Creators Inc preps April Ashley drama

Nascent creative collective and indie Creators Inc is developing its debut scripted project, a limited series about trans icon April Ashley, from Bafta-winning trans screenwriter Sukey Venables Fisher.

Six-part April the First will explore Ashley’s remarkable life story, journey of love, kindness and courage that saw a slum child from Liverpool’s Pitt Street rise to be a renowned model and actress in the glamour of London, Paris, Saint Tropez and Santa Monica from the 1950s to the 1980s.

The limited series will be a celebration of Ashley, who died at the end of last year, who became only the second Briton to undergo male-to-female gender reassignment surgery in 1960. Ashley had a joyful existence despite the hardships she experienced when she was outed by The Daily Express in 1961 as a transgender woman.

Esther Springer, Creators Inc’s newly-appointed creative director of film and TV, will exec produce alongside Venables Fisher, Ashley’s close friend Douglas Thompson (The Trials of Christine Keeler), ex-Channel 4 youth programmes commissioning editor David Stevenson, and Debbie Mason, Creators Inc co-founder and president of film and TV.

As yet, there is no broadcaster attached to the project.

Venables Fisher (Electricity, Chemistry of Death), showrunner and lead writer, said: “We know about the monstering, the predators, the suicide attempts, the gatekeepers, with luck the glory of breaking through, those don’t change - but April did it on a scale to marvel at and made it to the end of a full-length life in grand style, with a personal depth, tenderness and majesty that’s given to very few human beings, and never to an abused working-class woman from Liverpool.”

Mason added: “April was an inspiring and resilient woman determined to succeed on her own terms, and the arc of her life from desperate poverty to unparalleled glamour saw her join the navy, charm the world as a model and socialite and then endure a brutal betrayal which played out in the tabloid press globally.

“She came to the end of her life as a respected and celebrated public figure who was recognised with an MBE for her services to transgender equality, and we are honoured to have met her and in her own words, been entrusted to tell her story.”

Scripted echo chamber

The announcement comes after Springer told delegates at the Banff World Media Festival that commissioners are working in a drama “echo chamber”.

Springer, a former BBC/BBC Studios producer who joined Creators Inc last week, said during the Future of Indies panel: “Once you’ve been doing this job for 20 years, [you see that] the same shit goes round and round, it just does. You can figure out [the thought processes of commissioners]: ‘Oh we’ve not seen vampires for a long time, let’s have some vampires’.

Springer went on to warn that indies have a responsibility to nurture talent to ensure they are not overwhelmed and over-promoted due to the talent crunch.

“The challenge is finding writers and making sure they’re nurtured and taken care of so they can tell the story they want to tell without throwing them in too quickly,” she said.

“Writers need to be taken care of because once you’re in the system, it’s huge. We need to take more care and attention as to how we’re bringing through the next generation of filmmakers.”

Mauricio Mota, founder and co-president of Los Angeles’ Wise Entertainment, agreed saying that new talent needed “protection” within the industry to “create a new ecosystem of talent”.