I see from today’s Media Guardian, that Shed Productions’ Waterloo Road is one of the series that the BBC is considering using to fill the Neighbours slot once Five get the rights to the series next March.
I’m not enormously surprised to learn this, since I imagine it’s Shed who told Media Guardian that it was under consideration. Shed is a production company that’s had its fair element of success, yet possibly wants to be bigger than it actually is. It just seems to me that it’s not as creatively strong as other indies like Kudos who are riding the wave of Spooks, Hustle, and Life on Mars amongst plenty of others – of course they’ve now been bought up by Elizabeth Murdoch’s company.
Shed meanwhile has been through their trash heyday of Bad Girls and Footballers’ Wives, and has since come up with, er, well, Bad Girls the Musical and Footballers’ Wives (US version). Shed floated back in 2005 while its main two franchises were still stalwarts of ITV. Yet since then, things have not gone quite as well. The share price has dipped, and they haven’t really had a replacement hit TV series. There’s a series called Bombshell which ITV commissioned but has yet to show, despite the fact that it aired in Australia last year. Sitting on a shelf for a year or so is never a good sign.
Footballers’ Wives hasn’t been picked up by ABC, despite having a strong cast including Lucy “Xena” Lawless,Ving Rhames and some bloke from Dawson’s Creek. Recent press reports say that it may not be completely dead yet, with the suggestion at the end of last month that ABC was keeping its options open.
And for all I know, the soon to open Bad Girls the Musical may run and run.
I dearly hope not.
But Waterloo Road aside (and it does have a healthy 20 episode order for series 3), Shed is not on a winning streak just now. Which is why when I read stories about how well they’re doing, and are in the running for a massive daytime soap order, I tend to suspect a PR offensive. Perhaps I’m just cynical.
[Update] This week’s Broadcast has a piece (supplied by Shed PR?) highlighting the fact their forthcoming Rock Rivals has been sold to four territories before it has even been made. Is this because it’s seen as a successor to Footballers’ Wives, or because it’s a Simon Cowell co-production positioned as “X-Factor meets Dallas”?
[Disclaimer: Once upon a time Shed Chief Exec, Eileen Gallagher, worked for the same company as me]