Drama and Acquisitions - New Year Q1 2014 Highlights

23 December 2013

Drama & Acquisitions 2014

Babylon – brand new UK drama, Channel 4
Written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and directed by Danny Boyle.
Brit Marling (Another Earth, Arbitrage, The East) stars in Babylon, Channel 4’s original new comedy-drama which shows a slice-of-life in London’s renowned police force. Marling leads a raft of exciting British talent including Jimmy Nesbitt (The Hobbit, Murphy’s Law), Paterson Joseph (Peep Show, Law and Order UK), Jill Halfpenny (EastEnders, Waterloo Road), Adam Deacon (Kidulthood, Dead Set), Daniel Kaluuya (The Fades, Psychoville), Jonny Sweet (Chickens), Andrew Brooke (Phone Shop) and Bertie Carvel (Matilda, Hidden). Razor-sharp and visually audacious, Babylon takes a wry look at the people and politics in the command rooms and on the frontlines of a modern police force, as it attempts to uphold the peace under constant scrutiny in one of the world’s busiest capital cities.

My Mad Fat Diary –series 2, E4

She’s sixteen, overweight, with mental health issues and a mum who’s having more sex than her (loudly).   At least there’s music, mates, and lady-part-tingler on legs Finn...   Welcome to Rae Earl’s life, in all its honest, funny, painful glory.  

Set in the 90’s at the height of Britpop and based on the real-life diaries of Rae Earl, My Mad Fat Diary stars Scottish BAFTA-nominated Sharon Rooney alongside Claire Rushbrook (Rae’s Mum), Nico Mirallegro (Finn), Jodie Comer (Chloe), Dan Cohen (Archie), Ciara Baxendale (Izzy), Jordan Murphy (Chop) and Ian Hart as Dr Kester.   It’s adapted for E4 by Tom Bidwell.

Series two kicks off at the hazy end of the long hot summer of 1996, just after Rae has finally revealed the truth about her mental health to her gang of friends and shared that moment with object of her lust, Finn.  Things are pretty much as good as they get in Lincolnshire.  But there’s something looming on the horizon which threatens to disrupt the glorious status quo…COLLEGE.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine– brand new UK premiere, E4

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the new single-camera ensemble comedy series from Emmy® award-winning writer/producers Dan Goor and Michael Schur (Parks and Recreation) will make its UK debut on E4.

Starring Emmy® award winners Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live) and Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age, Homicide: Life on the Street), Brooklyn Nine-Nine is about what happens when an immature wise-cracking, yet surprisingly talented detective meets his new no-nonsense Commanding Officer …and his match.  An irreverent police comedy that's not really about the job, the brand-new 22-part series follows the men and women behind the badge -- singing karaoke, grabbing a beer and hitting on each other -- all while protecting the fine people of Brooklyn.

Revenge–series 2, E4

Season three of the US hit drama returns (22x60’) as the summer season kicks off in The Hamptons and Emily Thorne's course of revenge is renewed and set against an unexpected timeline. Elsewhere the return of Victoria Grayson's long-lost son brings changes and complications to the all-powerful family.

Hostages – brand new UK premiere, Channel 4,

Emmy® and Golden Globe winner Toni Collette (Hitchcock, The Hours, Muriel’s Wedding), Golden Globe winner and Emmy® nominee Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story, The Practice) and Tate Donovan (Argo, Damages, Friends) star in this brand new drama series from executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean, CSI) and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (Chicago Fire), based upon an Israeli format. Ellen Sanders (Collette) is a top US surgeon in Washington, D.C., chosen by the President to treat him. But Ellen’s usual calm is rocked to the core when masked men invade her home and take her husband (Donovan) and two children hostage, threatening to harm them unless she kills the President when she operates on him.  But Ellen will do anything to protect her family...as will Duncan Carlisle (McDermott), an FBI agent at the centre of a conspiracy involving the President. As tensions mount and Ellen fights for time, it becomes clear that the outwardly idyllic Sanders family isn't as perfect as originally thought… Nor are their captors as evil as one might suspect. Each hour-long episode (15 episodes in the season) occurs over a 24-hour period.

The Tomorrow People – brand new UK premiere, E4

They are the next evolutionary shift of mankind – a generation of humans born with paranormal abilities. They are the Tomorrow People. Based on the original UK TV series from the 1970s, the show follows the trials and tribulations faced by this genetically advanced race who have the abilities to teleport and communicate telepathically. Hunted by a paramilitary group of scientists known as Ultra who see the Tomorrow People as a very real threat, the outcast group hides out in an abandoned subway station just beneath the surface of the human world. However, Stephen Jameson (Robbie Amell), the newest member of this small group of Tomorrow People, is torn between his loyalty to the group who have become his new family, the offer of the Ultra who promise him his old life back and his own desires to explore his father’s mysterious disappearance.

Nashville – series 2, More 4

Academy Award winner Callie Khouri’s smash-hit drama returns for a second series (22x60’) which picks up two  weeks after the dramatic series one finale with lives hanging in the balance following Rayna and Deacon’s car crash.

New Worlds – brand new UK drama, Channel 4

Jamie Dornan (The Fall, 50 Shades of Grey), Freya Mavor (Skins, The White Queen), Alice Englert (Beautiful Creatures) and Joe Dempsie (Southcliffe, Game of Thrones) star as young idealists during the Restoration period in an ensemble cast of new four-part historical drama New Worlds.

Set in the turbulent 1680s, the drama takes place on both sides of the Atlantic, as two young men and two young women commit their lives to a fairer future with blood, passion and urgency. New Worlds is a gripping story of love and loss and the human price paid for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Written and created by Peter Flannery (Our Friends In The North) and Martine Brant and produced by Company Pictures (Skins, Shameless, Elizabeth 1, The White Queen) for Channel 4, New Worlds follows on from their 2008 BAFTA-nominated series The Devil’s Whore.