London Screenings 2022

Dream Home Makeovers With Sophie Robinson

Type: Format
Length: 6 x 60-minutes
Producer: Pi Productions
Broadcaster: Channel 5 (UK)

Pi Productions’ Channel 5 debut, Dream Home Makeovers, follows interior designer Sophie Robinson as she sets out to help homeowners create a stylish home.

It is the latest lifestyle series from Pi founder and managing director John Silver, the brain behind format giants MasterChef and Grand Designs.

This was an immediate draw for distributor Cineflix Rights, with head of acquisitions Richard Life noting that Silver has “an incredible track record in lifestyle formats” and is a “key selling point for our buyers”.

While Grand Designs follows some of Britain’s most ambitious building projects, Dream Home Makeovers luxuriates in relatability, with renovations taking place in homes ranging from tiny city flats to countryside mansions – offering something for every home and budget.

Without bringing in contractors or large-scale building work, Robinson helps homeowners create dramatic, unique transformations spanning the interior design palette, from colour blocking to minimalism and all-black interiors. The show’s underlying message is that every home can be stylish.

“It’s simple and effective” Life explains. “It’s not a show where you have to knock down walls or buy a new home, it’s about everyday transformation, and that’s what makes it so applicable to the international market. It can work in any circumstance.”

The pandemic is also a factor as people spend increasing amounts of time at home, and Life hopes the series will strike a chord with those considering restyling their homes.

Robinson’s presence as host completes a compelling package, according to Life. A British interior stylist and journalist, she has previously been a lead judge on the first three series of BBC2’s The Great Interior Design Challenge, appearing as a guest judge in the fourth run. Life says that for shows to travel internationally, having an “immediately likeable, credible and authentic” host like Robinson is crucial.

Cineflix Rights will look for Dream Home Makeovers to emulate the previous success it has had with its catalogue of property formats, most notably Canadian reality returner Property Brothers.

Although Life acknowledges that British property formats can be harder to sell in North America, he believes the series has great potential both as finished tape and format.

The distributor will focus on the former in the first instance, particularly for major markets such as Scandinavia and Australia. Life also hopes that the visual nature of the series will help it to transcend language barriers.

Its potential has been buoyed by solid ratings on Channel 5 in the UK, drawing audiences above of the slot average. Life says that C5 audiences dovetail with demographics that “appeal internationally for us”, citing the success of other fact-ent and factual titles in the Cineflix catalogue, such as The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys and Ambulance: Code Red.

“Dream House Makeovers plugs into our strategy to focus on shows that can come back time and time again and build volume,” he says.

Hot Picks

Crime

Type: Drama
Length: 6 x 60-minutes
Producer: Buccaneer Media
Broadcaster: BritBox (SVoD), ITV (UK)

‘Crime has two things in abundance that help it’s global appeal: strong IP and talent’

Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh’s first TV drama, Crime, is based on his eponymous novel about troubled detective Ray Lennox, who is investigating the abduction of an Edinburgh schoolgirl.

Lennox is played by Batwoman’s Dougray Scott, who became fixed on playing the serial killer-hunting detective after reading the novel. He also helped convince Welsh to bring his work to TV, alongside screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh.

Cineflix Media-backed Buccaneer Media (Marcella) was first approached by Scott, who is credited as an executive producer, when the series was in development.

According to Buccaneer co-chief executive Richard Tulk-Hart, the show’s development journey took four years, during which the adaptation changed “dramatically”.

“A large part of the book was set in Miami, where the detective is located for a while and gets involved in another case, but our series is filmed entirely in Scotland,” he says. “We chose to focus on the first quarter of the book rather than the whole novel and this is down to Tony, Dougray and Irvine zoning in on the bit of story they found the most interesting.”

One of the first tentpole originals to come from ITV- and BBC-backed streamer BritBox (although ITV also has the rights to broadcast the series), the six-part drama went into production at the start of the pandemic, which added an extra layer of complexity to the Edinburgh-based shoot.

“We had to stop filming a couple of times, but because of what we’d learned through making [Acorn drama] Whitstable Pearl earlier in the year, we took a more rigorous approach without budgets going crazy,” says Tulk-Hart.

Cineflix Rights head of scripted James Durie says the distributor has been following Crime “from the word go” and was quick to step in and deficit finance the series once it had been commissioned – despite the onset of the pandemic.

“We’ve always felt this was a show that could work well globally,” he adds. “Crime has two things in abundance that really help: strong IP and talent. It’s based on a best-selling book by a big-name author, with a strong cast led by Dougray and a Bafta-winning director in Broadchurch’s James Strong.”

