Will Downton Abbey Ever Be Shown on Pbs Again
PBS' Masterpiece, which has been home to classic British dramas including Downton Abbey, Upstairs, Downstairs, Prime Suspect and the original House of Cards, turns 50 on January 10.
The venerable drama strand is celebrating with a slew of period dramas and mystery thrillers. Simply information technology is besides using the anniversary as an opportunity to shift its programming strategy to let it to hunt down the adjacent breakout hitting from the other side of the pond, among ambitious contest from streamers such as Amazon, AppleTV+, HBO Max and Netflix.
Susanne Simpson, an exec producer on series including Downton Abbey, took over running Masterpiece in November 2019, replacing Rebecca Eaton.
She told Deadline that the success of the purple ITV drama, which ran for half-dozen seasons and catastrophe in 2015, was a turning indicate for British dramas in the U.S. and information technology has now pivoted to ensure that it still has a pipeline of shows.
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Simpson (left) admits that it'south catchy to compete against companies that "spend billions of dollars" and launch series such every bit Shonda Rhimes' Bridgerton.
"The competition with the streamers has get quite vehement, and so we're now doing things a little bit differently. Nosotros used to be the first and simply place for British drama, and at present with all the competition, nosotros're really putting coin into developing scripts and working with UK producers from the ground up," she said.
"I retrieve of information technology as we're investing in our future at present because we're actually going to exist initiating some of those projects, and we're also paying more for them, especially for the costume dramas, which are [rise] in cost."
Simpson said for the first time she'southward working on a few shows initiated past PBS Masterpiece, a departure from a strategy that used to see it come on board projects equally or after they were commissioned by British broadcasters or acquiring the rights to finished shows.
She admits that Masterpiece has been "priced out" of some of the costume dramas coming out of the UK, including a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited by Luca Guadagnino and A Pursuit of Love with Emily Mortimer. Those are both BBC serial but with interest from Amazon and potentially HBO.
"Some of their drama right now is at the very loftier finish and at that place'due south some titles that nosotros will get priced out of, like those two, just considering they're going to exist at the level of The Crown," she added.
However, she is hopeful that PBS would be involved in the sequel to BBC's Wolf Hall. Peter Kosminsky is working on the follow-up to Hilary Mantel'south volume serial, which published The Mirror and the Light final yr, and hopeful of getting the original bandage such equally Damian Lewis dorsum on board.
While other networks and streamers may be able to spend more money, Simpson says that Masterpiece'south relationship are deep rooted, having originally launched in 1971 with the BBC's The First Churchills.
"Where we're well-nigh fortunate is that we've had these long relationships with U.k. producers, distributors, and with the commissioners, and that people accept really entrusted the states with their shows over these many years, and we have washed our accented all-time to brand sure that the American audience not simply knew nearly them, but appreciated them for what they had to offer," she said. "Fifty-fifty earlier the success of Downton Abbey, people knew that our audience would appreciate the kinds of shows that were beingness made in the UK, and still at present appreciate the level of talent and the writing and the acting and the product."
Masterpiece kicked off the twelvemonth with the premiere of Glenda Jackson's Elizabeth Is Missing on January 3. The STV-produced drama stars ii-time University Award–winner Jackson as a adult female desperately trying to solve 2 mysteries as she declines ever deeper into dementia. She won a BAFTA and International Emmy for her performance.
On its anniversary, January 10, it is likewise launching a new accommodation of All Creatures Not bad and Small (left). The Playground Entertainment-produced series, which is a co-product with ViacomCBS' Channel 5, stars Nicholas Ralph equally veterinarian James Herriot in rural Yorkshire in the 1930s. It has already been picked up for a second flavour.
This will be followed by Miss Scarlet & The Duke on January 17. The show, which stars The Crown's Kate Phillips as Victorian sleuth Eliza Scarlet, is a co-production with A+E Networks International.
Finally in January, it will premiere The Long Vocal (right) on January 31. It stars Tamara Lawrance equally a house slave in Jamaica during the era of emancipation in the early 1800s, with Hayley Atwell as her fickle mistress and Jack Lowden equally a handsome overseer and romantic foil. Andrea Levy'south book was adapted by David Heyman's Heyday Boob tube.
"What we wanted to do in January was to showcase all the kinds of shows that we do. We purposely wanted to have a very total January as a gift to our loyal audience with shows like a wonderful contemporary slice and a heartwarming menstruation drama," Simpson said.
In one case the pandemic broke final year, Simpson also looked for culling shows in case the pipeline dried upwards. This was how it came to Atlantic Crossing, a Norwegian drama that tells the story of the WWII relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Norwegian Crown Princess Märtha. It stars Kyle MacLachlan as FDR. "Atlantic Crossing was a show that we had known about, only we tend to expect beginning at British made productions because that'southward what our audience is looking for, but when COVID happened we had to expect to run into if there was something else available, and Atlantic Crossing was coming. They were near washed filming and therefore were just going into editing," she added. Information technology will launch later this spring.
Elsewhere, edifice on thrillers such as Prime Suspect, Grantchester and Sherlock, information technology besides has mystery dramas such as ITV's Van Der Valk, and volition launch Magpie Murders, from Anthony Horowitz in 2022. "We're near to brainstorm production on information technology in March, so that's very heady to see that one. It's ii mysteries in one book. It's very clever. It'due south a present-twenty-four hour period mystery but also an Agatha Christie similar mystery that happens in the 1950s," she said.
There will be plenty more where these came from. "I practically have 2023 locked, and I'm looking for shows for 2024," Simpson added.
Source: https://deadline.com/2021/01/pbs-masterpiece-50th-anniversary-downton-abbey-1234665100/
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