Development slate TriForce Productions

TriForce Productions is taking a positive approach to projects made by diverse talent, tackling challenging subjects without turning them into clickbait.

By Nico Franks

years to make the UK media industry more representative.

Shows Dandi has supported include Bridgerton, Gangs of London, I Hate Suzie, Killing Eve, Stath Lets Flats, Taskmaster and Trigger Point

Dandi, described as the one-stop D&I support service for the entertainment industry that represents a database of more than 25,000 people.

This means that as well as ensuring its productions are crewed by a diverse and inclusive workforce (“Our crew photos are quite different to other people’s crew photos,” says Ayres), the organisation is helping others – more than 70 production companies, broadcasters and global streamers – commit to the pledges made in recent

Meanwhile, TriForce’s development slate was given a financial boost in late 2022 after TriForce was chosen as one of the prodcos to receive backing from UK commercially funded public service broadcaster Channel 4’s Emerging Indie Fund, which will see it receive a range of support and guidance to help supercharge its business.

Programming that appeals internationally is a priority and Ayres says TriForce is in conversation with a US studio about factual and factual entertainment projects, as well as scripted.

“I guess everything we do is quite worthy, in one way or another,” laughs Ayres. “That is our ethos and at our core. But we are unique in the way we find those interesting ways of presenting issues and stories.”

PBS Masterpiece is looking to develop new funding models over the next three years to establish a pipeline for the premium costume dramas its viewers love, with non-English-language originals a possibility.

By Gün Akyuz

Downton Abbey coproducer PBS Masterpiece is forging ahead as the lead commissioning broadcaster on new period drama pieces, backed by new financing and partnership models, to keep the genre on its slate.

Masterpiece executive producer Susanne Simpson is currently looking at projects for 2024, 2025 and even into 2026, by which point it expects to be an active commissioner of costume dramas following UK broadcasters ITV and the BBC changing their approach to the genre.

“We can’t count on getting shows like that from those broadcasters and coproducing that kind of material [with them]. So we’re actually now developing and commissioning shows,” Simpson said at C21’s recent Content London event.

Gone is the previous ‘standard’ model of joining as a US coproducer on a fully commissioned show by a UK broadcaster, with a distributor picking up rest-of-world rights. ITV has moved away from full commissions into co-commissions such as Sanditon, a joint commission with Masterpiece, while the BBC’s bigger-budget costume dramas require larger players like HBO.

“This is an 180-degree turn, in that we were the lead commissioner on Sanditon, and I was the lead editorial. ITV didn’t have any input into the show and they took it for a half commission,” said Simpson.