Noble, who learns her just-murdered husband—an accountant—was mixed up with the Scottish underworld. “[Her] life implodes overnight after she discovers the life she has been living has possibly been funded by dirty money,” executive producer Madonna Baptiste says. She calls the six-episode tale a “thriller seen through the eyes of an ordinary woman thrown into an extraordinarily dangerous world.” Indeed, an impatient crime boss threatens her family, demanding she find the millions her husband apparently embezzled. But the mom of two is reluctant to go to the police, who suspect her of killing her spouse. According to Baptiste, writer Debbie O’Malley (All Creatures Great and Small) “was surprised to find out how much of ...

Distributor Hat Trick International (Hti) has closed multiple international sales on ITV series “Di Ray,” from “Line of Duty” creator Jed Mercurio’s Htm Television.

Both seasons of the crime drama, created and written by former “Line of Duty” actor Maya Sondhi, have been acquired by PBS Distribution in a multi-rights deal that will see it broadcast across PBS’s 330+ member stations in the U.S. and streaming on PBS Passport, the PBS Video app and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. The deal was brokered by Germaine Sweet, PBS Distribution’s managing director of content acquisitions and Jonathan South, Hti’s North American senior sales executive.

“Di Ray,” executive produced by Mercurio, debuted to strong ratings in 2022 as a 4 x 60′ series on U.K. broadcaster ITV, leading to a second season order of six episodes. Set in Birmingham, the series revolves around Rachita Ray, a Leicester-born police officer who...

Jed Mercurio’s Htm Television’s is working on Payback, a six-part crime drama for the UK’s ITV and Britbox International. Morven Christie, Peter Mullan and Prasanna Puwanarajah are leading the cast, and screenwriter Debbie O’Malley is writing.

Billed as a “compelling character-led series,” Payback will follows Lexie Noble,, as she becomes entangled in a perilous police operation to topple a notorious crime lord, Cal Morris. Puwanarajah and Derek Riddell play financial investigators looking into Lexie’s husband Jared, who has been laundering Cal’s illegal earnings behind her back.

Htm Television Creative Director Jed Mercurio is working alongside Hill, his Htm partner Madonna Baptiste and Diederick Santer on behalf of BritBox International on the series.

‘Landscapers’ earned seven nominations, whilst Help and ’Time’ received six.

Russel T Davies’ It’s A Sin leads the nominations for this year’s Bafta Television and Bafta Craft awards.

The drama, produced by Red Production Company for UK broadcaster Channel 4, earned 11 nominations, including mini-series, leading actor for Olly Alexander, actress for Lydia West, director: fiction for Peter Hoar, writer: drama for Davies and three supporting actor nods for Callum Scott Howells, David Carlyle and Omari Douglas.

Drama Landscapers, produced by Sister for Sky Atlantic, earned seven nominations including mini-series and leading actor for David Thewlis.

Jack Thorne’s...

‘Landscapers’ earned seven nominations, whilst Help and ’Time’ received six.

Russel T Davies’ It’s A Sin leads the nominations for this year’s Bafta Television and Bafta Craft awards.

The drama, produced by Red Production Company for UK broadcaster Channel 4, earned 11 nominations, including mini-series, leading actor for Olly Alexander, actress for Lydia West, director: fiction for Peter Hoar, writer: drama for Davies and three supporting actor nods for Callum Scott Howells, David Carlyle and Omari Douglas.

Drama Landscapers, produced by Sister for Sky Atlantic, earned seven nominations including mini-series and leading actor for David Thewlis.

Jack Thorne’s...

Streaming

Discovery racked up subscription numbers during the opening week of the ongoing Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, the company has revealed. Eight times more viewers are streaming Olympic content on Discovery’s streaming services compared to the same period for Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, with total new paid subscribers already surpassing 2018 with a week of competition still to go. Three-quarters of a billion streaming minutes have been consumed on Discovery’s subscription services so far, more than 18 times higher than the same period of PyeongChang 2018. Average minutes consumed per viewer across Discovery Plus and Eurosport streaming services has more than doubled, with audiences also n average watching 29% longer on television vs PyeongChang 2018. Discovery’s free Olympic news and short video clips on Eurosport.com have also more than doubled their reach. On the linear TV front, Eurosport audiences have maintained 2018 levels.

Jean-Briac Perrette, president and CEO, Discovery streaming and International,...

