The 'Downton Abbey effect' and favourable tax breaks have renewed American industry interest in British TV
"The British are coming" promised Chariots of Fire screenwriter Colin Welland at the 1982 Oscars. But now it's British television rather than film drama which is leading a US revolution, with American broadcasters snapping up a host of British dramas including a 10-part biopic of William Shakespeare.
The Shakespeare series, called Will, is one of a series of deals that were unveiled this week at the Cable Upfronts – New York's annual springtime showcase to advertisers – and is emblematic of a renewed interest in UK TV drama according to its executive producer Hilary Bevan Jones.
Bevan Jones, whose work includes the recent Richard Curtis TV dramas The Girl in the Café and Mary and Martha, said new tax rules have made filming in the UK more attractive to producers. But she has also detected a renewed interest in British drama from the US and elsewhere in the world, partly thanks to the global success of hit ITV drama Downton Abbey.
"I have been lucky to have had a working relationship with US broadcasters like HBO but Downton has definitely had a particular ripple effect on America for us, and in a cynical way we are more attractive because of tax breaks," Bevan Jones told the Guardian. "But they are recognising very powerfully now that we make good drama."
Will, which follows a young William Shakespeare in Elizabethan London, has been bought by US cable company Pivot long before a sale to a UK broadcaster, and will be shot in England. It will be co-produced by Bevan Jones' company Endor Productions, and has been written by Craig Pearce, who penned the films Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge. The part of Shakespeare has not yet been cast.
Also at the Cable Upfronts this week, the pay TV broadcaster FX announced it was developing a US remake of Sky 1's darkly comic drama Mad Dogs, about a group of old school friends who meet for a reunion but get sucked into the Majorcan underworld. The US pilot is likely to shift locations but will be co-produced by Left Bank Pictures, the British production company behind the original.
FX has also commissioned British director Sam Mendes' Neal Street Productions to make a pilot of Grand Hotel, about a luxury hotel in Paris that becomes the scene of a terrorist attack, written by British scriptwriter Richard McBrien.
The BBC has had a few success stories in the US – its detective drama Sherlock is attracting audiences of more than 5 million on WGBH, and Luther, the police drama starring Idris Elba, is attracting critical acclaim and high audiences on BBC America.
Luther writer Neil Cross has also just won a commission from NBC to make a series called Crossbones, a pirate drama starring John Malkovich as Blackbeard.
Steven Spielberg is also making a US version of The Syndicate, Kay Mellor's BBC drama about a group of lottery winners, for US broadcaster ABC, having telephoned Mellor out of the blue at her house in Leeds to discuss the rights.
"I think the world is becoming smaller and more interested in the rest of the world's TV," says BBC's controller of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson, who believes that a British takeover will really take hold if these pilots make it to a full series. "There are more channels, people are more open to good ideas and there is a strong business in formats."
However, according to Bevan Jones, there is a potential snag to the growing internationalism – the problem of timezones. "Last night I was on the first conference call about Will and we had the writer in Australia and people in New York and Los Angeles and me in London, and the only time we were all up was 10.30 at night when I am normally in bed." Reported by guardian.co.uk 21 hours ago.
"The British are coming" promised Chariots of Fire screenwriter Colin Welland at the 1982 Oscars. But now it's British television rather than film drama which is leading a US revolution, with American broadcasters snapping up a host of British dramas including a 10-part biopic of William Shakespeare.
The Shakespeare series, called Will, is one of a series of deals that were unveiled this week at the Cable Upfronts – New York's annual springtime showcase to advertisers – and is emblematic of a renewed interest in UK TV drama according to its executive producer Hilary Bevan Jones.
Bevan Jones, whose work includes the recent Richard Curtis TV dramas The Girl in the Café and Mary and Martha, said new tax rules have made filming in the UK more attractive to producers. But she has also detected a renewed interest in British drama from the US and elsewhere in the world, partly thanks to the global success of hit ITV drama Downton Abbey.
"I have been lucky to have had a working relationship with US broadcasters like HBO but Downton has definitely had a particular ripple effect on America for us, and in a cynical way we are more attractive because of tax breaks," Bevan Jones told the Guardian. "But they are recognising very powerfully now that we make good drama."
Will, which follows a young William Shakespeare in Elizabethan London, has been bought by US cable company Pivot long before a sale to a UK broadcaster, and will be shot in England. It will be co-produced by Bevan Jones' company Endor Productions, and has been written by Craig Pearce, who penned the films Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge. The part of Shakespeare has not yet been cast.
Also at the Cable Upfronts this week, the pay TV broadcaster FX announced it was developing a US remake of Sky 1's darkly comic drama Mad Dogs, about a group of old school friends who meet for a reunion but get sucked into the Majorcan underworld. The US pilot is likely to shift locations but will be co-produced by Left Bank Pictures, the British production company behind the original.
FX has also commissioned British director Sam Mendes' Neal Street Productions to make a pilot of Grand Hotel, about a luxury hotel in Paris that becomes the scene of a terrorist attack, written by British scriptwriter Richard McBrien.
The BBC has had a few success stories in the US – its detective drama Sherlock is attracting audiences of more than 5 million on WGBH, and Luther, the police drama starring Idris Elba, is attracting critical acclaim and high audiences on BBC America.
Luther writer Neil Cross has also just won a commission from NBC to make a series called Crossbones, a pirate drama starring John Malkovich as Blackbeard.
Steven Spielberg is also making a US version of The Syndicate, Kay Mellor's BBC drama about a group of lottery winners, for US broadcaster ABC, having telephoned Mellor out of the blue at her house in Leeds to discuss the rights.
"I think the world is becoming smaller and more interested in the rest of the world's TV," says BBC's controller of drama commissioning Ben Stephenson, who believes that a British takeover will really take hold if these pilots make it to a full series. "There are more channels, people are more open to good ideas and there is a strong business in formats."
However, according to Bevan Jones, there is a potential snag to the growing internationalism – the problem of timezones. "Last night I was on the first conference call about Will and we had the writer in Australia and people in New York and Los Angeles and me in London, and the only time we were all up was 10.30 at night when I am normally in bed." Reported by guardian.co.uk 21 hours ago.