Yahoo Lifestyle BBC Drama Boss Blames “Perfect Storm” For Funding Crisis As First “Stuck In Limbo” Project Emerges
EXCLUSIVE: The adaptation of Booker Prize-winner Shuggie Bain has emerged as one of the BBC’s “stuck in limbo” projects as drama boss Lindsay Salt blames a “perfect storm” for the funding crisis but says “we are as creatively ambitious as ever.”
BBC shows that have been greenlit but do not have the budget to get to screen have been the talk of UK TV circles ever since super-producer Jane Featherstone told a public inquiry that the BBC has “multiple shows which through no fault of their own they can’t fund.”
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Two weeks later, the BBC acknowledged in a submission to the same parliamentary inquiry that it is struggling to get shows across all genres into production, “even those that have been greenlit by our commissioners.” Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky said in his submission that there are 15 such shows across the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, with BBC insiders briefing that their number is in the single figures.
Salt blamed a “perfect storm,” citing “a difficult global sales market, high inflation due to demand for talent and infrastructure, and some of our former co-production partners no longer wanting to share their rights with the PSBs, along with a smaller licence fee in real terms.”
Salt’s reference to “former co-production partners” is an allusion to the big U.S. players who have almost completely deserted the British high-end TV co-pro market. “Distributors are now operating under the assumption that there is no American money [for TV projects],” one prominent British drama producer told Deadline. Most producers say big projects require at least 50% of their funding from outside the BBC, with America the obvious go-to.
‘Shuggie Bain’
Producers have speculated as to the identity of the shows “stuck in funding limbo,” with A24’s Shuggie Bain emerging as a high-profile example. Douglas Stuart’s heartwrenching novel is about a young Scottish boy who struggles to fit in while caring for his mother as she battles with alcoholism. A24 picked up rights more than four years ago and the BBC greenlit the project in late 2022, but we are told it is still seeking international finance. During this time, A24 has optioned Stuart’s second novel, Young Mungo, with this project yet to find a buyer. The projects come out of A24’s Piers Wenger and Rose Garnett-run London arm.
Shuggie Bain is a textbook example of the sort of show that could be impacted by American money falling out the market. The novel is a highly local story from a first-time writer but would nonetheless demand a hefty price tag per ep. We are told producers are keen to cast top talent in the role of Shuggie’s mum, Agnes.
Elsewhere, there had been rumors that Dear England, the BBC’s adaptation of James Graham’s hit play about the England soccer team from The Crown producer Left Bank, was in a similar boat to Shuggie Bain. While we are told funding Dear England is proving tough going, the expectation with that series, which stars Joseph Fiennes as England soccer manager Gareth Southgate, is that cameras will roll as planned over the summer. Producers are understood to be pushing on for the time being via a combination of deficit financing from Left Bank-owner Sony and by looking for opportunities to trim the budget. “Dear England is currently being written and will film later this year,” said a BBC spokeswoman.
“We are as creatively ambitious as ever”
Salt, who joined the BBC from Netflix in late 2022 and is facing the most difficult spell of her tenure, said she is laser-focused on delivering as the biggest commissioner of drama in the UK without harming producers’ creative vision.
“We remain determined, front footed and nimble and are supporting our world-class producers to get their shows up and running without ever diluting their creative integrity and ambition,” she said. “We are as creatively ambitious as ever, we are still in the game for best-in-class, high-end dramas and that is not going to change. We commission more drama than anyone else in the UK and the sheer breadth and range of our shows means we can take more risks and create culturally relevant, truly distinctive content.”
She thanked “industry figures who have spoken up about this issue at what is a pivotal time for us,” in what appeared a nod to Featherstone and Kosminsky.
Kosminsky’s inquiry submission revealed that Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light star Mark Rylance took a “significant pay cut” in order to get that show to screen. “The Mirror and the Light was offered to each streamer in turn,” wrote Kosminsky. “Despite the fact that its first series had won a Golden Globe, they all turned it down.”
Producers noted that there is a great deal of goodwill in wanting to help the BBC and its rivals get projects over the line.
They pointed to several potential fixes, including an extension of the high-end TV tax credit, something which The Crown producer Andy Harries, Doctor Who exec Jane Tranter and Featherstone have pushed for in the past, along with pressuring agents to try and lower talent fees at this time of strife.
Another drama producer said below-the-line crew are responding to the latter call but it is harder to get actors to agree to pay cuts, with Rylance a notably high-profile exception. Ironically, it is the streamers’ much higher fees that have caused such problems here, the producer speculated.
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