Exclusive: ITV has ordered a new crime drama series starring ER’s Parminder Nagra from Line of Duty pair Maya Sondhi and Jed Mercurio.

The British broadcaster has commissioned Di Ray, a Birmingham-set, four-part series that is centered around Rachita Ray, a police officer who takes on a case that forces her to confront a lifelong personal conflict between her British identity and her South Asian heritage.

The series will track a murder investigation whilst exploring the emotive subject of racism in the workplace. It asks difficult questions about what it’s like to be British but feel ‘other, while taking viewers through the murky underworld of Birmingham.

Nagra, who starred on the ABC medical drama between 2003 and 2009 and has also appeared on The Blacklist and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., will play Ray.

Ray achieves the promotion she’s been waiting for when she’s asked to join a homicide investigation.

After the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of popular dating reality show “Love Island” last summer, the show is confirmed to return to U.K. broadcaster ITV for this summer season. The last season of “Love Island” that aired was a winter version filmed in South Africa.

ITV also revealed several scripted series that are in production. “The Thief, His Wife and The Canoe,” a four-part crime drama from “Unforgotten” writer Chris Lang, about how John Darwin faked his own death to claim his life insurance, is being produced by All3Media’s Story Films.

“The Ipcress File,” a six-part adaptation of Len Deighton’s renowned book starring Joe Cole as iconic spy Harry Palmer, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander is adapted for ITV by Oscar-nominated writer John Hodge and directed by Emmy award-winner James Watkins.

In “Stephen,” the three-part sequel to the single film “The Murder of Stephen Lawrence,” the cast includes Sharlene Whyte,...

French In Motion Sets Up In LA

Exclusive: French In Motion, the non-profit that brings together French and American professionals from the film and TV industry is launching a chapter in Los Angeles, with Martine Melloul set to run the new office. Headquartered in New York with an existing chapter in Washington DC, the org supports international co-productions and collaborations between France and the United States through its partnership with the Gotham Film & Media Institute and has been doing so since 2016. The org is also creating an honorary board, composed of talent from the independent film and television industry whose work and influence span both sides of the Atlantic. U.S.-based French filmmakers Mathieu Demy and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire have both joined the board alongside French In Motion’s Founder Nathalie Perus.

Msr Hire

Production outfit Msr Media has appointed Nick Royak to the newly-created role of Vice President of Development.

Exclusive: ITV has commissioned a series of four drama shorts, working titled Unsaid Stories…, which have been inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.

In an anthology format not dissimilar to the Jeff Pope-produced Isolation Stories that ITV aired during the coronavirus lockdown, Greenacre Films — the producer behind Netflix’s Michaela Coel-fronted feature Been So Long — will make the 15-minute episodes to be broadcast next month.

Each episode has diverse talent at its heart and ITV head of drama Polly Hill said they are “unique, fresh and engaging” stories about “real people in completely real situations, confronting and exploring racism and prejudice.”

Jerome Bucchan-Nelson, a writer on Sky hit drama Bulletproof, will pen Generational. It explores the relationship between a Black father and his teenage daughter, when William catches Justina sneaking out to attend a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Alrick Riley (NCIS) is the director, while Barbara Emile (EastEnders) is producing.

ITV is to follow-up Paul Greengrass’ BAFTA-winning 1999 drama The Murder of Stephen Lawrence with a sequel series following the pursuit of justice for the murdered teenager.

The UK commercial broadcaster has commissioned three-part series Stephen, which will be made by Hat Trick Mercurio Television, the production outfit co-owned by Bodyguard creator Jed Mercurio and Hat Trick Productions, the Jimmy Mulville-run indie behind Matt LeBlanc’s Golden Globe-winning Episodes.

Frank Cottrell Boyce (Hilary And Jackie) and Joe Cottrell Boyce (Treasure) are writing Stephen, while it will be directed by Alrick Riley (The Cops). Madonna Baptiste (The Stranger) is the producer, while Greengrass and Mark Redhead — who produced the original drama — serve as executive producers. Mulville and Mercurio are also executive producers.

With the full support of Doreen and Neville Lawrence, the story will portray events from 2006, 13 years after Stephen’s death in a racially motivated attack while he was waiting...

Netflix has announced further casting for their new drama series ‘The Stranger’, a story based on Harlan Coben’s best-selling novel.