Currently in post-production, the series was directed by David Blair (The Barking Murders), and other cast members include Angela Griffin and Ken Stott. Crime is set to air on ITV before the end of the year.

According to Durie, Crime has attracted interest from territories such as Germany, France and Italy, where Welsh’s books have enjoyed strong sales. In terms of platforms, both traditional broadcasters and SVoDs have been in contact.

The fact the drama only covers the first quarter of the novel also lends itself to a second series.

“The book is an incredible collection of stories and for TV there is just so much to be developed,” says Durie. “It’s the characters Welsh creates that jump out at you. They are larger-than-life and hold the darker elements together. That is such a good thing to have in TV drama because it’s so character-driven.”

Whitstable Pearl

Type: Drama
Length: 6 x 45-minutes
Producer: Buccaneer Media
Broadcaster: Acorn TV (UK, North America, Australia, New Zealand)

English-language international drama streamer Acorn TV is bolstering its healthy roster of detective dramas with Marcella producer Buccaneer Media’s procedural with a twist Whitstable Pearl.

Based on the novels by Julie Wassmer, who consulted on the show, Kerry Godliman plays Pearl Nolan, a big-hearted local restaurateur, who has set up a local detective agency – having once trained as a police officer. Joined by her policeman partner Mike (Howard Charles), she is soon embroiled in her first case when she discovers the body of close friend, Vinnie.

The chemistry between Godliman, one of the stars of Ricky Gervais’ Netflix comedy-drama After Life, and Charles helps drive the narrative, with her “local person” demeanour and his “cynical ‘down-from-London’ copper” mentality, sparking entertainment, according to Cineflix Rights head of scripted, James Durie.

On the surface, a Kent-set drama pitting together a policeman and policewoman with contrasting personalities sound like it fits the old-fashioned procedural mould in spades. But Buccaneer’s production team, led by Marcella exec Tony Wood, drafted in dark comedy expert Øystein Karlsen (Lilyhammer) as main writer to develop the well-trodden genre.

“There is something so familiar about a detective show set in a small English town, but Øystein has depicted it with a slightly darker, comedic slant,” Durie says.

“The idea is to keep the show close to what makes a great UK crime procedural but subvert it.”

The drama will land on AMC Networks-owned Acorn on 24 May, joining similarly toned series such as Agatha Raisin. Alongside its traditional procedural ingredients of intrigue and character development, Durie says the setting and themes help will attract viewers desperate to forget the news.

“These characters take us away to a place we enjoy,” he says. “The escapist element is a massive asset.

“A slate really needs to have a good UK crime procedural in it as these shows are an essential element to many schedules. The fact they can play in multiple parts of the schedule makes them very accessible to certain markets.”

Deals have already been struck with a quartet of Scandinavian broadcasters including Sweden’s SVT and Denmark’s TV2, with Cineflix targeting key western European territories such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The Clown and the Candyman

Type: Factual
Length: 4 x 60-minutes
Producer: Cineflix Rights
Broadcaster: Investigation Discovery (US)

Having a show commissioned by US network Investigation Discovery (ID) tends to be a rubberstamp of quality in the true crime space. Having that show come through a production sibling is a double boon for Cineflix Rights.

Four-part series The Clown and the Candyman follows an investigation into whether American serial killers John Wayne Gacy (aka ‘The Killer Clown’) and Dean Corll (‘The Candyman’), who killed 60 young men between them, and may have murdered several more.

A key thread is whether a paedophile ring operating through America had links to both men and what this would mean if proven, while another looks at whether there was a government conspiracy at the heart of this alleged connection.

“There’s an exciting investigative storyline evolving through the series that takes us to the dark sides of these killers, and investigates whether they were connected,” says Cineflix Rights chief executive Chris Bonney.

Cineflix Rights plans to sell the show to both specialist crime channels and broader, free-to-air networks that are increasingly keen on showcase event programmes by stripping them across weeknights.

“This has a compelling, ‘can’t switch off’ appeal,” says Bonney. “It’s an event piece. ID is trying to compete with the premium offerings of Netflix in this genre and this is one of those.”

He notes that the shorter run of four episodes allows the series to stand out from many other longer-run true crime series, which focus on multiple stories told over single episodes. Additionally, the production values and high-end feel shine through on screen.

“The show will domestically appeal to the female-driven ID audience, but this is a very easy-to-consume programme for the international market,” says Bonney.

“The four episodes, big noise and high appeal gives us the ability to take it to broader networks that would be less convinced by higher volume shows.”