ITV Studios has announced various new sales in the Nordics across its world-class drama slate. “We are extremely pleased to be able to bring such a great line-up of top-quality British drama series to the Nordic audience," Fredrik Luihn, Head of Acquisitions, NRK, speaking on behalf of the group said.
The deal closed at last week’s ITV Studios’ Drama Festival, part of the third annual London TV Screenings. It consists of five major Nordic public broadcasters: SVT in Sweden, NRK in Norway, YLE in Finland, DR in Denmark and RUV in Iceland, all of which are collectively contributing to acquire a substantial package of premium scripted content for their channels. The deal was brokered on behalf of ITV Studios by Jo Halstead, Sales Director, Nordics.
Together, they have secured the modern relationship drama "You & Me" which explores what it means to find love, starring Harry Lawtey, Jessica Barden and Sophia Brown, alongside Julie Hesmondhalgh and produced by Happy Prince, directed by BAFTA-winner Tom Vaughan and executive produced by Russell T. Davies. The group has also acquired World Productions’ gripping new provocative drama "Fifteen-Love," set in the elite world of Grand Slam tennis. Starring Aiden Turner and Ella Lily Hyland, it is created and written by Hania Elkington and directed by Eva Riley and Toby MacDonald. The deal also includes the eagerly awaited World Productions for ITV1 and ITVX series, Malpractice, directed by BAFTA-nominated Philip Barantini and written by former NHS doctor Grace Ofori-Attah. The medical thriller tells the story of a damaged doctor caught up in a dangerous conspiracy and will air on ITVX in the coming months. Nolly, the three-part drama from BAFTA-winning writer Russell T Davies and produced by Nicola Shindler’s Quay Street Productions has also been snapped up, starring the Academy Award-nominated Helena Bonham-Carter.
Additional shows include World Productions’ true crime-drama "The Hunt For Raoul Moat," starring Lee Ingleby and written by Anne screenwriter Kevin Sampson and the Mammoth Screen and Masterpiece co-production, Tom Jones, the four-part mini-series reimagining Henry Fielding’s classic novel "The History of Tom Jones." Finally from Jeff Pope’s ITV Studios label, two dramas based on true stories, The Walk-In starring Stephen Graham, about how a Neo-Nazi plan to kill an MP was foiled by an inside man, and Four Lives the story of the courageous families of four young gay men who lost their lives to killer Stephen Port, starring Stephen Merchant. “It’s the combination of the calibre of producers we are now working with - Nicola Shindler, Simon Heath, Dominic Treadwell-Collins, Patrick Spence and Jeff Pope to name but a few - and the Nordics appetite for UK drama which makes partnerships like this possible," Gisela Asimus Minnbergh, Executive Vice President, Distribution EMEA, ITV Studios said. "I’m delighted to see this volume of shows reaching Nordic viewers on their ever-popular PSB channels.”