London – BBC Worldwide has announced 9 February the sale of the acclaimed drama series Wolf Hall to ARTE for France and Germany ahead of its launch at BBC Worldwide Showcase 2015 in Liverpool (22 – 25th February). SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland) and BBC First in Australia have also picked up the series with U.S. rights going to co-production partners Masterpiece.
Wolf Hall (6×60’) leads the content slate at BBC Worldwide Showcase 2015 which will this year open its doors to over 700 of the world’s top TV buyers. The annual event is the single biggest distributor trade event in the world and generates programme sales on behalf of the BBC and independent producers providing a major boost to British television exports.
Wolf Hall is based on Hilary Mantel’s bestselling novels and an intimate portrait of Thomas Cromwell, the brilliant consigliere to King Henry VIII, starring Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis. The drama, which follows the meteoric rise of Cromwell in the Tudor court, was launched in the UK last month on BBC Two to nearly 4 million viewers, making it the channel’s biggest original drama series in a decade. Cast members and production from Wolf Hall including Peter Kosminsky, Mark Gatiss, Jonathan Pryce, Colin Callender, Mark Pybus and Peter Straughan will be in attendance at BBC Worldwide Showcase 2015 for a special night dedicated to this brilliant series.
Paul Dempsey, President Global Markets, BBC Worldwide said, “The range and quality of this year’s content slate will make for a special Showcase and we can’t wait to welcome a record number of international buyers to our flagship event for British TV exports.”
Trevor Eve and O-T Fagbenle (The Interceptor), Jimmy McGovern and Russell Tovey (Banished), Backstreet Boys, Kris Marshall (Death in Paradise) and Alastair Fothergill (The Hunt) are just some of the special guests who will be highlighting their new shows at this four day event.
Along with Wolf Hall, BBC Worldwide’s drama slate features the brand new compelling series Banished (7×50’) from the Emmy award-winning writer, Jimmy McGovern; Critical (13×45’) which is a real-time medical drama created by Jed Mercurio and described as 24 meets ER; The Interceptor (8×50’) which is the stylishly shot and fast-paced series from BBC Drama; as well as the final series of Wallander (3×90’). The multi-award-winning hit show Orphan Black (10×45’) also returns for an electrifying third series along with Series 4 of Death in Paradise (8×50’).
This year there will be an entire day dedicated to formats with a spotlight on key shows including You’re Back In The Room (60’), a comedy gameshow with a unique twist where five complete strangers take on a series of simple games, but all is not as it seems, as each of the contestants has been hypnotised.
Natural history titles launching this year include the much anticipated The Hunt (7×50’), Atlantic (3×50’) and Shark (2×50’). The Hunt is a fascinating series from Alastair Fothergill, (Planet Earth and Frozen Planet), which explores the dramatic world of predation as never before. Atlantic is a stunning series capturing all the romance, raw power and spectacular beauty of the Atlantic ocean as it tells the stories of the people and wildlife whose lives are shaped by its rhythms. Shark is the definitive natural history series, made on a scale never attempted before.
The Backstreet Boys will be flying in to Liverpool to promote Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of, a new feature-length documentary on the tumultuous career of the biggest boy band ever – a story of unprecedented success accompanied by extreme lows.
Another brand new addition to the Music catalogue is One Direction: Where We Are – Live From San Siro, featuring the world’s hottest boy band in action during 2014’s highest-grossing concert tour.
For factual entertainment, Chef Rick Stein embarks on a memorable odyssey through Italy, Croatia, Albania, Greece and Turkey to explore the culinary legacy of the legendary Byzantine Empire in Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul (6×50’). Life Below Zero (20×44’) is back for a third series and the icy adventures continue for the hardy characters as they race to prepare for their survival as the oncoming winter freeze begins to take hold in Alaska.
The comedy slate includes SunTrap (6×30’) starring BAFTA Award-winner Kayvan Novak as an undercover reporter hiding out on a sun-soaked Spanish island; and the second series of The Wrong Mans (4×30’ or 2×60’) returns featuring an impressive cast led by its creators and award-winning stars James Corden and Mathew Baynton.
Documentaries include Britain’s Biggest Adventures with Bear Grylls (3×50’) which is nature as you’ve never seen it before. Combining the intelligence and depth of natural history with the adrenaline rush of survival shows, this breath-taking new series sees Bear Grylls take on Britain’s most extreme landscapes.
For history, Sparks of Invention (8×50’) tells the incredible stories of luck, grit and genius behind the inventions and inventors that have shaped our world and Hiroshima (1×50’ or 1×90’) is a film which unravels the compelling story of one of the 20th century’s defining moments and reveals the far-reaching consequences of the explosion, both in Hiroshima itself and for the world at large.
On the science slate, Earth’s Natural Wonders (3×50’) is a landmark series and the definitive story of some of the most amazing places on our planet; The Nine Months That Made Me (3×50’) is packed with revelatory stories which captures pioneering science with ground-breaking imagery to bring a brand-new perspective to how humans were made.
