France 2 “The A Talks” to be adapted in Sweden for SVT 1

UK distributor Can’t Stop Media announces that hit format “The A Talks” (initially launched in France as “Les Rencontres du Papotin”) is being adapted in Sweden where SVT1 has commissioned a first season of 6 episodes.

This marks the fifth foreign adaptation of the format, after successful launches in Poland (Warner Bros Discovery’s TVN), Spain (Mediaset’sTelecinco), Denmark (pubcaster DR1) and the UK, with BBC One. Baluba (a Fremantle company) is producing the Swedish iteration. Award-winning filmmaker Ina Holmqvist has been tapped as the showrunner.

The first season launching this fall will feature some of Sweden’s most famous personalities (ranging from singers, writers to politicians and actors) to be interviewed by a group of atypical journalists with autism spectrum disorder. They will face the grilling of a lifetime as no subject is out of bounds, no question is off the table. In “The A Talks”, anything can happen.

Created by Quad+TEN and Kiosco TV and initiated by French directors, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, “The A Talks” has been airing on France 2 since September 2022 where strongly outperformed the channel average by +26% among 25-49 and +21% among 4+ which led the channel to recommission the format for an additional 10-episode season 2. Now in its second season, the show has already been renewed for a third series in 2024-25.

In the UK, the show will premiere as "The Assembly" on BBC One on April 5, with actor Michael Sheen. "The A Talks" also airs with success on DR1 in Denmark where the first 2 episodes reached a fantastic 34% share. In Poland, the show premiered in November on Warner Bros Discovery's TVN, the leading Polish commercial network, with an average 11.4% share on the 20-54 commercial target (+33% vs TVN’s average in October). In Spain, the format locally entitled “100% Unicos” launched in December on Telecinco with Antonio Banderas as the first guest.

These commissions are coming from a raft of options signed by Can’t Stop, with Warner Bros International TV Production (WBITVP) working on the show in Flemish Belgium and the Netherlands, Fremantle in the Nordics, Ballandi in Italy, Seapoint in Germany, Avanti in Quebec, Rockerdale Studios in the UK, Mark Fennessy’s Helium in Australia and New Zealand, Banijay in Portugal and Spain and Kite Entertainment in Ireland.

Damien Porte, Can’t Stop media cofounder, says: “SVT’s commission is another testament of the strength of the format. With a mix of commercial networks and public broadcasters, we couldn’t dream of a better start, internationally, for the show.”

Tobias Björling, commissioning editor at SVT, says: “We're thrilled to have this heart-warming series in production and are confident it will be well received by our viewers”.

Lotta Hellman, head of production at Baluba, says: “We are thrilled to be able to produce this unique and soulful format for the Swedish audience. It feels meaningful and hopeful in otherwise dark time.”