London Screenings 2022

Love Me

Type: Drama
Length: 6 x 60 minutes
Producer: Warner Bros International Television Production Australia
Broadcaster: Foxtel’s Binge (Australia)

Among the mass of pulsating crime series, thrillers and adventure shows, the family drama can sometimes be overlooked. But human relationships are universal experiences – which have been particularly heightened in the past two years.

Australian drama Love Me hits that precise note, according to Nicky Davies Williams, chief executive of distributor DCD Rights. She describes the series as feeling like “the fierce hug that every territory is looking for in these extended pandemic conditions”.

The six-part drama, produced by Warner Bros International TV Production’s Australian label, stars Hugo Weaving (The Lord Of The Rings) as Glen Mathieson, the patriarch of a family that seems to have it all.

However, domestic harmony is fractured by the shock death of his wife Christine, played by Sarah Peirse (Stateless; The Hobbit), which leaves Glen burdened by loss and guilt. The emotional ambivalence of his daughter Clara (Birds Of Prey’s Bojana Novakovic) after a fraught mother/daughter relationship, and a truly hurting son, Aaron (Wakefield’s William Lodder), threaten to further destabilise the family.

Love Me explores the love, loneliness, grief and joy we experience as individuals and as a family, and aims to remind us that this is what makes us human.

Davies Williams says the cast’s “emotive performances, enmeshed in love, grief, humour, the universal messiness of relationships” deliver on Love Me’s intent.

“It is an emotional story with elements that many people will recognise in themselves as well as universal family dynamics,” she adds. “This is a returning series, featuring love across three very distinct age groups – from the older Glen to the early 20s Aaron’s confusing love triangle, as well as Clara’s late-30s journey through the world of dating and commitment crises.”

Based on Viaplay’s Swedish drama of the same name, Love Me is the first original commission from Foxtel’s nascent streamer, Binge, which launched in spring 2020. The series has been brought together by leading Australian creatives led by director Emma Freeman (Netflix’s Clickbait; ABC’s Stateless and The Newsreader) and lead writer Alison Bell (Netflix/ABC’s The Letdown). Bell’s fellow writers include Leon Ford and Adele Vuko.

Davies Williams says Love Me provides a “counterbalance to the crime-based thrillers and action” dominating our screens, as broadcasters and platforms look to freshen up their drama offerings in the new year.

“Many buyers are looking to vary their programme offering with a mix of moods and a balance of genres,” she adds. “It’s all about having a variety of drama to suit all demographics and markets.

“Of course, key elements always remain, such as high-quality writers and a recognisable cast, which are key to cutting through to viewers. We are finding greater interest than ever in scripted pre-sales.”

DCD has sold Love Me to as-yet unannounced buyers in both the US and Europe, and is confident the series can work on linear as well as SVoD platforms.

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Hidden Assets

Type: Thriller
Length: 6 x 60 minutes
Producer: Saffron Moon; Facet4 Media; Potemkino Production
Broadcaster: RTÉ (Ireland); Super Channel (Canada); Acorn TV (int’l SVoD)

‘It’s an easy to travel, easy-to-binge drama, which can go anywhere’

International crime thriller Hidden Assets fits nicely into the modern trend of scripted shows that transcend national boundaries.

The series centres on Irish Criminal Assets Bureau detective Emer Berry (Angeline Ball – Keeping Faith, Doc Martin) and Belgian police commissioner Christian De Jong (Wouter Hendrickx – Blackout), who are drawn together by diamonds found by Berry during a routine raid, which are linked to a series of bombings in Belgium. Together, they uncover a political conspiracy involving a corrupt family of historic significance and face a race to stop another terrorist attack.

Besides its on-screen talent, Hidden Assets boasts an international pool of creatives behind it, with Emmy-nominated Into The Storm director Thaddeus O’Sullivan and Belgian Kadir Balci (AMC+’s Cold Courage) helming the six-part thriller. The series is written by Peter McKenna (Kin, Red Rock, The Musketeers) and Morna Regan – who was recently named on the BBC New Talent hotlist.

Saffron Moon’s Siobhán Bourke and Kathryn Lennon (Whistleblower, Acceptable Risk) and Facet4’s Anna-Sue Greenberg (Acceptable Risk) produce with Peter De Maegd (Cold Courage) and Tom Hameeuw as co-producers.

DCD Rights chief executive Nicky Davies Williams says its multinational element taps into an interest in more expansively geographical stories, spurred by the “Netflix influence” and the “one-world philosophy that has seeped down into all levels of culture”.

“Producers are much more open to that, but it’s terribly important you have an organic storyline that makes it an authentic mix of cultures,” she adds.

Hidden Assets’ broadcast partners are equally diverse, with Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, Canadian pay-TV network Super Channel and AMC drama streamer Acorn TV all boarding the series.

DCD Rights has had initial conversations with buyers and there are “obvious targets” of broadcasters in Australia and New Zealand. “It’s an easy to travel, easy-to-binge drama, which can go anywhere,” says Williams.

The distributor is launching at Mipcom and is “expecting delivery of programming in the next few weeks”, which Davies Williams says is “gold-dust, because most dramas have been hard to complete in this time”.