Channel 5
The Drowning
Channel 5’s drive for drama Shilpa Ganatra speaks to Sebastian Cardwell, the man spearheading the station’s innovative approach to TV’s dominant genre
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here must be something in the water at Channel 5. In 2020, it won Channel of the Year at both the RTS Programme Awards and the Broadcast Awards. The RTS’s judges remarked that it was “a confident broadcaster reaping the rewards of years of steady growth and development – a channel that increasingly now both surprises and delights”. That momentum careered into 2021, as The Drowning – the four-parter about a mother who befriends a child she believes is her missing son – became its most-watched drama to date. A record 5.1 million tuned in for the first episode. The Drowning’s success is no fluke. The channel has been dabbling in drama since its flagship show, Big Brother, was cancelled in 2018. The
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following year, Channel 5 gave us Cold Call (seen by 2.6 million viewers), and in 2020, a year which also saw it air Penance and the second series of Blood, The Deceived, written by Lisa McGee and Tobias Beer, attracted an audience of 3.3 million. Later still, the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small did even better, with the first episode delivering a consolidated audience of 5 million. But is the best to come? The man who commissions the broadcaster’s drama is Sebastian Cardwell, deputy director of programmes for Channel 5’s parent company, ViacomCBS Networks UK. He says: “Each programme has grown the audience more, so people are starting to equate Channel 5 with drama, which they wouldn’t have done a couple of years ago. “It’s certainly more upmarket than when I joined the channel, when it
was acquisitions-heavy.” Cardwell began his career at the BBC before moving to Channel 5. He switched from acquisitions to become commissioning editor, then controller of digital channels, taking up his current position in February 2020. “I know the ins and outs of the channels and who does what and what works and what doesn’t work – although every day you learn new things,” he says. The idea to move into original dramas stemmed from conversations with director of programmes Ben Frow. Despite the risk, they felt it was worth a shot, especially once their first steps into the area were successful (or at least, like 2019’s four-parter 15 Days, showed the genre’s potential). “We’ve seen that the dramas have punched above their weight compared with the other content,” he says.
