BBC Worldwide Scores Banished Sales, Unveils MIPTV Highlights

LONDON: BBC Worldwide has placed the hit drama series Banished with a number of broadcasters around the globe, and has also revealed the company's various plans for this year's MIPTV.

Banished, which is launching at MIPTV, has already been sold to Mexico's VEO, Poland's TVP1, Israel's Cellcom, Finland's Yle and Croatia's HRT. The seven-part show, created by Emmy winner Jimmy McGovern (The Street), follows the lives of the inhabitants of the first penal colony in Sydney.

BBC Worldwide has also announced that it will be bringing a variety of off-screen talent to MIPTV. Sally Wainwright, the creator, writer and exec producer of Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, is slated to speak at the International Drama Co-Production Summit.

The company will also be introducing international buyers at the market to SS-GB, a new drama from Sid Gentle Films based on the best-selling alternate history novel set in a Nazi-occupied London in 1941. Sally Woodward Gentle, executive producer and founder of Sid Gentle Films, will be attending MIPTV alongside MD Lee Morris and SS-GB writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

In addition, Andrew Cohen, BBC's head of science, and Mark Hedgecoe, EP of Earth's Natural Wonders, have been lined up to deliver the 4K Keynote address on April 13.

Among BBC Worldwide's leading scripted titles this year are Wolf Hall, a book-based series; Critical, a medical drama; The Interceptor, a fast-paced crime show; and Orphan Black, an award-winning sci-fi drama heading into its third season. The company's natural-history slate is led by The Hunt, which explores the world of predation; Atlantic, focused on the Atlantic Ocean; and Shark, which is about the titular creatures. Nelly & Nora, following two sisters' adventures at their family's mobile home in a camping park by the sea, and One Direction: Live from San Siro, featuring the titular boy band, are new to the kids' and music catalogues, respectively.

Paul Dempsey, BBC Worldwide's president of global markets, said: "We are heading to Cannes with a range of great new content including an early introduction to SS-GB, a drama series that I'm certain will be a huge international hit for 2016."