The new productions, which include two unscripted series, complement the streamer’s burgeoning foreign roster, which is expected to premiere in the United Kingdom this summer.
Prior to the streaming platform’s launch in the United Kingdom this summer, Paramount+ has announced a fresh slate of scripted and unscripted U.K. original shows.
The six new projects are part of Paramount+’s ambitious aim to commission 50 foreign scripted originals by 2022, which was unveiled just three weeks after the initial unscripted slate was disclosed. They also follow plans announced last year by Ben Frow, Paramount’s chief content officer for the United Kingdom, to include exceptional local content alongside a large portfolio of great series and movies from Paramount’s brands and studios.
On the scripted side, Céline Buckens (Showtrial) will star in the four-part series The Ex-Wife, which is based on the hit psychological thriller of the same name. Clapperboard Studios, BlackBox Multimedia, and Night Train Media will co-produce, with Night Train Media financing and controlling worldwide distribution rights. Catherine Steadman wrote the drama, which she will also executive produce alongside novelist Jess Ryder; Andy Morgan (Tin Star, The Madame Blanc Mysteries) will produce, and Brian O’Malley (The Lodgers, That Dirty Black Bag) will direct.
Meanwhile, Buccaneer Media (Marcella, Whitstable Pearl) and VIS, Paramount’s international studio branch, are producing the six-part The Burning Girls, based on the novel by C.J. Tudor and set in a community with a dark past and riddled with conspiracies and mysteries. Hans Rosenfeldt (Marcella, The Bridge) is the show’s principal writer, with Camilla Ahlgren (The Bridge) on board as well.
Sebastian Cardwell, Paramount’s deputy chief content officer for the UK, commissioned both written original programs.
The new UK originals will join previously announced shows such as A Gentleman in Moscow, Sexy Beast, Flatshare, and The Blue, as well as the streamer’s international slate of originals, which includes Simon Beckett’s Chemistry of Death (Germany), The Signal (France), Cecilia (Mexico), Bosé (Spain), Miss Fallaci (Italy), and At Midnight (Italy) (Mexico). Later this spring, more UK originals are expected to be unveiled.
