10/10/2011
An espresso with Nicky Davies Williams, CEO, DCD Rights
It’s been an exciting year for DCD Rights as many of the new shows that we have been working on in the year have not only been well received by network buyers around the world, but have also garnered numerous awards and nominations.
Just William, produced by the BBC, won the BAFTA for Best Children’s Drama – a well deserved accolade for this meticulously detailed and amusing series on the exploits of the naughty William Brown and his long suffering family, set in the 1950’s.
The Slap, the controversial story of an incident where a man slaps a child who is not his own, amongst a group of family and friends at a barbecue, has swept the board with 8 nominations from the AACTA’s (Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts). The series delivered record ratings on both ABC Australia and BBC 4 UK, as well as exceptionally broad discussion across the web and the press around the issue of the slap itself, as well as the startling quality and originality of the series. We look forward to the new launches next year on DIRECTV in the US, and STV Sweden, TVO Canada, YLE, NRK, Sundance Intl and Globosat and we trust they will enjoy the same levels of press and ratings that characterise the series so far.
Rake, featuring Richard Roxburgh as the roguish barrister and defender of the law, was awarded the Best Television Drama at the Screen Producers Association Independent Producer Awards, as well as Best Music for a TV series by the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, and Sisters of War’s Sarah Snook has been nominated for Best Lead Actress at the AACTA’s.
Many congratulations to all and we are very proud to be working with people with such levels of skill and professionalism.
Our factual catalogue continues to grow and notable ratings winners this year have been Dangerous Drivers' School on Channel 5, averaging well over a million viewers week on week, and Misbehaving Mums to Be with an impressive audience share for BBC3 and average of 600,000 viewers per week. Reader’s Digest kept up their high standards of production with the new 3 part Amazing Underground Secrets and our top entertainment show was the amazing Penn &Teller Fool Us, as a successful format as well as TV series.
Land Girls season 3 ran on BBC1 in November with an impressive 19% average audience share and will re-run in the New Year on Sunday early evenings. We now have 15 hours of this award winning drama and were delighted that SVT and Sky New Zealand joined the group of broadcasters that have been running the series around the world.
Looking forward, our new 10 part drama, The Straits, will deliver in January, and features Brian Cox at the head of the unorthodox family ‘business’ ventures in drugs, guns and exotic animal smuggling. The Straits is produced by Matchbox Pictures who also produced The Slap and we are thrilled to be representing this darkly humorous crime drama.
Overall the support of our distribution fund has been vital to bring you this high level of drama and factual programming from around the world, and we look forward to their continuing to working closely with them in future.
The team at DCD Rights has been successfully restructured with Rick Barker appointed as Head of Sales, and Michael Jackson joining in September to work alongside him. Angela Harvey sadly leaves us in January, but Wayne Hoang will be joining to replace her. We will be attending NATPE, MIP and MIPCOM as usual and very much look forward to seeing you there.
DCD Rights has now enjoyed 9 months at our new offices on the 33rd Floor of Euston Tower in London, and we look forward to welcoming you there. The view is amazing, and the outlook is bright for next year!
Nicky Davies Williams, CEO, DCD Rights