Chris Bonney

Managing Director
Outright Distribution

In each episode of the hit format Who Do You Think You Are?, a well-known celebrity embarks on a journey through their ancestral lineage to discover where it is they really came from. The series has been a strong performer in Britain, where the likes of David Tennant, Patsy Kensit and Jeremy Irons have traced their family tree. Now the time has come for a set of Hollywood heavyweights to delve into their roots, when the Wall to Wall format heads to NBC in the U.S. this summer.

"So far, three celebrities have been announced in the six-episode series: Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon and Lisa Kudrow," reveals Chris Bonney, the managing director of Outright Distribution, which represents the Wall to Wall catalogue. "We will be selling this series around the world and believe it will be an important show for us."

Outright also offers a slate of programs from Ricochet, including Cowboy Builders, in which consumer champion Dominic Littlewood and property developer Melinda Messenger hunt down cowboy builders to confront them about their shoddy workmanship. "It’s currently on air [on Five in the U.K.] and rating well above average for the slot." Also from Ricochet, The Real Swiss Family Robinson each week follows an over-stressed family as they set off for a four-week crash course in living a simple life. The series will launch on BBC One this spring.

BBC One is also home to Shed Productions’ new drama Hope Springs, about four ex-cons trying to go straight. Launching in spring/summer, the series centers on a group of glamorous girls who pull of a heist, pocketing a cool £3 million, before heading off on their long-held plan to live out their lives on a beach in Barbados. They wind up in a small Scottish village instead.

A flagship factual series from Touch Productions for Investigation Discovery, Dallas DNA, will launch at the end of April. "The Texas justice system has always been one of the most notorious in America, with a reputation for putting people away," says Bonney, "but prisoners claiming innocence have failed to receive justice." However, things are changing fast as Dallas’s first African-American district attorney, Craig Watkins, is determined to right past wrongs and restore the belief that only guilty men are put behind bars.

These titles join series such as Airforce, America Beyond the Colour Line and Extreme Dreams on Outright’s sales roster. With an eye toward the future, Bonney acknowledges the rough financial climate in the marketplace, but says one of his personal goals is still to "deliver to our forecast, despite the difficult times we are facing. [Also to] maintain our focus on quality p