Format Veterans Unveil New Prodco Hello Dolly

Seasoned executive producers and format creators Victoria Ashbourne and Stuart Shawcross have launched a new production company called Hello Dolly.

Hello Dolly will create and produce original entertainment formats for the U.K. and international market.

Ashbourne and Shawcross have collaborated on such shows as The National Lottery: Win Your Wishlist, 5 minutes to a Fortune and Benchmark. Ashbourne founded Victory Television, where she served as managing director. Shawcross previously was the director of entertainment at Youngest Media and creative director of Victory Television.

Ashbourne, chief executive of Hello Dolly, remarked: “After taking time out to have a baby, the time is right to jump back in and create new, exhilarating entertainment formats. Stuart and I make a brilliant team and we are hugely enjoying the creative freedom of being totally independent.

“The response I’ve received from commissioners has been overwhelming. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be coming back into the world of entertainment; it’s having a real resurgence and the global market has increased with so many SVOD platforms embracing non-scripted formats. We’ve already had interest from investors and distributors, but we’re in no immediate rush to partner up.”

Shawcross, Hello Dolly’s chief creative officer, added: “Victoria and I have a strong track record of creating and producing first-class entertainment formats and we’ll continue to do that, both for the U.K. and international market.

“As a format creator, I love nothing more than starting with a blank piece of paper and finding an idea that truly excites me—the sort of idea that keeps me up at night thinking about the endless possibilities of where we could take it. I think we’ve got some of the best formats we’ve ever created in development right now and we’ve already teamed up with several producers globally on some of these ideas.”