TV Drama Resources for MIPCOM

Mansha Daswani, editor-in-chief at World Screen, outlines some of key themes reshaping the drama sector and highlights our wealth of resources for scripted distributors and buyers descending upon Cannes this weekend.

As the entire industry recalibrates after the streaming wars, there is less money in the ecosystem, but there is still room for a range of stories to be told, several distributors told me in my feature in our MIPCOM edition on how financing strategies are evolving. Some models have stayed the same, but new ones are emerging as everyone looks for smarter, better ways to get shows produced, without sacrificing quality on-screen. Known IP is one of the routes producers are taking, given the continued value of franchises. But new concepts are also finding ways to break through. “You don’t need big stars, proven IP, long-running series, catch-all storytelling to have a hit,” Richard Gadd said at the Emmy Awards this year as his show, Baby Reindeer, landed a series of wins, including best limited or anthology series. “Dare to fail in order to achieve.” And you’ll find lots of ambitious fare highlighted in our October editions of TV Drama and the TV Drama Guide, Screening Rooms and the latest edition of the TV Drama Screenings Festival.

My streaming service “continue watching” queues are littered with drama series I started and then seemed to have paused, or abandoned, anywhere from one to five episodes in. Several were quite good, so I do expect to return to them, but you can only handle so many heavily serialized, sprawling plot epics at any one time. Equally tired of unrepentant characters and vivid dramatizations of horrific true crimes, I’ve found myself seeking comfort in, well, old-fashioned television, as it were. That’s led to the joys of rediscovering deep libraries like the infinitely rewatchable The X-Files, which mastered the art of delivering an overarching plot line with the ease of a resolution (of sorts) in every episode. I’ve stumbled upon little shows that came out before the on-demand era and didn’t travel the globe the way shows do today, like the BBC’s 2005 miniseries Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, an adaptation of one of my favorite books. I’ve gone back to the David Tennant era of Doctor Who because it never ceases to bring me joy—and have delighted in the new season, marking the return of Russell T Davies and the launch of Ncuti Gatwa. Gatwa has broken barriers with his casting as the Doctor, so this is less about “old-fashioned” television and more about needing a bit of light with the dark, a steady dose of blue-skies, escapist, low-commitment fare alongside my deeply engaging, lean-forward views. And if you’re a Whovian like me, be sure to read our great interview with Gatwa and his co-star Millie Gibson in our MIPCOM edition.