BBC Studios invests in Samphire Films

UK based Samphire Films, the production company founded by Sophie Leonard and David Hodgkinson, brings on BBC Studios as minority stake investor to support its rapid growth and global expansion.

Samphire Films was founded in 2024 by "Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test" and "Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action" creator Sophie Leonard and BBC Documentaries commissioning editor David Hodgkinson to deliver the next generation of premium unscripted content to buyers on both sides of the Atlantic. Building on Sophie and David’s industry-wide reputations for marrying originality and maverick ingenuity with gold-standard quality control, Samphire Films is in production on yet-to-be-announced large-scale factual-formats and premium documentary projects for buyers in both the UK and USA.

The collaboration continues BBC Studios' strategy of backing the best creative talent and builds on its existing minority investments and ownership portfolio of world-class indies and labels such as House Productions ("Conclave", "Sherwood") Clerkenwell Films ("Baby Reindeer", "End of the F***ing World"), Sid Gentle Films ("How to Kill Your Family", "Killing Eve") and Voltage ("Tempting Fortune", "Scoop", "Inside The Factory"). The strategic partnership will see BBC Studios support Samphire’s ambitious growth plans for new channel and platform-defining premium documentary and constructed factual brands, taking first look global distribution and format rights.

Kate Ward, MD for Factual Productions at BBC Studios, referred to the global ambition of its partners: “Sophie and David are the next generation of creative leaders and we are excited to be backing great British talent. They have a proven track record in delivering ambitious and compelling unscripted television spanning premium documentary to globally renowned factual-formats. Investing in Samphire, which in such a short space of time has built a slate that speaks both to their global ambitions as well as their extraordinary creative breadth was irresistible. We can’t wait to have them as part of the family at BBC Studios and look forward to a hugely productive partnership," commented.

FInally, Sophie Leonard and David Hodgkinson celebrated sharing the same innovative vision: “We’ve seen huge demand for our ideas and production expertise from both the US and the UK and sought the right strategic partner to allow us to rapidly scale the business in response. We’re working with leading creative and commercial talent, building a forward-thinking production company to deliver groundbreaking programming that resonates with audiences globally. BBC Studios shares our commitment to innovation and creative excellence, and we can’t wait to see what we can achieve together," highlighted.