The eight-part series has cast Jennifer Saunders, Siobhan Finneran, Hannah John-Kamen, Anthony Head and Stephen Rea. Already attached to the cast are Shaun Dooley, Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Dervla Kirwan, and Kadiff Kirwan.

The book description reads:

Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream – a big house, a good job, a seemingly perfect life.

Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, Corrine, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corrine’s deception, and realises that if he doesn’t make exactly the right moves,...

Happy Valley and Downton Abbey star Siobhan Finneran and Ant Man and The Wasp and Ready Player One star Hannah John-Kamen have joined Netflix drama The Stranger.

The pair will star alongside The Hobbit and Berlin Station star Richard Armitage in the eight-part crime drama from the team behind crime drama Safe.

Finneran plays DS Johanna Griffin, while John-Kamen stars as a mysterious stranger who exposes people’s secrets, dropping bombshells that will shatter lives.

Elsewhere, Absolutely Fabulous’ Jennifer Saunders stars as Heidi, Johanna’s closest friend; an outgoing character who is seeking adventure after her daughter leaves for university.

The series is based on Harlan Coben’s eponymous novel and is produced by Safe producer Red Production Company.

Armitage stars as Adam Price in the thriller, which sees a secret destroys his perfect life and sends him on a collision course with a deadly conspiracy. Price has a good life,...

“The Hobbit” actor Richard Armitage will star in “The Stranger,” Netflix’s latest series in collaboration with bestselling author Harlan Coben.

The eight-part thriller, produced by the same team that did previous Netflix Coben series “Safe,” starring Michael C. Hall, and “The Five,” goes into production in March. Coben will executive produce the series along with Danny Brocklehurst, who will serve as lead writer, and Nicola Shindler, the CEO of Studiocanal-owned production company Red. The director has not been named.

Armitage will play Adam Price, a happily married father of two whose life is turned upside-down after a stranger tells him a secret about his wife. The revelation catapults him into a larger world of conspiracy and danger.

Armitage, who also starred in “Berlin Station,” can currently be seen in “The Lodge,” directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz, which will screen at Sundance.

Larry Tanz, Netflix’s vice president of content acquisition,...

The Hobbit and Berlin Station star Richard Armitage is to front a crime drama for Netflix as the Svod service reunites with the team behind crime drama Safe.

Armitage, whose Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz-directed feature The Lodge is at the Sundance Film Festival, is fronting The Stranger. The eight-episode series is based on Harlan Coben’s eponymous novel and is produced by Safe producer Red Production Company.

Armitage stars as Adam Price in the thriller, which sees a secret destroys his perfect life and sends him on a collision course with a deadly conspiracy. Price has a good life, two wonderful sons, and a watertight marriage, until one night a stranger sits next to him in a bar and tells him a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne. Soon Adam finds himself tangled in something far darker than even Corinne’s deception, and realizes that if he doesn...

Wall to Wall to make Woman in Red for BBC2.

The scandal surrounding 18th century aristocrat Lady Seymour Worsley is to be turned into a one-off docu-drama produced by Wall to Wall for BBC2.

Woman in Red follows Sienna Miller-fronted The Girl, which explored the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren, and was the last large scale factual drama produced by the Warner Bros-owned indie.

The screenplay, penned by David Eldridge, tells the story of Lady Seymour Worsley, who left her husband and eloped with his best friend.

Lady Worseley, played by Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games), subsequently becomes the subject of a high-profile court case brought against her by her shamed husband, played by Cilla star Aneurin Barnard.

The 90-minute drama is based on Hallie Rubenhold’s book Lady Worsley’s Whim, originally inspired by a painting of Lady Worsley which hangs in a stately home in Yorkshire.

Woman in Red...

Sky Atlantic and Starz have announced that they are working on their first co-production.

The UK and Us networks will work together to bring new drama series Fortitude to screens.

Fortitude will focus on the story of a seemingly safe town that is rocked when a murder is committed in its midst. The series will follow Sheriff Dan Anderssen as he tries to uncover the truth behind the brutal death of a British research scientist.

Fortitude will be a Fifty Fathoms / Tiger Aspect production, and will air exclusively on the channels in 2014.

It is written by Simon Donald and will be executive produced by Anne Mensah and Madonna Baptiste for Sky, and Patrick Spence and Simon Donald for Fifty Fathoms and Tiger Aspect. Colin Callender will be the executive producer for Starz.

Mensah said: "Fortitude is a dark and adult drama, which will sit perfectly alongside the wealth of high-end...